Not a Zombie Movie

This week I wiil be discussing 28 Days Later. As the title of this blog states I wanted to get it straight, this is not a zombie movie. The premise of the movie is these apes are forced to watch the most violent moments in human history. All of this rage and anger that these apes are forced to watch manifests itself into an actual virus. The virus then spreads and brings about a series of events that leads to an apocalyptic like London, England.

The central theme becomes apparent as the movie develops. Who is the real monster these "infected", or humans. This is truly a movie of human character and what happens when there is no society and standards to live by. These soldiers in the movie tell these people looking for help that they will provide protection for them. At first it seems alright, but then it is discovered that they have caught one of these infected and have it chained up like an animal. The reason they say that they are keeping it alive is to starve it to death to see how long it takes. This is the first sign that these soldiers are not what they say they are. The only reason they want to protect these people looking for help is to get thier women because women mean a future. This is ironic because later we learn that the only part of the world affected by this virus is England and the rest of the world is functioning normally.

Another interesting part is at the beginning and the main character wonders into a church. He is walking around and there are infected feeding on dead people right in the church. The main character then encounters the priest, who is infected with this rage virus. This is very powerful, the priest represents the most pure of society and that this rage virus affects everyone, even the people that had nothing to do with creating it. Just as the anger and rage displayed in our daily lives affects everyone in someway by a trickle down affect. Everyone is affected by the negative nature of others even those that did not cause it in the first place.

The other thing that is questioned in the movie is this idea of normality. Everyone is eating dinner at this military compound and the head military officer asks, "What is normality?" He then says man has only been here for a little while and if this virus whipped us out the world would return to normality. He then goes on to say that since the virus took over he has seen "people killing people" which is what he saw before the virus, so we are actually at normality now. This is very hypocrytical because the same man that is saying people are killing people has an infected chained up like a rabid beast in the courtyard and is not being treated like a human.

I think the thing I enjoy most about this movie is how it questions human nature when there is no civilization intact. Without laws and organization people that would otherwise be good people are transformed into these monsters. In that sense this movie seems to parallel one of my favorite books, The Lord of the Flies.