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28 Days Later...
Fox Searchlight Pictures


6.9

based on 39 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 154 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for strong violence and gore, language and nudity

Starring Alex Palmer, Bindu De Stoppani, Jukka Hiltunen, David Schneider, Cillian Murphy, Toby Sedgwick, Naomie Harris, and Noah Huntley

When a group of animal rights activists frees primates from a research facility, a deadly virus which causes murderous behavior is unleashed.

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Alex Garland
DIRECTED BY:	Danny Boyle
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 21, 2003 Video: October 21, 2003 Theatrical: June 27, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	112 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Netherlands / UK / USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Slate David Edelstein

This is finally the zombie flick as cautionary political tale, and as humanist parable. It's not the flesh-gouging zombie we have to worry about, the filmmakers suggest, but the soul-gouging zombie within.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

A first-rate zombie movie. The best tribute I can offer is that it makes you want to go out directly afterward and down some expensive single-malt scotch.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

At once an old-fashioned freakout and an environmental cautionary tale (mess with Mother Nature and she'll mess with you right back), the film combines two genre standbys -- lethal contagion and the undead -- and gives them a wicked, contemporary spin.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Rarely has so scary a thriller been so well made, and never has digital video -- by the English cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle -- been put to grittier use.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

It's a zombie flick that moves -- no stumbling, staggering living dead here -- in an atmosphere that feels like a Gothic docudrama, and it's freaky beyond all reason.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

The genuine article, a hard-core horror picture from start to finish... Prepare to get seriously stresed.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

But this smart, genuinely creepy movie also feels real, which is why its horrors hit so hard. Fans of the scary stuff, run, don't walk.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It's “The Wizard of Oz” with a viral infection.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

In place of elaborate sets, clever filmmaking gives the impression of a central London emptied of people and cars, to eerie effect - and this opening reel is nothing short of magnificent.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland plumb the violence of the mind with slashing wit and shocking gravity. Happy nightmares.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, a veteran of low-tech Dogme films, work wonders with a digital camera, pausing to take in the beauty of the countryside or an eerily empty London…It's virtuosic without ever quite being showy.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A swankily austere piece of jeepers-creepers sci-fi.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Fresh and edgy; the images of a wasted London and the details of a paramilitary organization in the countryside are both creepy and persuasive.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

The deep thematic concerns are never fully developed, but the characters are, and the story compels. Also, the movie's pretty scary.

Time Richard Corliss

Boyle's ingenuity with the camera gives this fraught journey plenty of menace and pizazz.

LA Weekly John Powers

The movie is mercifully uncontaminated by the smarty-pants self-reflexiveness that has sucked the lifeblood from nearly all post-"Scream" horror pictures. Clever enough not to be too clever, Boyle and Garland play their story straight -- they just want to give you the creeps -- and, by so doing, bring the undead back to cinematic life.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Mr. Boyle has hardly lost his sly, provocative perversity or his ear for the rhythms of unchecked violence, but he does seem to be maturing. It's as if, in contemplating the annihilation of the human race, he has discovered his inner humanist.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

On one hand a seat-o'-pants digital-video quickie designed for blunt trauma, and on the other a veritable index of classic genre-stuff, Boyle's film creates an acute sense of movie-viewing danger.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

There’s gore, all right, although the real terror lies in the tease, and the often dark, herky-jerky DV format ratchets up the tension to an almost unbearable degree.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Around about the third act, the picture does what no self-respecting virus ever would -- relents, turns confused, and lets our immune system fight back with thoughts of its own, with distracting cavils about the logic of the plot and the slightness of the themes.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The look of the film, shot on digital video, is haunting and gritty. The cleaner, prettier look of 35mm would have detracted from the immediacy and sense of foreboding created in this artful blend of sci-fi and pseudo-realism.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

A damn-near great end-of-the-world zombie movie, terrifying on the basic heebie-jeebie level, respectful toward its B-movie forebears, and all the more unnerving for coming out in this fretful era of SARS and germ warfare.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Boyle gives us some truly harrowing sequences and a succession of images that stick in the mind like a bad dream.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Solid performances, an intelligent script, and sure-handed direction. The result is a movie that kept me involved from start to finish.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A tough, smart, ingenious movie that leads its characters into situations where everything depends on their (and our) understanding of human nature.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

By the finish, the movie is getting by on little but adrenaline and audience goodwill. Still, that goodwill runs fairly deep, because, taken all in all, 28 Days Later is a superior motion picture.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

It's not a pretty picture, but it won't be soon forgotten by thriller fans with nerves and stomachs steely enough to take its violence in stride.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

Manages to be impressively unsettling given the flaws in its foundation.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Heir to a long tradition of apocalyptic scare stories, the film wears its influences proudly.

