28 Days Later

Tags

2000's, 28 Days Later, Brendan Gleeson, Christopher Eccleston, Cillian Murphy, Danny Boyle, Horror, Megan Burns, Naomie Harris, Noah Huntley

Film Title

28 Days Later

Director

Danny Boyle

Starring

• Cillian Murphy as Jim
• Naomie Harris as Selena
• Brendan Gleeson as Frank
• Christopher Eccleston as Major Henry West
• Megan Burns as Hannah
• Noah Huntley as Mark

Danny Boyle’s intensely mounted and terrifying horror 28 Days Later successfully delivers shocks, scares and relatable characters trying to survive in a world of post-apocalyptic wreckage. Sharply scripted and genuinely frightening, it is zombie horror at its finest.

In the beginning, a group of animal activists break into a secret research facility where chimpanzees are being held and experimented on. Despite the warnings of a scientist who catches them that the primates are infected with a highly contagious and violent virus, the trio opens the cages and are subsequently and brutally attacked. 28 days later in a London hospital, a bicycle courier by the name of Jim wakes from a coma. Dazed, he wanders out into the streets where he is greeted by a grim silence and everywhere deserted. Just as he is making a connection of what happened, he is attacked by a ravenous hoard of zombies. Thankfully, he is saved by Selena and Mark, who take him to refuge. The unflinching and very tough Selena explains that while Jim was in a coma, the highly contagious rage virus spread like wildfire among the population, resulting in death and collapse of society. The infected can spread the virus through blood and biting Jim is warned. Moving from place to place with the two survivors, Jim sees how dangerous the situation is when Mark is infected and Selena kills him. They are joined later by optimistic cab driver Frank and his young but very mature daughter Hannah. Continually moving and dodging attacks from the infected, through a radio broadcast, the quartet hears of alleged safety provided by an army camp. But with the virus quickly spreading and supplies dwindling, can the group survive when they come to see that this supposed safety they have been promised could be just as dangerous as the hoards of ravenous zombies on their tail?

Danny Boyle delivers kinetic direction that puts the audience right in the middle of the savagery and battle for survival. Yet what really impressed me about his directing was the way that he kept the pace going but didn’t ignore the character development. Boyle uses these flourishes to punctuate 28 Days Later with moments of tenderness between the core characters, before unleashing the hellish threat of infection and violence upon them. The tight script also gives the characters real emotion that makes us want them to survive the horrific ordeal. The roving camerawork highlights the race for survival and how these characters are on the move constantly. A grimy visual style creates a darkly authentic portrait of society gone to ruin, in an almost allegorical way. Haunting images abound but nothing beats the eerie silence and genuine sense of discomfort emitted from the scenes of Jim walking around an abandoned London seeing that the world he once knew has been altered. There is something so chilling about those scenes that I can’t put my finger on. And 28 Days Later deserves credit for the redesign of the usual sloping zombies in the horror genre. Here they are fast-moving and very frightening things and seeing them will stay in your head for a long time. A dark score of ambience and ever-growing intensity keeps the pace of the film ticking over and induces goosebumps in the process. I think it’s fair to say that 28 Days Later is not just another zombie movie, it has more to it than that and it rises above many other films in the genre.

Cillian Murphy wonderfully portrays the disoriented and shocked nature of Jim, who awakens to find his world upside down and very dangerous. Murphy makes the character sympathetic as well as capable of surviving these dire circumstances he has been thrust into. Making a very strong impact is Naomie Harris in her performance as Selena. A battle hardened fighter who doesn’t beat around the bush and won’t back down, Harris excellently gives voice to a character that has resided herself to the fact that she must do whatever she can to go on living and how weakness is not an option. Lighting up the supporting cast is Brendan Gleeson displaying gruff charm and affable kindness as Frank, who manages to find something to smile about most of the time despite the situation he is in. A slimy turn from Christopher Eccleston as a corrupt major who poses another dangerous threat to the group brings another face of shock to the piece. The only real acting casualties in this film are a bland Megan Burns and an underused Noah Huntley. Other than that, the cast is strong and very reliable.

