28 Days Later Blu-ray Disc Review

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Title: 28 Days Later

Region: A

Media: Blu-ray Disc

Genre: Horror Thriller

Stars: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, and Brendan Gleeson

Writer: Alex Garland

Director: Danny Boyle

Feature length: 113 minutes

Extras: Audio Commentary By Director Danny Boyle and Writer Alex Garland, 3 Alternative Endings, Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary, “Pure Rage: The Making Of 28 Days Later” Featurette, Jacknife Lee Music Video, Animated Storyboards, Still Photo Galleries, and Trailers

Languages: English DTS Digital 5.1 HD Master Lossless Theatrical Surround Sound and Spanish and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired and Closed Captions and Spanish, Cantonese and Korean Subtitles Language Subtitles

Packaging: Elite Blue BD Case

Chapter Stops: 32

Sound: DTS Digital 5.1 HD Master Lossless Theatrical Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of American Theatrical Release: 2003/Blu-ray Disc Release: 2007

Theatrical Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

28 Days Later opened in the U.S. during the summer of 2003 after a successful opening abroad. The film details the aftermath of a devastating plague that has left all of England quarantined from the rest of the world. Described simply as “rage,” the disease is transmuted by blood or saliva and is devastating within 20 seconds of contact. The infected become raging killing machines that vomit blood and will tear an uninfected person apart with no reasoning behind it other than that hapless victim is there at the wrong place and time. The heightened adrenaline gives them faster reflexes and unusual strength as well as an uncompromising resolve. They don’t lumber or walk toward you, they run. Even if you were to set them on fire or blow off a limb, as long as they can move toward you, they will continue to attack, which makes killing them very difficult. These are not zombies in that they are lifeless flesh reanimated though they might as well be dead since they lose all of their higher mental functions other than their most primitive and destructive desires.

The outbreak occurred when a group of radical animal rights activists broke into an experimental lab and set free an infected chimpanzee despite the warnings from the scientist present about the engineered virus. Now 28 days after the outbreak, Jim (Cillian Murphy), a cycle courier wakes up from a coma to discover a deserted London. However he soon discovers that he is not the only resident left behind in the wake of the plague. The infected are present and ready to kill, but there are the uninfected survivors Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley), who quickly save Jim’s life and explain the situation at hand. This eventually leads to an odyssey of horror and hope as companions are lost, survivors band together and discover the only thing more terrible than an infected human being, is an uninfected human with a heart of darkness.

28 Days Later is a fun and jolting post apocalyptic horror film that calls to mind various other genre films it pays homage to in various scenes though not through self referential dialogue like the Scream trilogy, but rather character interactions and screen language that drive those thoughts for the fans while still allowing the film to be assessable for the casual viewer. If there is any question I have regarding the nature of the infected in 28 Days Later it would be how could a completely enraged and insane person differentiate between who is or is not infected and if there is no real rationality left over in the infected, why wouldn’t they attack each other? Well the zombies in most if not all-living dead flicks only eat the living so I guess my question is moot although I will state again that these are not zombies as in re-animated corpses. Before the release of the sequel 28 Weeks Later, Fox Atomic released a graphic novel that revealed that the infected can tell the difference between their own and the uninfected based on scent. The infected don’t bathe or wear perfumes or cologne. If you spray a wax dummy or mannequin with hairspray, anti bacterial mist, or any product that involves up keep, they’ll attack it thinking it’s an uninfected person.

Shot using digital video cameras, 28 Days Later has a gritty quality to it that I personally think enhances the film’s impact and at times gives it an almost documentary like look. The AVC encoded widescreen high definition picture with up to 1080p resolution where available, which is presented in a (1.85:1) aspect ratio seemed to show more of the video grain than I noticed on both the DVD release or in some of the extra value features like deleted scenes, which are presented in 480p. The English DTS Digital 5.1 HD Master Lossless Theatrical Surround Soundtrack has a nice enveloping quality with a discrete use of sound to create an eerie atmosphere and then sudden shocks from the screams of the infected and their victims that will make first time viewers jump out of their seat depending on how good their home theater audio system is. Spanish and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks are also encoded onto the Blu-ray Disc as well as English Subtitles and Closed Captions for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and Spanish, Cantonese, and Korean Language Subtitles as options.

Director Danny Boyle and Writer Alex Garland provide an optional feature length audio commentary that is quite screen specific as well as entertaining to listen to because the two collaborators clearly have developed a great working relationship and are able to speak about the film in a somewhat nonchalant manner without ever becoming ponderous or dull. Boyle and Garland also provide optional commentary for s deleted scenes with great detail as to why they were ultimately not used. These scenes are listed as “London Walk,” “Abandoned Train,” “Motorway Carnage,” “Taxi/Sweden,” “The Infected In The House,” and “Floorboards.” Previously only available on the Region 2 PAL DVD release is the “Hospital Dream Sequence” (4:30). The deleted scenes can be viewed individually or through a “Play All” feature (9:21). They also provide commentary for three alternate endings, one of which was added after the credit role as an attraction to get repeat viewers and new audience members with the simple premise of “what if…” and this darker ending is presented in a AVC encoded (1.85:1) widescreen aspect ratio with English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound.. The second alternate ending (2:30) is a slight variation on the one that accompanies the feature now and the third “radical alternate ending” (11:24) was never filmed, which is a shame because I think it is the most interesting of the three though I understand the reasons behind it and were I in their situation, I may have shot it, but probably never used it since it does not gel with the whole rules set up regarding the nature of the rage virus and destroys the suspension of disbelief enough so that while it is perhaps the darkest of the three, it could make the viewer wave their hands and yell “bullshit” at the screen.. Presented through storyboards, Writer Alex Garland and Director Danny Boyle narrate and read the dialogue over the images and then present their reasons for why they ultimately did not pursue this idea.

Boyle also provides commentary for a motion galley of production photos and continuity Polaroid stills. The “Pure Rage” (24:23) featurette is never quite clear as to whether it is supposed to be a standard promotional featurette or an actual mini-documentary discussing the possibility of global viral outbreaks and as a result the effect of the program as a whole seems weakened. The theatrical teaser, trailer (1:25), animated storyboard Internet trailer (1:32), and the Jacknife Lee music video (6:22), which pretty much condenses the film through images and music into minutes, theatrical trailer presented in AVC HD with 5.1 Surround Sound (2:07) and the trailer for 28 Weeks Later (2:14) wrap up the extra value features directly related to the film on this Blu-ray disc. A reel of trailers for other titles now available or coming soon to Blu-ray Disc, such as Alien Vs. Predator, From Hell, and Sunshine (6:37) are provided too.

The main menu is animated with the spinning symbol designated for biohazards and the subsequent interactive menus that let the viewer naviage without interrupting the movie work fine. 28 Days Later is available now on Blu-ray Disc at retailers on and offline from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

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