28 Days Later (2002) directed by Danny Boyle.
Starring Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns and Christopher Eccleston.
Zombie Film Rating:

Summary: Animal rights activists break into the Cambridge Primate Research Center and discover a lab filled with monkeys undergoing some sort of horrific testing. The conditions in the lab affirm everything they believe the state capable of, and as they begin to release the monkeys a staff member arrives, and warns them the monkeys are infected, with pure rage. Despite the warning, they release a monkey who immediately attacks an activist, and the infection begins.

We jump forward 28 days and find Jimmy (A bicycle courier who was struck by a car, and fell into a coma) regaining consciousness in a hospital, he finds himself locked in a treatment room. He escapes (as some thoughtfull person has left the key under the door on the inside) and find himself in what appears to be a completely abandoned London.

He wanders aimlessly until he comes to a church where he encounters what appears to be a few survivors and a priest, but when they try to attack him (of course they are infected) he flees. Fortunately he encounters Selena and Mark, two uninfected survivors who set most of the zombies on fire, and escape to a convenience store in a subway station to hold up for the night.

Selena and Mark explain that the infection spread across the country like wildfire, before the authorities could initiate any effective response. That the infection acts almost immediately when one is directly exposed (by eyes, mouth or wound) to the blood of an infected person (30 seconds to a minute). Despite their explanation Jim insists on visiting his parents house, to see if they have survived.

Naturally the visit goes badly, with Mark getting infected and subsequently hacked into itty-bitty pieces by Selena. Forced to leave Jims parents house they see an apartment block, with one of the apartments lit up by Christmas lights. Barely escaping another flood of infecteds they meet up with Frank and his daughter Hannah.

Frank tells them there has been a radio message, recorded and playing on a loop that states the “answer to infection has been found”, and that they need to travel to the source of the transmission, the 42nd blockade 26 miles Northeast of Manchester.

Striking out in Franks Taxi, they begin the trek to Manchester, finding the country abandoned (and in Manchesters case on fire) and finally reach the 42nd blockade, which appears to have been abandoned by the military. While there frank is exposed to infected blood, and is killed by soldiers who arrive as if out of nowhere.

Taken, by the soldiers, to their base (a fortified country home), they find the survivors of the 42nd blockade are composed of 9 soldiers who left the blockade 8 days previously as their numbers dwindled. They have surrounded the house with barbed wire and anti-personel mines, and have stored significant quantities of food and consumer electronics within the house.

All is not well here however, and this place is far from safe. Jim has a conversation with the senior soldier (Major Henry West) where he admits that he promised his men women, to keep their hopes for their long-term survival up.

Jim trys to escape the house with Selena and Hannah but naturally the effort is foiled, and as he wakes up he finds a single Sergeant (Sgt. Farrell) trying to hold off the other eight men, telling them this is wrong. Both Jimmy and Farrell and confined to a prison cell where Farrell tells Jimmy that the OC (Officer Commanding) is insane, that clearly the rest of the world has quarantined England to let the infection run its course. Soldiers escort Jimmy and Sgt. Farrell to a wooded area (that serves as an above ground dumping place for bodies) and Sgt. Farrell is executed, in the confusion Jimmy escapes.

Jimmy returns, and releasing an imprisoned zombie he rescues Selena and Hannah, and they escape the mansion as the soldiers kill one another. Jimmy is wounded, but the end sequence has the three of them living by a lake trying to signal a jet fighter that has been seen flying over the countryside.

Critique: I enjoyed this film, its a new take on an old genre. The infection adds a new twist to the ability of the infection to spread, while more immediately dangerous (as an entire crowd can be infected in minutes) geographical boundaries serve as a deterent (under old zombie models the infected go through a long slow process before they succumb, making it possible for them to be transported – with the best of intentions – over oceans and other boundaries by plane and boat, with immediate infection the planes would crash, and boats would go adrift).

I also enjoyed the fact that the military presence had degenerated into more base insticts as a plot twist, although I was a little disappointed.

The bonus features on the DVD are interesting, especially as one of the proposed endings (dealt with entirely in post-production if I recall correctly) had Jimmy, Hannah and Selena trying to find a cure for Franks infection, and meeting with a scientist at the Cambridge Primate Research Facility. Of course the cure was a full blood transfusion, and even the narrrator comments that this was more than a little flimsy… how do you get the infected blood out altogether when a single drop is sufficient to reinfect the new blood?

Altogether a great addition to the zombie genre, especially with the new and improved fast moving zombies featured in both this movie and the “Dawn of the Dead” remake.