Bit of a change for the Wright News, the first review of a horror film. Not my preferred genre to be sure, but after seeing the previews for Danny Boyle’s ("Trainspotting," "Shallow Grave," "The Beach") maiden excursion into the category I knew I had to hang up my prejudices and give it a watch. Something of "The Day of the Triffids" meets "Night of the Living Dead," Boyle gives an edge of the seat scenario of fictional horror only just beyond the sphere of possibility, and true institutionalized horror guarded by the merest veneer.

The film draws on the zombie genre in the central part of the story; the human race reduced to mindless, feral killers by the slightest contact with an Ebola-like virus referred to as ‘the rage.’ The reminder of "The Day of the Triffids" comes from the main character Jim being one of the fortunate (or unfortunate) few to escape infection due to his unconscious hospitalization during the worst of the outbreak. From the opening scene to the final though, Boyle’s true message of horror comes from the inherent evil within all of us that surfaces when raw survival is at stake.

There are some truly memorable scenes in this movie, such as when Jim ventures into the deserted streets of London looking for for any other people, pathetically shouting ‘hello’ to anyone who may hear.

I’m not usually a sucker for the shock-horror and almost pantomime ‘look-out, it’s behind the door’ scenarios of many modern horror movies, but Boyle creates a convincingly horrifying milieu sure to raise the goose bumps on even the most jaded of horror fans. Don’t miss it.