A scientist in the lab desperately warns them against releasing the captive chimpanzees, which are infected with a highly contagious rage-inducing virus. In Cambridge, three animal liberation activists break into a medical research laboratory. It’s not like I had to do research.” Boyle later identified John Wyndham's ‘The Day of the Triffids’ as Garland's original inspiration for the story. I knew most of the time when I was lifting from something, or paying homage, or whatever the most honest way of phrasing it is. In an interview with Creative Screenwriting, Garland explained, “At the point I was working on ‘28 Days Later’ I had a lot of zombie movies as well as video games like ‘Resident Evil’ turning round in my head. The direction of Danny Boyle (‘Trainspotting’, ‘Steve Jobs, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’), epic score by John Murphy, Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography and running zombies combined for a deliriously frenetic adventure.Īfter Danny Boyle and producer Andrew Macdonald filmed a tepid adaptation of Alex Garland's novel ‘The Beach’, Garland approached Macdonald about his concept for ‘28 Days Later’. With that in mind, we were easily ambushed by this low-budget, white-knuckled, hell-for-leather UK horror film, starring then-unknowns Cillian Murphy (‘Peaky Blinders’, ‘Sunshine’, ‘Batman Begins’) and Naomie Harris ( ‘Spectre’, ‘Moonlight’). Movies that featured the slow-moving creatures seemed more like platforms for mindless, gory gross-outs with little reason to recommend them. Zombies weren’t nearly the ubiquitous horror presence they are now - they were on a creative hiatus. I vividly remember going to see ’28 Days Later’ at a cinema with a friend.