28 Days Later

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

It's not the first zombie film to start with the attack of a mad primate (see Peter Jackson's Brain Dead, among others). Nor the first film which, a few minutes later, gazes down on a naked bloke lying in bed waking to find he seems to be the last man alive (see Geoff Murphy's The Quiet Earth).

The man, Jim (Murphy), trudges out from his abandoned hospital room into a London dawn where it appears everybody has left town, his "hellos" echoing through the famous streets.

But what is apparent from those early scenes is that this isn't just another zombie-flick. It is an apocalyptic sci-fi film of British sensibility - and not just because its hand-held digital camerawork makes it look budget-conscious. No, it is because its story about a rampant virus called "rage" - which turns its victims into rabid automaton killers within seconds of contraction - asks questions first, shoots later.

It is also genuinely creepy and has many a moment which display a palpable sense of humanity - a scene when Jim finds what has become of his family is genuinely touching. It reminds at times of the great 70s British television drama Survivors, even if it does end up with a messy gore-fest of a finale.

But it could be read as an allegory of any border-crossing virus-of-the-month. Considering the disease's effects, a particularly local interpretation could substitute "rage" for the P epidemic.

It also has some fun along the way at the expense of the anti-science brigade - the virus is unleashed by animal rights protesters breaking into a lab to free the chimpanzee test animals. When the survivors raid a supermarket one smacks his lips over the only fruit which hasn't gone off: "Mmm ... irradiated."

Jim finds the resilient Selina (Harris), who tells him it's when it comes to the zombies (who sure move faster than they did in the old days) it's a case of kill or be killed. They find cabbie Frank (Gleeson) and teenage daughter Hannah and pile into his taxi, having heard a promise of salvation in the north.

Only, of course, all is not what it seems with Christopher Eccelstone's army major, a commander of a squad which has set up a fortress in a country estate. At this point, like he seems to do on his other movies, Boyle hits the button marked "It all goes a bit mad" which diminishes the thoughtful first two acts.

But it's still a smart, funny and nightmarish flick which rises far above its genre. And along the way it creates its own laboratory of human behaviour, even if its hypothesis amounts to: Just how would you deal with that nice Mr Jones from two doors down when he comes crashing through the french doors, dribbling madly, red- eyed and looking very hungry indeed?

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Brendon Gleeson

Director: Danny Boyle

Rating: R16 (offensive language, horror)

Running time: 114min

Screening: Village, Hoyts cinemas