20 Most Perfect Scenes In Cinema History

20. 28 Weeks Later (2007) - Run For Your Life

There are few opening scenes to any horror movie that set the table for the meal to come as convincingly as 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to Danny Boyle’s ‘zombie’ apocalypse slowburner of 2002.

Set at the same time as the events of 28 Days Later, at the initial outbreak of the Rage virus that has half the UK foaming at the mouth and eating people, 28 Weeks Later sees Don and Alice, hiding out in a barricaded farmhouse with four strangers. Accidentally attracting the attention of the Infected hordes roaming outside, the ragtag group are subject to the most horrific home invasion ever seen.

There’s the grating shift from still, claustrophobic compositions to juddering steadicam; the ravening butchery of the murders; Don’s desperate abandonment of his wife as she stands, framed in horror at the window before being snatched away impossibly fast.

But then he escapes the grounds of the farm, bursting out into a madcap sprint towards the river… and the camera follows him, gradually revealing dozens of roaring Infected tearing after him from every direction, as the apocalyptic swell of John Murphy’s Godspeed-influenced score reaches a crescendo. It’s brilliant, a masterclass in terror.