Danny Boyle and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo direct Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Imogen Poots, Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Alfie Williams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes in this apocalyptic survival horror series where the Rage virus spreads through the population of the UK speedily and the infected chase you to death relentlessly.

Filmed on DV cameras, on location in a central London dawn, before commuters and tourists filled it, the opening act of 28 Days Later has lost none of that ominous power. All the threads are already here. The collapse of society. Families who drag you back but keep you human. Scrabbling for connection in a deserted world full of damaged survivors. Relentless fear. Cillian’s star making lead performance is quietly incredible. Gleeson and Christopher Ecclestone are two sides of the same coin in supporting performances of a ‘no camp’ strength you rarely see in horror. The set pieces are judderingly brutal. You forget quite how grindingly intense this all is. And John Murphy’s score, especially the now ubiquitous “In the House – In a Heartbeat” is a hectoring marvel. I love it. I’m so glad they have found no cure for this franchise.

Let’s try to repopulate London. 28 Weeks Later is every bit the cash-in. The unloved stepchild. A replay. Fanfic from the makers of Intacto. The lack of direct involvement from Danny Boyle and Alex Garland is felt. Still Fresnadillo marries Day Of The Dead to this tale of survivor guilt and family bonds. The US military cause more problems than they solve. Whodathunkit? There are three memorable set pieces; the farmhouse opener, a gleeful extended shot of helicopter rotor blade carrion carnage and a H.G. Wells inspired mist of chemical weapons. Not the stamp of Boyle’s entries but a neat enough meat and potatoes stopgap.

28 Years Later though is pretty special. Mainland Britain has become a regreened wasteland. The infected have mutated into various terrifying sub species. A boy leaves the safety and lies of his compound to go on a quest. He meets the outside world and at least two survivors tinged with insanity. Fiennes is glorious here as the enigmatic doctor defined by fire and skulls. It will ultimately be a movie remembered for its dangling prosthetic zombie cocks and THAT delirious cliffhanger ending. But I found it so incredibly soulful for a horror, while unpretentious for an elevated horror. After the first act the terror sequences ease off, and the overwhelming editing montages normalise (and you get used to Jodie Comer doing another of her extreme accents) but none of this holds the full fat experience back. On first watch I loved it!

Boyle has always had horror in his heart. Shallow Grave, crawling dead babies, crispy skinned sunshine addicts. It almost is a shame when he gives up on his strengths and makes something staid and workmanlike like Yesterday or Steve Jobs. What he is fantastic at is taking our humdrum world and turning it into an expressionistic shared experience. Modern pop music thrums us along while we taste the fantasy in every character’s mind. Go through ‘it’ with them. And it isn’t just the chases that makes our pulse beat as fast the protagonists. Sure, we share their dry throat and fear keenly. Boyle pummels us with allegorical clouds of crows, fire sparks dancing in the sky, Young Fathers smothering us in the soundscape. He envelops us in heightened style, making his best movies a rare communal dream. Or, here, in this series, a never ending nightmare. Time Didn’t Heal Anything.

10 / 7 / 9

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John Maclean directs Kōki, Jack Lowden and Tim Roth in this period thriller where samurai’s daughter finds herself being pursued across the Scottish Highlands by a gang of murderous thieves.

Very Alex Cox. A few neat moments but often interminable. The kinda movie you want to love for what it is but feels like a lifeless exercise for swathes. Even Tim Roth is subdued. Lush sparse production design and Robbie Ryan lensing.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Slow West (2015)

Stuart Gordon directs Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton and Jessica Dollarhide in this gothic horror where a man travels to Italy with his family to live in the castle they have recently inherited yet soon begins to suspect that they are not the only occupants.

Re-Animator reunion. Awkward Jeffrey Combs explicit sex scene. Plot is a little too dripfed but when the horror does show up eventually it is bloody and disturbing. Scary creature, cute final blind girl. Why is this her only movie?

6

Perfect Double Bill: The Sect (1991)

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James Mangold directs Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton and Scoot McNairy in this musical biopic of Bob Dylan where he arrives in Manhattan, leapfrogs over various musical icons, humps and dumps a few undeserving ladies then ‘goes electric’.

What a self-centred bastard man genius! Did Chalamet hold this back for me? Of course, he fucking did. If you are going to cast someone as an annoying enigma who disappears into his own hype…. I guess, it actually is on-the-nose casting. Inspired me to revisit some Bob Dylan albums after, so there’s that. Mangold is a more than capable pair of hands for this. It ain’t Walk The Line, the times do change at a fair clip without feeling like a carousel slideshow. The supporting cast is superb (Norton, Elle Fanning, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash). There is a five star sequence where everyone is watching Dylan onstage and you can emphasise with the personal schism his music and genius is causing in each and every individual. That’s the masterpiece. The rest is just fine.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Bound For Glory (1976)

Wes Anderson directs Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton and Michael Cera in this whimsical drama where a global wheeler dealer tries to pull off his biggest project yet.

