28 Days Later (2003)

There's one scene early on where a survivor named Mark recounts the story of how he lost his family during the outbreak to Jim (Cillian Murphy), who moments before discovered his parents corpses. Mark was explaining how his parents brutally died so that Jim could comprehend the peace his own parents experienced in death - committing suicide peacefully in bed at home. You see, Jim was lucky enough to have been in a coma the first 28 days as the rage infection spread across London and beyond. But he's no Rick Grimes... and these infected are no walking dead. They are all runners! What I love about this movie is it's ability to capture both the insanity and ferocity of the infected along with the human experience of surviving the days after outbreak. A lot changes in just 28 days and I think that's an excellent theme this story explores - just how far has humanity gone in this time? How many people are left? Why does the soundtrack go so hard? As all great apocalypse stories seem to stress, it's the humans who you really have to look out for in these dark times. This films 3rd act might be the most blood curdling depiction of that theme yet. Writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle explore this and much more in this grounded zombie experience - both gory and profound, and even today manages to be one of the best of it's genre.

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