While Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” from 2002 is without a doubt one of my favorite horror films of all time, one of my favorite movies of the first decade, and my favorite film from Boyle, more so I love the soundtrack that comes along with the film. The soundtrack is such an obsession of mine I have managed to sit through the entire film until the credits end to hear the music, and can fondly recall listening to the soundtrack in the waiting room of the theater before the press screening of “28 Weeks Later.” I mean they were giving critics cupcakes, water, and a bad ass press book with newspaper clippings from the sequel and the entire time all I could think was “Cool! The music from the first movie is playing overhead!”
What many directors and studios fail to realize these days is that every element is very important for a horror movie, especially the music. The frantic punk rock complimented “Demons,” Dario Argento and the Goblins perfectly complimented “Dawn of the Dead,” and surely enough the compilation of chamber music, electronica, and choir music from the amazing John Murphy brilliantly compliments an already excellent piece of genre filmmaking. While the movie would possibly have been just as much a masterpiece if there were UK pop tunes playing the whole time, Boyle and Murphy turn the soundtrack in to a character, and the soundtrack is quite superb all on its own if you’re the kind of movie fan who enjoys soundtracks.
