Hello and welcome to Title Fright!

Title Fright used to be a vlog but I’m really bad on screen so it’s a blog now, and much better for it.

The concept is that two similar horror movies will fight, like boxers, to see which is the best.

Today I’m pitting two critically-acclaimed 21st century zombie films against each other -  Train to Busan and  28 Weeks Later.

28 Weeks Later was released in 2007. It stars Robert Carlyle as Don, the head of a family that’s been fractured by the Rage virus that is devastating the UK. Imogen Poots plays his daughter Tammy, and Mackintosh Muggleton plays his son Andy.

Train to Busan is a 2016 South Korean film. It stars Gong Yoo as fund manager and distracted father Seok-Woo. Kim Soo-Ahn plays his daughter Soo-An. She persuades him to take her on a fast train to Busan to see her mother, but on the way the train is attacked by zombies.

The question is this: which one would beat the other in a fight? In…er… my opinion.

The weigh in

Let’s look at each film to establish if they’re a good match. 

I initially intended to pair Train to Busan with La Horde – a French zombie film where the battle takes place in a tower block - because both are action-horrors where the action is shaped by particular physical structures. But after watching Train to Busan I changed my mind. 

Despite it’s kinetic energy, La Horde’s characters are shallow and unlikeable. They also fail to learn – notoriously, they keep shooting zombies in the chest.

Whereas Train to Busan is crammed with simple but compelling characters whose interactions keep us emotionally invested and drive the plot forwards. 

It just wouldn’t be a fair fight.

28 Weeks Later was the obvious replacement, despite it’s wider canvas. Like Train to Busan, it’s a critically acclaimed zombie flick full of astute social commentary, with a flawed father as the central character.

Parallel 1 - Family

Both films place family at the heart. For the first fifteen minutes of Train you could easily think you were in a touching family drama if you didn’t know better. It’s not just Seok-Woo and Seo-An - a couple expecting a baby also become integral to the action.  

In 28 Weeks the family is broken up, reconstituted, then broken up again, and this is what propels the story forward. 

Neither film relies on zombies to rivet your attention.

Parallel 2 - Fathers 

In Train, Seok-Woo is a callous fund manager. It’s obvious he vaues money over family, and he has a terrible relationship with both his daughter and his ex-wife. 

In 28 Weeks, Don is a loving father but he’s not a hero. He deserts his wife during a zombie attack, and lies about it to his children. As I watch I always long for him to be a reassuring father figure, but he never quite makes it.

Both Don and Seok-Woo end up infected, like some kind of bad-dad karma.

Parallel 3 - Leadership

Both films take a long hard look at leadership. In Train, Yong-Suk, a businessman, is singlemindedly devoted to his own survival. He’s quite happy to sacrifice others to this end. Seok-Woo takes the same approach initially. Whereas a tramp and a blue collar worker show much greater solidarity with their fellow humans. There’s a sense that only ordinary people can lead in a situation like this – powerful men are the last people you should trust. 

In 28 Weeks, the military command is quick to move to a policy of extermination of all civilians, infected or not. Only a soldier on the frontline has an unshakeable urge to protect. He’s looking at each person through his gun sights and he sees them as individuals.

Let the fright begin

This is the part where we look at what divides the two films, and what makes one better than the other. I suspect this is going to be a very close, somewhat bloody fight. I really cannot tell you which film is going to win.

Round 1 - The father 

To begin with, high flying finance executive Seok-Woo is a textbook terrible father. He has his secretary buy a gift for his daughter and it turns out to be the same gift she got last time. He doesn’t turn up to her school shows. It’s her birthday the next day and unsurprisingly she she wants to spend it with her mother.  With great irritation he agrees to take her, and that’s how they end up on the train to Busan.

When the zombies arrive on the train Seok-Woo’s first reaction is to shut them out – along with an uninfected couple Sung-Gyeung and Sang Hwa. It’s even worse because Sung Gyeung is pregnant. Soo-An is horrified and comments on her father’s ruthlessness.

But when Sang-Hwa saves Soo-An’s life, Seok-Woo begins to reassess.

By the end of the film he’s completely changed his moral code. When he’s infected he throws himself off the train to save not just his daughter’s life but that of Sung-Gyeong, the pregnant woman.

