Happy Halloween everyone! I’m pleased to share this final review of horror-season, which means that I’m finally caught up on my screenings/posts!
28 days after a savage, aggression-inducing virus, simply called “Rage”, is unleashed in Great Britain, bike courier Jim awakens from a coma at a London hospital. He is perplexed to find the hospital deserted and begins to roam the eerily empty streets of London, scavenging for sodas and screaming for help. Jim is attacked by infected humans and saved by survivors Selena and Mark. Jim and Selena see signs of life in a residential tower and investigate, finding cab driver Frank and his daughter Hannah. The pairs quickly warm up to each other but are hampered by dwindling supplies. As such, they decide to brave a car ride north, following a broadcast offering protection. In the protective care of the military at a fortified mansion, the now-trio must confront the harsh reality that their uninflected saviors have devolved into the real monsters.
As someone who finally got into horror thanks to “The Walking Dead”, this film both delighted me and drove me nuts. Delighted because it’s a really great ‘zombie-move’. And drove me nuts because of the similarities—and this came out first! Waking up from a coma in a post-apocalyptic land? Check. Taking refuge at an old man’s house with him and his daughter? Check. Daring to travel a dead wasteland? Check. Finding out that living humans are the real monsters? Check. Seriously, this movie cracks 4-5 seasons of plot progression in a clean 113 minutes. I can’t be mad at the film falling into zombie tropes if it helped create them.
And while I ended up falling off “The Walking Dead” train, this film had me hooked to the end. I think the secret sauce was in its moments levity, not darkness. It dared to let us see our protagonists in moments of joy, which if anything, only further added to the tension. We quickly cared about these people and we were afraid to see them suffer. I thought the romance was handled well, with the film never really going beyond “young, terror-induced need for comfort and affection”. And the empty London shots were AMAZING. They’re honestly what drew me to the film and what really sells the magic trick of it all. The film itself isn’t pretty—it seems to be early 2000s British digital, like the production quality of the 2005 Doctor Who. But that kind of added to why I was so drawn to this flick. What a great way to end horror-season.