28 days worth of scares

Hallelujah! At long last, horror doesn’t suck.

Faithful fans of the genre, those of you… Hallelujah! At long last, horror doesn’t suck.

Faithful fans of the genre, those of you who suffered through “Final Destination 2,” “House of 1000 Corpses” and “Wrong Turn,” can thank director Danny Boyle for delivering you from evil. Or rather, delivering you to evil. “28 Days Later” is his best film since “Trainspotting” and the best horror film to be released in a long time.

It’s a zombie film – sort of. The monsters aren’t technically undead; they’re live humans in the grip of a virus that permanently overtakes them with violent rage. Structurally, though, the film takes from the father of zombies, George Romero – “28 Days” is something like his “Dawn of the Dead” and “Day of the Dead” in one film. The 28 days Boyle skips over would have been the “Night of the Living Dead” part.

Before skipping ahead those four weeks, we see the outbreak begin: activists unwittingly free lab chimps infected with the man-made virus, which turns out to be highly contagious. Cut to Jim (Cillian Murphy) waking up in a hospital and finding he’s got all of Britain to himself – or so he thinks. “The infected” – ferocious, bloody-eyed maniacs who come out at night looking for someone to tear apart – are his company. Jim finds other survivors: Selena, a tough woman with a blade – right out of ’70s horror – along with Frank and Hannah, an endearing father and daughter. They have no choice but to journey toward the source of a repeating radio broadcast that promises “the answer to infection.”

The drab photography that Romero used to conjure dread is replaced here by low-grade digital video, which gives the film an appropriately dirty appearance. Occasionally, it’s just blurry, but most of time it lends a feel of urgency.

Where the film ends up might not look like horror, but that’s just because we’re not used to seeing the genre taken this seriously. The film’s concern shifts to things darker and more immediate, rather than resorting to zombie thrills, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t horror; it just means it isn’t cheap.

Go to the late show. And brace yourself: “28 Days Later” is scary stuff.