Variety Derek Elley

Shows a rather arrogant disdain for its audience in between occasional flashes of flair.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It's undoubtedly a canny and clever twist on the standard zombie-attack yarn, but anybody who's making grand claims for 28 Days Later simply hasn't seen enough horror movies.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

[Boyle] shrugs off any intellectual pretense to rollick in a dead-on scare fest. On that level, 28 Days Later is indeed a frightfully good time.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

I think Garland and Boyle just want to make our flesh creep by showing someone else's flesh decaying. If that's their aim, they achieved it.

Film Threat Rich Cline

Director Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting") has a terrific eye, so the film as a whole is very well directed, with clever camera work that builds the tension and actually jolts us out of our seats a few times.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Like his makeshift societies, Garland's tantalizing set-ups tend to unravel in unsatisfying ways.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Creepy and truly suspenseful in some places, unintentionally comic or plain awful in others.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Boyle's new movie is mostly a zombie fiasco, closer to the vacuities of "The Beach" than the scintillating social satire of "Trainspotting."

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

There are two drawbacks here. One is a shortage of superior zombies, although where one goes to rent extra zombies I have no idea...Second, we have a serious shortage of fright. [30 June 2003, p. 102]

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Unrelentingly grim, unremittingly gross and unforgivably unattractive, 28 Days Later is an orgy of troubling images and bestial sound effects.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 154 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it a4:
This is a good zombie flick because it takes itself seriously. This is a bad film because it takes itself too seriously. Whilst a believeable post-apocalyptic setting would be intereting, it is just a little bit hard to believe in the hectic machinations in the plot. Also, the anti-military undertone is quite inappropriate - an asect which is exacerbated in the sequel [you think the zombies are bad, but hey! at least they're not soldiers!]

Jeff C. gave it a0:
People who direct music videos shouldn't direct movies.

Michael R gave it a5:
Its passable.You're not missing anything horrifying if you don't see this movie.Its nowhere near as great as dawn of the dead which this movie seems to resemble only it has less zombies and a different ending.

Chase G. gave it a10:
To me, what Days has always held over the head of Weeks is simply this...mood. 28 Days Later has an unparalleled mood and style in its execution, in almost everything it does. It doesn't just describe events to you, like some movies do, but it portrays it in such a way that it's genuinely chilling and believable. In comparison to Weeks, Days doesn't hold what it has over you like a bludgeon, it doesn't attempt to beat you with the speed of the zombies, or the gore. But it places it in supreme positions in the film to have the utmost effect, at the climax, at the low-point, etc. And the best part about it, is that it manages to achieve a constant level of edginess, a constant thrill even when there's nothing on the screen, it manages all of this without a guitar-blasting soundtrack (however awesome the Weeks theme is) or cameras explicitly showing that zombies are just running at you, spewing blood as they go. In fact, you are often scared in this movie simply by the fact that you don't really see what's scaring you, which is a true sign of mastery in the genre. On the other end of the spectrum, all performances in this film are excellent, the chemistry between Seline and Jim is believable especially. All characters have an edge of sympathy, and portray to you that not everyone to survive the apocalypse will be beefy, bulky men with chain guns. It defies a lot of things that would be expected of it, and ditches all normal conventions, pulling it off with grace and poise. It's a must see for anyone who can stand the level of intensity. It's a must see for anyone who can stand the.

Faisal H. gave it an8:
A new take on the zombie genre, and a very successful one. 28 Days Later is a great movie, from its unique storyline, beautiful camera-angles, and well-written characters, the film's greatest strength is the fact that the characters involved are so human, unlike the superhero characters you might have seen in other movies like Resident Evil, these characters behave in ways we would have in situations like these, so it is easy to attach to them. The only flaw in the film is that it loses some of it's strengths in the second half for a while, but that can easily be overlooked considering what a quality product 28 Days Later is. Recommended for any horror movie fan who wants to see something different than the usual shoot-em-up.

John gave it a10:
I really loved this movie. Finally a movie with ass-kickingly fast zombies. But i see a lot of zero's up here and as I read i got the impression that most of those people didnt understand the movie so im gonna try to help some of the points the complained about. 1) Now the reason there is light in the supermarket is because if you look really closely you will find its not actually a ceiling, ok, its just one big hole. I bet u missed that. 2) They aren't zombies they are pissed off because its not really a "virus" its more like people are transferring periods to each other. 3) The reason they dont attack other infected is because once you get bit...well...i uhhhhh...yea...4) The army fellows didn't want to get with the little girl as a cure, but just to rebuild the entire human race with 9 guys ad 2 girls. So you see once you fully understand the movie, you'll love it that much more.

Matt McLovin gave it a10:
Awesomely made. 28 Days Later kicked major ass with a kick ass ending. Greatest infected person movie. Blows away the 2nd.

28 Days Later... Fox Searchlight Pictures

28 Days Later...
Fox Searchlight Pictures