28 Days Later

Starring: Megan Burns, Cillian Murphy

RS: 3of 4 Stars

Horror

Look, I have nothing against old zombie movies. Night of the Living Dead (1968), with that great opening in the cemetery, still gets me. And I Walked With a Zombie (1943) is a curdler worth dusting off for a midnight rental. But here's the thing: The ghouls in those classics move like molasses.

In 28 Days Later, director Danny Boyle, back in Trainspotting form after losing it at The Beach, puts real zip in the zombie step. These buggers snap to at the scent of human flesh and take you down like a stealth bomber. Set in an evacuated London decimated by a virus, the film, shot with nerve-frying effectiveness on digital video -- creeps you out big-time.

Twenty-eight days after the virus hits, Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in a deserted hospital and wonders where everyone has gone. On the street, being chased by ghouls, he is rescued by Selena (a powerhouse Naomie Harris), a survivor who gives him the lowdown on the living dead: One of them bites you or even drools on you, and in twenty seconds you're a raging jungle beast. Along with cabbie Frank (the always terrific Brendan Gleeson) and his teenage daughter, Hannah (Megan Burns), the two young strangers leave London in Frank's cab, facing major questions, such as Selena's to Jim: "Do you want us to find a cure and save the world, or just fall in love and fuck?"

The movie loses steam at the end, when our group takes refuge at a fortress manned by sex-starved soldiers led by a kinky major (Christopher Eccleston). Until then, Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland plumb the violence of the mind with slashing wit and shocking gravity. Happy nightmares.

PETER TRAVERS
(June 25, 2003)