The Red Circle

By Tom Nix

Did you enjoy ZOMBIELAND this past weekend? Do you love the fact that Hollywood has been turning out a steady stream of walking dead flicks for almost the last decade? Send your thank you notes to Danny Boyle.

Danny Boyle has an almost perfect filmmaking career. He has done something that virtually no one other than John Frankenheimer has done. He has made a near endless stream of great movies in almost every genre. He has been responsible for a lot of people using his ideas. And currently, almost every zombie movie manufacturer is in his debt. George A. Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is the grandfather of zombie horror. 28 Days Later is the cool uncle that everyone wants to hang out with.

Released in 2002, 28 Days Later redefined, revitalized, and made zombies relevant once again. The movie is notable for several reasons. It’s a very low-budget, shot on digital stock, in your face experience. The vaguely handheld and unclear photography made the Infected even more frightening than their glowing red eyes and oozing sores would otherwise. Secondly, Danny Boyle very, very accurately captures the act of surviving a zombie apocalypse. There are no big men with shotguns and chainsaws. There are, in fact, almost no people at all. And they are forced to live an almost sub-human life. No family, no trust, barely any sleep. And this is less than one month after contamination. This film opened a lot of people’s eyes to just how terrifying the undead can be. How horrific living in their world can be.

The other genius of Danny Boyle? In order to get the shots of Cillian Murphy walking in a barren, dirty, peopleless London, he cut off all traffic to those areas at 5 AM by hiring women in bikinis holding stop signs.

All four main characters work. They have a history, they have motivations, they have problems (besides the obvious). They feel like what would happen if four people that didn’t know each other the night before were suddenly thrown into the woods the next day with no food and no fire. They’re not best friends. There isn’t a shoehorned love story. It’s just those people trying to make do with what they have, even each other.

28 Days Later is a landmark 21st century film. Some people have it out for the the last half of the second act through the end – but this is how that story needs to be told. Through hope. Turned into shit. And then back into hope. Maybe.

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