The makers of28 Days Laterhave always resisted describing the film as a zombie movie, but come on — it has all the defining hallmarks of a zombie movie. I’ve always been a huge fan of the zombie genre; I grew up obsessed withThe Walking Dead, I’ve watched George A. Romero’s classicDeadmovies over and over, and I’ve replayedThe Last of Usgames dozens of times. Danny Boyle and co.’sresistance to call28 Days Latera zombie moviesmacks of snobbish elitism, like they’re embarrassed to be associated with such a lowbrow genre.
It reminds me of how the writers ofThe Penguinchanged Oswald Cobblepot’s name to Oz Cobb to shy away from their comic book source material. Boyle is currently working ona long-overdue sequel to28 Days Latercalled28 Years Later. According to a casting call, they’re looking for marathon runners, racing cyclists, triathlon competitors, and other high-level athletes to appear as infected in the movie (viaThe Yorkshire Post). It seems as though28 Years Later’s infected will do some wild things — so why won’t Boyle call them zombies?
28 Days Later Bears All The Defining Traits Of A Zombie Movie
The modern zombie as we know it was defined byRomero’sNight of the Living Dead. When a big chunk of the human population is turned into ravenous, flesh-eating monsters, a disparate group of survivors band together to fend off the monstrous hordes and stay alive in the scary new world. That plot summary could interchangeably be used to describeNight of the Living Deador28 Days Later.28 Days Laterfollows all the hallmarks of a Romero zombie movie, just in a British settingas opposed to Romero’s home country of America.
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The only difference betweenNight of the Living Deadand28 Days Lateris the origins of the zombie apocalypse. InNight of the Living Dead, dead bodies mysteriously rise from their graves to feast on the living. In28 Days Later, a rage virus is released from a laboratory. But it seemsridiculous to claim that that minor difference puts28 Days Laterin a whole different genre category. If it looks like a zombie movie and has all the tropes and conventions of a zombie movie, then maybe it is a zombie movie.
28 Years Laterwill be released on August 13, 2025.
The survivors hole up in various isolated locations to hide out from the infected, just like in a Romero movie, and the infected always manage to find them, just like in a Romero movie. The debate over whether or not28 Days Lateris a zombie movie feelsas arbitrary as the debate over whether or notDie Hardis a Christmas movie. But while it’s debatable what counts as a Christmas movie, it’s not really debatable what constitutes a zombie movie — and28 Days Laterhas more than enough to qualify as a zombie movie.
If 28 Days Later’s Infected Can’t Be Cured, It Doesn’t Matter That They’re Not Technically Dead
The infected in28 Days Lateraren’t undead, because they were never dead to begin with. But if they can never be cured of the rage virus and they’re stuck in their infected form forever, then it doesn’t really matter that they’re not dead — they might as well be. Being dead isn’t the only thing that makes a zombie a zombie. Zombies wander the earth, looking for other people to infect with their curse, and they’re a commentary on an ignorant society.28 Days Later’s zombies have all that stuff; they’re just not dead.
This is similar to the zombies inThe Last of Usfranchise, who are also strategically referred to as “infected” instead of “zombies.” They’re technically not dead; they’ve had their bodies and minds taken over by an aggressive fungus. When they bite unsuspecting survivors, the fungus is simply expanding its reach. Butthe people in there aren’t coming back. They’ll continue to prowl around, infecting people, unable to control their bodies, until their bodies are no longer useful to the fungus, at which point they’ll settle down somewhere and grow into the environment.
28 Days Later’s Infected Don’t Do Anything Different To Other Onscreen Zombies
Yes, They’re Fast — But That Isn’t Unheard Of For A Zombie Movie
There’s nothing that28 Days Later’s zombies do that other zombies can’t. At least inThe Last of Us, the infected mutate into things that have never been seen before, like clickers, bloaters, and the dreaded Rat King. The only thing that makes28 Days Later’s zombies different is that they’re fast.Romero’s zombies were typically slow-moving; they dawdled and shuffled through the streetsand only really became a major threat in large numbers. In28 Days Later, the zombies can sprint, which makes it even more thrilling when the survivors are fleeing from them.
28 Days Later didn’t invent fast zombies. They could previously be seen in Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive, Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead, and the Resident Evil games.
But28 Days Laterdidn’t invent fast zombies. They could previously be seen in Peter Jackson’sDead Alive, Dan O’Bannon’sReturn of the Living Dead, and theResident Evilgames. Sure,28 Days Laterpopularized fast zombies— they were later seen inI Am Legend,World War Z, and the brilliantTrain to Busan— but they existed long before it.28 Days Laterdoesn’t do enough to revolutionize the traditional zombie movie (or the traditional zombie) for it to not be considered one.
28 Days Later’s Writer Confirms It’s A Zombie Movie (Even If Cillian Murphy Disagrees)
Alex Garland Said 28 Days Later Is “Pretty Much” A Zombie Movie
While Boyle has regularly denied that28 Days Lateris a zombie movie, his fellow filmmakers have their own take on the debate. The movie’s star,Cillian Murphy, agrees with Boyle. The actor said that when he was making the film,he never thought of it as a zombie movie. Since they were shooting it around the time of the SARS outbreak and there was a lot of talk in the news about air rage, Murphy felt like they were making a movie tapping into that zeitgeist. He never watched Romero’s zombie films and didn’t realize how “hallowed” they were.
Only This 28 Years Later Story Can Justify The Sequel’s Riskiest Release Decision
The 28 Days Later saga is continuing with the long-awaited 28 Years Later, but there’s only one storyline that can justify launching a whole trilogy.
The movie’s writer,Alex Garland, has a different opinion. He disagrees with Boyle and Murphy and believes that it is, indeed, a zombie movie. He said he’s aware that there’s been a lot of discussion about whether or not28 Days Lateris a zombie movie and,to put an end to that discussion, he simply said, “It’s a zombie movie.”He noted that, because of the rage virus element, there may be “technical discrepancies” that disqualify the infected from being classic zombies, but “they’re pretty much zombies.”
28 Days Later
Cast
28 Days Later depicts a post-apocalyptic Britain devastated by a virulent outbreak. Directed by Danny Boyle, it follows a group of London survivors as they navigate the chaos caused by a rapidly spreading virus, transmitted by humans and animals, that transforms the infected into dangerous beings. Released in 2002.
