28 Days Later... (2003)

Brilliantly frightening. A super film for the first hour or so, but once the soldiers enter the story, it goes too far over-the-top. Up to that point, the film was suitably small, tense, and wonderful. The DVD offers a "Radical Alternate Ending" -- unshot, but revealed in storyboards and line readings. Unfortunately, the filmmakers chose wrong. The "radical" ending was what the story needed to feel cohesive. As the theatrical version ended up, it feels like two different films. First half - uninfected against the infected. Second half - uninfected against uninfected; and that's just wrong.

Still, it's just the thing for Halloween night, after the trick-or-treaters are tucked in bed.

A-