Horror Genre

28 Days Later

An American Werewolf in London

An American Werewolf in London and 28 Days Later are very different in the way that they portray the genre of horror. AAWIL begins with jazzy blues music playing “Blue Moon” and sets the scene of the countryside, which doesn’t really give any horrific or sinister effect; at first it doesn’t seem much like a horror film. Whereas in 28DL we are immediately set on edge by the use of a floating camera and scenes of violence, such as people being beaten. We quickly find out that the beginning scene of 28 DL is set in a lab which is much more horrific than the hills of the countryside.

In AAWIL we are soon introduces to two naive American tourists who are immediately told to stay off the moors and to stick to the road, this is where the audience would start to feel uneasy as we now know something bad will happen if they wander onto the moors which they are surrounded by. The characters in 28DL are completely different, at first we are given the impression they are some sorts of criminals as they are seen on a security camera and are wearing balaclavas. But we soon find out they are being rather heroic and are trying to rescue the chimps that are being confined in cages in the lab and are being subjected to experiments.

The story/plots of the two films are completely different. AAWIL is about one of the tourists who was bitten by a werewolf and has become one himself. 28DL is all about how the chimps had been infected with rage and when the apparently “heroic” people let one loose it bit one one of the women who then went on to infect the human race – “the beginning of the end”.

Two very different films, very different characters, settings and plots but both share the same genre of horror.