Analysing Thriller Clips - 28 Days Later

Analysing Thriller Clip
28 Days Later

In the clip of the thriller movie 28 Days Later lighting, camera work, music, editing, setting and location is used to create suspense.

28 Days Later is set in the heart of London. Central London, usually a busy city, bursting with life and movement is shown however in this clip as an empty, desolate, lonely place. Due to our familiarity and knowledge with London, when we are shown London as an empty place this can be quite suspenseful because we get the idea something has either happened or is going to happen.

Another reason why we get the idea something has happened is in the first couple shots when we are inside the hospital (usually seen as an ordered, tidy place), there is mess everywhere. Torn paper is scattered all over the floors and desks, phones are hanging on end and a vending machine has been torn open. This is also carried on when we see the male character on the hospital roof looking down over the ambulance yard and there is an ambulance van with its doors wide open and someone lying on the floor. The male character just walks around the streets of London and see’s a route master bus on its side and still there is not a person in sight.

Throughout the clip angle shots were used quite frequently to show the male character as small vulnerable, with no power and no that dominant. The camera is also canted quite often. While he is walking around the hospital discovering everything out of order, there is a close-up of the phones hanging. This emphasises the idea that something has happened. While he is on the hospital roof looking down on the ambulance yard he is shown very small in the frame, this is done using a low-angle shot. This once again emphasises his vulnerability. There is also a very slow pan.

At the beginning of the clip there is not any music and we just hear the deep echo of his voice. After that melancholy music is slowly introduced. The slow shots of the surroundings make us believe something is going to happen.

The clip is quite simple in action and movement but still a lot of suspense is created, mainly by the isolation and emptiness of the setting and location.