Intense, deeply unsettling and brutally compelling, 28 Days Later is one effective slice of terror.

The Others

Tags

2000's, Alakina Mann, Alejandro Amenábar, Christopher Eccleston, Elaine Cassidy, Eric Sykes, Fionnula Flanagan, Horror, James Bentley, Nicole Kidman, Psychological Horror, The Others, Thriller

Film Title

The Others

Director

Alejandro Amenábar

Starring

• Nicole Kidman as Grace
• Fionnula Flanagan as Mrs Bertha Mills
• Alakina Mann as Anne
• James Bentley as Nicholas
• Eric Sykes as Mr Tuttle
• Elaine Cassidy as Lydia
• Christopher Eccleston as Charles

A highly atmospheric psychological horror-thriller that gains its shocks from the slow building pace and expertly handled visuals, The Others is a haunting movie that is both intelligently and stylishly done. Be warned, you won’t be sitting comfortably after watching this or sleeping soundly either.

The setting is 1945 and the War has just finished. Grace lives in a gloomy isolated house on the isle of Jersey with her two children Anne and Nicholas. Her children are photosensitive and can’t be exposed to sunlight, which leaves the old mansion in a Gothic darkness most of the time with the curtains drawn and only a gaslight or candle to find one’s way. The devoutly Catholic Grace is highly strung and prone to nerves, waiting for her husband to return. She exercises a strict sense of motherhood on her young children and infuses them with strict values and morals of religion. Then, three servants arrive at the house to work, as the previous ones have disappeared. Mrs Bertha Mills is the new housekeeper and nanny, Mr Tuttle is the gardener and the mute Lydia is the maid around the old house. Around this time, strange and very odd events begin to occur within the house. The petulant Anne claims to have seen people in the house that no one else has seen. Grace hears whispers while looking around a junk room. She finds a Book of the Dead, that houses mourning portraits of the deceased. Grace initially dismisses her daughter’s claims of someone in the house, but as the events become more frequent and unusual, Grace is forced to acknowledge that there may be things in the house that she can’t explain away and maybe not of this world. The enigmatic Mrs Mills drops hints about what may be going on, but only young Anne listens to her. Now in a desperate fight to remain sane and protect her children, Grace must confront her fears that her house may be haunted and that there is something not at peace.

As writer and director, Alejandro Amenábar directs with confidence and deft skill, exposing elements of fear through use of sound and facial expressions as opposed to gore. Masterfully creepy contrasts between light and dark conjure up a Gothic atmosphere of encroaching dread and slow burning terror. When the film ventures outside of the mansion the sheer sock of seeing natural light is very unexpected and unnerving, as we’ve been plunged into this almost constant state of near darkness. Rather than having constant shocks, The Others gains momentum and chills through the build up and reveal. This makes the film very refreshing as it could have fell into cheap scares and gore, but instead focuses on character and the nature of fear in an adroit manner. The Others is a classic example of what we don’t see can be more frightening than what we do see. Showing he’s a jack of all trades, Alejandro Amenábar composes the score, that lends its haunting tones and grim sense of foreboding very well to this chiller. And that clever twist at the end will indeed leave your jaw dropping and your heart stopped. If you thought you had figured the film out, just wait for the final third to turn that on its head.

Nicole Kidman turns in a powerful performance as Grace. Embodying the shifts in emotion from smothering maternal love, stoicism, dismissal and ultimate terror, Kidman doesn’t miss a beat and her work is outstanding and gets to the heart of a really complex character finding her sanity being tested by strange and unnatural events. In fact, much of the horror in the picture and the palpable fear is generated through Kidman’s piercing blue eyes as Grace finds her sets of beliefs questioned as terror engulfs her. Fionnula Flanagan excels as the kindly but enigmatic housekeeper, who knows more than she is letting on. Alakina Mann and James Bentley as the terrified and isolated children are excellent in displaying fear and panic. Eric Sykes and Elaine Cassidy inhabit their parts as the other two servants very well, while Christopher Eccleston, despite only being seen briefly, is well cast as Grace’s long-lost husband.

