So I mentioned in my first post that I will fight tooth and nail with anyone who wants to tell me that 28 Days Later is a zombie movie. That being said, that is not the only problem I have with the film. And since I have this argument with people all the time, especially my boyfriend and his idiotic friends, I thought I'd put into writing all my arguments on the British gore-fest that is 28 Days Later.
Firstly, it is not a zombie movie. Zombies, by definition, are bodies that physiologically dead, but reanimated as flesh eating terrors that do not recognize nor resemble anything of their past life (when they were actually ALIVE, people!) In 28 Days Later and it's subsequent sequel, the "infected" are sufferers of a virus called rage, which is similar to rabies in nature and causes the infected person to be not only incredibly sick, but also to exhibit extremely violent behavior. Some might say "Well, A., what about when the "infected" and biting the skin of their victims?" My answer to you is that when angered to the point of a violent rage, you will do anything you can to hurt and kill your intended victim. If that means kicking, punching, scratching, biting, and whatever else may come to your mind at the time, that is what you'll do. If you notice, the violence ends once the victim is dead and the infected person moves on to another victim. They do not stick around and eat and the victim does not rise from the dead in zombie fashion, they remain dead.
On the DVD commentary, director Danny Boyle classifies the film as an apocolyptic, horror and 
zombie film. Two out of three isn't bad, Mr. Boyle! He had before stated, however, that he didn't want it to be labled as such and that his true inspiration for the movie was from John Wyndham's novel The Day of the Triffids. For those unfamiliar with this particular book, it tells the tale of these giant plants with animal like behavior that enjoy the fine culinary taste of rotting meat, who have taken over the planet, somehow, and of a meteor shower that has rendered most of the inhabitants of earth blind. A group of "sighted" survivors works together, sometimes, to remain living throughout the catastrophe. It sounds very strange, but it is actually a pretty good book. It also helped to inspire the book Blindness which was released as a movie just last year. ANYWAY, as that book is not about zombies, I don't know how it could inspire a zombie film.
zombie film. Two out of three isn't bad, Mr. Boyle! He had before stated, however, that he didn't want it to be labled as such and that his true inspiration for the movie was from John Wyndham's novel The Day of the Triffids. For those unfamiliar with this particular book, it tells the tale of these giant plants with animal like behavior that enjoy the fine culinary taste of rotting meat, who have taken over the planet, somehow, and of a meteor shower that has rendered most of the inhabitants of earth blind. A group of "sighted" survivors works together, sometimes, to remain living throughout the catastrophe. It sounds very strange, but it is actually a pretty good book. It also helped to inspire the book Blindness which was released as a movie just last year. ANYWAY, as that book is not about zombies, I don't know how it could inspire a zombie film.Another thing my boyfriend said that annoys me is that the movie I Am Legend was a rip-off of 28 Days Later. OK. Maybe Will Smith's Robert Neville wasn't the greatest, but that is still a completely unfair statement. The movie I Am Legend is based off of Richard Matheson's novel of the same name. Which, might I add, was published in 1954. That is well before 28 Days Later was written, or even thought of for that matter! It's ok, I too defend the movies that I love, but I can at least back up my defense. Perhaps I just spend too much time reading? Oh, well.
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