50 Greatest Horror Movies Of The 21st Century
5. 28 Days Later
Plot: A man (Cillian Murphy) wakes up 28 days after the start of a devastating zombie outbreak and discovers the United Kingdom has become the most dangerous place imaginable.
28 Days Later is perhaps the highlight of Danny Boyle's career. It's easily the best British horror film this century and among the finest of all time, it's a contender for the best zombie film ever made... yeah, it's great.
Of course, whether or not it's really a zombie film has been debated over the years, as the film's infected antagonists aren't necessarily zombies in the traditional sense. Besides, many of the films most shocking moments don't actually involve the infected at all, and there's so much more to this startlingly deep movie than just a run-of-the-mill outbreak story.
Regardless, however you categorize it, it's a modern horror masterpiece. With its terrific cast, fleshed-out characters, horrifying shocks and terrifying examination of the worst aspects of society and humanity itself, it really represents the best of the horror genre.
And the best thing of all? Despite how brutal and bleak it often is, there's something so unmistakably human, even hopeful about it.
An inferior sequel followed five years later; a third film is apparently planned.