Chilling, ambient and psychologically terrifying, The Others is an excellent addition to the psychological horror genre due to its style, confident direction and high calibre acting.

 

Elizabeth

Tags

1990's, Biopic, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Eccleston, Elizabeth, Fanny Ardant, Geoffrey Rush, John Gielgud, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough, Shekhar Kapur

Film Title

Elizabeth

Director

Shekhar Kapur

Starring

• Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I
• Geoffrey Rush as Francis Walsingham
• Joseph Fiennes as Robert Dudley
• Richard Attenborough as William Cecil
• Christopher Eccleston as Duke of Norfolk
• Fanny Ardant as Mary of Guise
• John Gielgud as the Pope

The early years of Elizabeth I’s reign are given a splendid retelling by talented director Shekhar Kapur. Avoiding conventions of historical dramas, he gives the tale a dark and brutal edge as we watch the young queen fight off conspiracy and become a strong monarch. Boasting a superb performance by Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth is nothing short of enthralling from beginning to end.

In 1558, the catholic Mary I is dying of a cancerous tumour. Childless, the next in line to the throne is her half-sister Elizabeth, who is a protestant. It is a time of unrest as the seesaw of religion swings back and forth precariously. When Mary dies, Elizabeth becomes queen. The young girl is spirited and often naive and the position she has inherited is not exactly ideal. She is pressured to marry as soon as possible and produce an heir. Elizabeth though is more interested in her love affair with the dashing Robert Dudley. Meanwhile, England is threatened from abroad by Mary of Guise, who has gathered troops in Scotland. As well as the threat from abroad, there is conspiracy within her court as various members plot ways to dethrone her, the most prominent being the Duke of Norfolk who considers her a heretic. The thorny issue of religion also rears its head and threatens to destroy her reign as violence and chaos erupts. Realising the threats that surround her and aided by loyal but calculating Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth nimbly begins to transform from romantic young woman to ruthless and wilful queen in order to rule over this time of uncertainty and become the iconic Virgin Queen that the world knows. Politics, romance and bloodshed all combine in this splendid biopic that breathes fresh life into the story and gives it a riveting makeover.

While many historical biopics paint a quaint picture of monarchy, Elizabeth delivers another side. The court of Elizabeth is a place of political intrigue and dark deeds, where views are divided by beliefs and violence is often around the corner. From the start, Elizabeth is in danger and must face the plots that threaten to engulf her. Shekhar Kapur magnificently captures the conspiracy and unrest of the time with his use of colour and camerawork, with dark red symbolising both passion and blood and a roaming camera that stalks the eerie palace and gives it a sepulchral tone. Interestingly, Kapur seems to take an influence from the most unlikely source, The Godfather. The similarities can be seen with the main characters in each, that must after reluctance change themselves and sacrifice personal attachments to become a feared ruler in order to survive and uphold dynastic order. Also, the lush cinematography that accompanies many scenes of assassinations does resemble some of the bloodshed of The Godfather. The musical score is suitably filled with royal splendor and underlying menace, while the sumptuous costume design is breathtaking. Historians may balk at some of the more fanciful elements of Elizabeth, but a few liberties here and there gives the film an exciting edge.

In the leading role of Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett is a revelation. Her expressive face displays the journey she goes on and the strength that she uses to become a ruthless and powerful leader, capable of making difficult decisions. Filling the role with passion, emotion and vigour, Blanchett is a marvel. Ably supporting her is Geoffrey Rush as her advisor Francis Walsingham, who will do anything to protect her, including murder. Joseph Fiennes makes for a suitably handsome romantic interest, while Richard Attenborough is great as an elderly counsellor who attempts to guide the young girl. The other roles are competently portrayed by Christopher Eccleston, who exudes menace and anger as the conspiring Duke, Fanny Ardant as the ambitious Mary of Guise and John Gielgud as the Pope.

Not one for the purists, Elizabeth still succeeds thanks to visually stunning direction, a powerful lead performance and a tense atmosphere that gives history new life.