analysis of relevant key texts

                 Analysis of 28 Days later (2002)

Theme:  the themes that can be identified in 28 days later are, religion seen at the beginning in the church, the end of the wold, seen by the destruction of the location and pursuit, which is identified through the chase by the zombies of the main character.

mise en scene: the mise en scene that is identified in 28 days later is of the costume of the main character which is hospital gear. this creates enigmas of why is he wearing the hospital gear and what has happened to him.

Lighting- the use of low key lighting can be identifies in the clip of 28 days later, through the shadows and shafts of light that can be seen at the beginning of the clip.

Performance: the performance of the zombies is very sharp and unnatural and shows an enigma through the fact that it is unknown where the zombies have come from.

Location: the location is a church, which can be identifies by the cross. there are a lot of connotations for this location such as it is dark, mysterious, but also spiritual.

Sound: there very little dialogue used in the clip and this creates tension that is unexplained, because the audience is not aware of why the tension has been created. there is no score in first part of clip and this builds slow tension as what will happen cannot be predicted. there is some diegetic sound such as a creaking door, footsteps. this is  amplified sound that shows isolation.

Cinematography and editing: there is a lot of cinematography used in 28 days later, such as long paced shots/ slow editing that creates anticipation as well as the eye line match which alerts the audience to important events/objects/actions. there is a change in the cinematography as the clip progresses and it becomes quick movement, with fast editing that builds excitement and tension. in the church scene, overlapping editing (hits the priest) can also be identified and this emphasises an important action and expands the duration of the action.  

the aspects of 28 days later that can make it seem like a thriller genre would be, that it contains enigmas, which add a lot of mystery to a thriller movie. in addition to this, suspense can also be identified in 28 days later and this is a convention that can be identified in thriller movies. finally there is also tension created in some areas of 28 days later and this is what makes it a scary horror movie, with some codes and conventions of a thriller movie.

images taken from the movie "28 days later"