Whimsy, THAT look, magnificent ensemble, pretensions. But it does feel like Anderson is running on empty with this overly familiar, often impenetrable rehash of his hits.

4

Perfect Double Bill: The French Dispatch (2021)

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Stanley Donen directs Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant and Robert Mitchum in this romantic farce where an impoverished lord of a stately home knows his wife is starting a love affair with an American tycoon.

Silly but witty bed hopping farce with a memorable sozzled and catty support turn from Jean Simmons. Spits right into the face of the Hays Code without breaking any rules… seemingly.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Indiscreet (1958)

Tibor Takács directs Stephen Dorff, Christa Denton and Louis Tripp in this horror where three young teens unlock a portal to hell in their back garden.

Your parents faces rip off to reveal goo. A lumbering zombie falls and turns into multiple sluggy mini minions. Your sister is dragged into hell through a closet wall. This was a formative horror watch for me, probably the first VHS horror I watched in its entirety. So the unsettling moments have stayed with me. I wasn’t massively into horror back then but now it probably is my favourite of the genres. The practical FX work here is a real magic show. Stop motion, forced perspective. The in-camera tricks when they come really dazzle. Shame that the pace is so deathly slow and the kids’ lives are more depressing than aspirational. A bit of a downer on a long time coming rewatch.

6

Perfect Double Bill: The Gate II: The Trespassers (1990)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

David Zucker directs Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Yasmine Bleeth in this sports comedy where two losers invent a dumb sport that takes the world (America) by storm.

Being nasty is the goal. Seemingly advertised on the back of every comic book I bought in the late Nineties. Idiotic and charmless. South Park creators Parker and Stone were right to stick to animating, they ain’t got much onscreen like-ability. The movie bats about 1 actual laugh per a hundred jokes. I’m not sure if this is intentionally spoofing the SNL movie vehicle formula? Cleaves pretty close, but to pastiche an already self aware comedy model… pointless.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Idiocracy (2006)

Hugh Johnson directs Skeet Ulrich, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Peter Firth in this action buddy movie where two regular guys must keep an ice cream truck full of deadly chemical weapons under 50 degrees and out of the clutches of some nasty mercenaries.

Chill Factor is exactly the type of movie this blog was created for almost 10 years ago. A blockbuster that never was. Made with a team that would never have been assembled any other year. With a high concept that actually is quite intriguing. And should be a cult item but has passed on into obscurity. The only time Chill Factor is ever mentioned is on listicles about studio projects that lost a ton of money. Skeet Ulrich was hot for about two weeks after Scream, Cuba was already pissing away his Academy success after Jerry Maguire. They don’t have much chemistry in this contrived Speed / Broken Arrow rip-off. But the script has the right buddy bickering and reluctant heroics dynamic. Who turned this down first? Denzel and Tom? Arnie and Eddie? Woody and Wesley? It would have made a fine third Woody and Wesley two hander… if the action got going a tad quicker. The first act takes up more than half the movie. The narrative really labours getting all its pieces in play before there are any big moves. So the meat (ice cream truck hurtling through highways and ravines on a sunny day, trying not explode) only lasts about twenty minutes. And with a C-list cast, the daft concept is the only reason you’d buy a ticket. So give us more of that for Skeet’s sake! Chill Factor does scratch a Wednesday night itch. It mildly entertains about as much a 99p 3-day VHS rental should. There is nothing within though that begs a belated rediscovery. Yet far worse flicks made their stupid over inflated budgets back. The flop status is a jot undeserved.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Chain Reaction (1996)

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M. Night Shyamalan directs Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Robin Wright in this drama where the lone survivor of a train wreck begins to reevaluate himself.

The gold standard Shyamalan. Very slow burn but the character study is richer than the twisty reveal at the end. The family in crisis scenes feel pitch perfect rather than an emotionally exploitative ruse. Surely you know by now it is about superheroes, right? What makes this interrogation of the comic book trope all the more fascinating was it came out just as the Marvel / DC blockbuster was in its infancy. In 2000, Hollywood hadn’t figured the formula out for the adaptations. Yet. This feels like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance of the now prominent genre. Only it arrived at the premature end of the cycle. Willis is excellent, using the same tricks Gilliam forced upon him for 12 Monkeys. Dampen down the charm, ban the smirk, you aren’t the coolest guy in the room. He is pretty spellbinding as the humbled, shambling hulk. But it is Jackson’s film all the way. His Mr Glass is driven, measured and hypnotic. You care about him so much from start to end. The set piece where he seeks the truth by recklessly following a dangerous man down some steep stairs is small but has my heart in my throat every viewing. A movie that rewards patience.

9

Perfect Double Bill: The Village (2004)