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This mix of THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD series and Stephan King’s THE STAND is the smart man’s zombie movie. This intense horror film has raw energy behind it. Director Danny Boyle has breathed life into a subgenre of scary movies that hasn’t felt fresh in ages. There’s grit and sweat and anger underneath this story, but there is also heart. The best way I can describe the mood of this film is to call it pure punk rock.

The set-up is typical; a virus quickly spreads through England turning humans into bloodthirsty killers. Jim (Cillian Murphy, GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING), a comatose bike messenger, wakes up in the hospital and finds the city deserted. He soon meets up with Selena (Naomie Harris, TV’s DINOTOPIA) and Mark (Noah Huntley, MEGIDDO: THE OMEGA CODE 2), who have been battling to stay alive against the infected for the last 28 days. Later on the trio meet, Frank (Brendan Gleeson, DARK BLUE), the devoted father of Hannah (Megan Burns, LIAM), and Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston, THE OTHERS), a no-nonsense leader of a small group of military officers.

The film is truly character based, allowing the plot to be dictated by the characters and the situations they are in. More than any other zombie movie this one seemed the most “real” to me. Not that the ideas addressed in the film weren’t tackled in THE STAND or DAY OF THE DEAD, but it still presents its interesting ideas in interesting ways. This is mainly due to the character development. We believe in these characters and care about them. The story might throw us into the mayhem right from the start, but it doesn’t neglect giving us insight into personalities, which play a big part in how characters interact and react to the unthinkable. I also liked how it slaughtered some of the cheesier conventions of the zombie genre. The infected aren’t kept around once they get infected because we like them.

There is some debate about the ending of the film. The “happy” ending doesn’t seem too forced, because hope was something Jim always held onto throughout. However, the theatrical alternative ending (which I’m sure is what was the originally written ending) is a sad and poetic conclusion that really fit the feel of the overall film. Either way the film is a tense thriller that even people who don’t like horror movies could easily enjoy.