Why So Blu?

28 Days Later (4K UHD Blu-ray Steelbook Review)

Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in a hospital with nobody there. No doctors. No patients. Nothing. He walks outside and London is dead quiet. Soon enough, infected finally show up and the movie takes off. 28 Days Later settles once Jim meets Selena (Naomie Harris), Frank (Brendan Gleeson), and Hannah (Megan Burns). Thrown together by chance, they quickly start acting like a family. Continue reading the 28 Days Later 4K UHD Blu-ray Steelbook Review, delving into how the film lands in this new format.

 

 

Film ★★★☆☆

Director Danny Boyle show small yet important moments like a supermarket trip, horses beside the road, and Frank trying to give Hannah a kind of birthday. The actors are all bringing character morsels that add to the family feeling. Gleeson with warmth, and Harris keeping Selena guarded but never cold, and Murphy refraining from being an overnight action hero.

Eventually they reach Major West (Christopher Eccleston) and the his soldiers. The threat is clear, but the film starts behaving more like a standard siege thriller, and some of what made the first half strange and frightening gets pushed aside. It still works, just not as memorable. West is scary because he talks about awful things as if they’re practical solutions, and that gets to the film’s real point that the virus didn’t put cruelty into people, it simply removed the rules.

Video ★★★★☆

Encoding: HEVC / H.265 (64.83 Mbps)

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Clarity/Detail: Sony Pictures wrote that, “To fully capture and correctly present the unique visuals of this movie for its 4K High Dynamic Range debut, the assembled original source video was used along with the section from original camera negative as used in the original theatrical release. These elements were then color corrected to take full advantage of the wider available color gamut. The picture and Atmos mix were approved by Danny Boyle.”

Don’t expect the MiniDV footage to suddenly look sharp. Close shots hold together nice enough, and faces or bits of clothing sometimes show a little more texture, but wide views and fast movement still turn mushy, showing how little actual resolution was captured. The 35mm epilogue looks like it belongs to another movie, with grass, clothing, faces, and distant scenery all snapping into focus.

Depth: Most of the picture still looks flat. Better contrast helps separate people from darker backgrounds now and then, but there isn’t much real dimension until the final 35mm sequence.

Black Levels: Blacks are darker and steadier than before, especially inside the hospital, the Underground, and the tunnel. Some shadow detail was crushed when the movie was made, so that’s still apparent.

Color Reproduction: Color is a clear upgrade. Blood has a heavier red, flames burn brighter, Jim’s hospital clothes carry more blue and green, and the countryside at the end look alive.

Flesh Tones: Skin looks warmer and generally more natural. The infected still have an overheated, red-faced appearance, while the survivors look healthy.

Noise/Artifacts: There’s pixelation, electronic noise, blockiness, jagged edges, motion smearing, and the occasional background that seems to wobble. A lot of that is baked into the MiniDV footage.

Audio ★★★★☆

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos; English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit); English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit); French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit); German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit); Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit); Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit); Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps); Turkish Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish

Dynamics: The petrol-station explosion, infected attacks, gunfire, and the chaos at the house all hit hard.

Height: The overhead speakers aren’t constantly busy, but rain, the aircraft near the ending, outdoor ambience, and occasional score cues move above the listening space.

Low Frequency Extension: Explosions, gunshots, vehicle movement, bodies hitting the floor, and infected attacks all bring solid low-end impact.

Surround Sound Presentation: The Atmos mix does a good job of opening up the empty spaces. Footsteps and echoes spread through the hospital and Underground, infected cries move around the tunnel, and the military-house sequence fills the room with gunfire and movement. John Murphy’s score reaches well beyond the front speakers.

Dialogue Reproduction: Most voices are clean and easy to follow.

Extras ★★★☆☆

The red Steelbook puts the infected eyes and biohazard symbol on the front, the overturned bus on the back, and deserted London across the inside. It’s a nice, appropriate steelbook that looks great next to the other steelbook releases for this series.

Commentary by Director Danny Boyle and Screenwriter Alex Garland: Boyle and Garland talk through the shoot, the cast, the infected, the ending, and the limitations they were working under.

Deleted Scenes and Alternate Endings with Optional Commentary: The six scenes are “London Walk,” “Abandoned Train,” “Motorway Carnage,” “Taxi/Sweden,” “The Infected in the House,” and “Floorboards.” Optional commentary explains why they were dropped, and in most cases it’s easy to see how removing them tightened the movie. Four different alternate ending versions are here: the Alternative Theatrical Ending, another shorter ending, the stranger Radical Alternative Ending, and “Hospital Dream.” Some of them would have changed the feeling of the whole movie, not just its last few minutes.

Pure Rage: The Making of 28 Days Later Featurette: This older featurette covers the empty London shoot, the MiniDV cameras, makeup, effects, and how the infected were performed.

Jacknife Lee Music Video

Animated Storyboards

Still Photo Galleries

Theatrical Teaser and Trailer

Summary ★★★★☆

The HDR grade, cleaner encode, and Atmos mix make the upgrade worthwhile, though the lack of new extras keep it from being the last word. Anyone coming from the DVD should see a clear difference; Blu-ray owners have a tougher call, but this is still the best official home-video version available.