Whereas Don in 28 Weeks Later is something much more curious. He loves his wife and children but he’s not a hero and he’s possibly a coward. 

I’m torn on how to interpret Don. Is he as a realistic depiction of how some people will react at times of crisis, and all the more chilling for it? Or does he represent the debased state of British leadership in the world? A lingering shot of Lord Nelson on his column drives home this parallel.

After he gets infected, he becomes a murderous father. He seems to single out his children – after witnessing a heroic act by his son he follows him and attacks him. 

This couldn’t be further away from Train to Busan.

It’s hard to choose a winner here on the question of fathers. Don is messy and horrifying and ambiguous, while Seok-Woo is a crystalline portrait of redemption. But ultimately both are equally powerful.

This round is a draw.

Round 2 - Leadership 

There’s a wider question in both films about how we lead society and civilisation in a time of threat.

In Train to Busan, Seok-Woo’s ruthless moral code is explicitly linked to his position in society. When he tells another character he’s a fund manager, he’s told he’s a leech. 

Businessman Yong-Suk is even worse and remains committed to his ‘I’m alright Jack’ mentality until his death. The staff on the train cravenly follow his lead.

Apparently this is a comment on an incident where a Korean ferry was overloaded to increase profits. It overturned and 300 people died. The crew escaped on lifeboats but did not try to help passengers.

In 28 Weeks Later leadership is provided by the US, who have created a safe zone where Don and his children are reunited. When the rage virus breaks out inside the safe zone, the US command orders the implementation of Code Red, which means killing everyone regardless of whether or not they are infected.

Many commentators have suggested this is a comment on Iraq, and the bombing of civilians whether or not they are terrorists. If so, the character of Don who takes a job in the safe zone works nicely as a figure of British cronyism during that episode.

Again, both splendid and powerful comments on leadership. Another draw.

Round 3 - Father-turned-zombie

I want to zoom in on the transformation of the father into a zombie, which is treated in a very interesting way in both these films.

Often in zombie movies, one infected will be singled out for special treatment. Instead of turning and becoming a mindless, weaponised human body, they will linger in a half-and-half world, where they still seem to have some sense of what was important to them when they were living.

These are the most powerful and revelatory moments in zombie films for me. These characters are a kind of ‘zombie plus’ as far as I’m concerned. They embody the meaning of the film in a concentrated form that as a horror fan I find intoxicating.

This moment comes with Don in 28 Weeks Later when he’s succumbing to the rage virus in a room with his wife. He knows what’s happening and he’s trying to resist but it’s hopeless. That’s the peak for me. 

But it doesn’t end there. Don carries on being ‘not just a zombie’. When he comes face to face with Andy, he’s able to pause before he attacks. When Andy bravely runs out in front of a sniper to distract his attention and draw his fire, we see Don lurking in the background. Don does not attack, he merely exudes malevolence. A moment later he disappears, making him more like a ghost than a zombie. 

When the final confrontation between Don and his children takes place in a deserted London underground station, it doesn’t feel like coincidence. It feels as if he’s been targeting them. It feels as if he always wanted to kill them, and the infection has freed him to do so. 

It’s a very dark commentary on fatherhood.

Train to Busan has exactly the same rich transitional moment when the moment of infection is slowed down, yet the drama of it is hugely intensified. 

Seok-Woo is bitten trying to protect Soo-An from the infected Yong-Suk. He succeeds in throwing Yong-Suk from the train and then has about a minute to spend with his daughter before he turns. He shows her how to stop the train and that he loves her. He’s successfully protected her throughout the film but now she’s on her own. 

Seok-Woo stumbles to the back of the train and as the infection takes over there is a dream sequence in which he’s back at home with Soo-An and they are having the perfect father-daughter relationship.

Soo-Ann has lost her father, but she has also gained something - faith that he is a good man. This gives her the strength to sing as she approaches the soldiers in Busan, saving herself and pregnant Sung-Gyeung. Here we see a much brighter depiction of fatherhood. A grapple with the darkness – in the form of a zombie epidemic - becomes transformative and renewing. Quite a contrast with 28 Weeks Later, but I love this kind of optimism in horror when it’s done well.

Again very different, but equal. Another draw!

Round 4 - Structure

Train to Busan is two hours long but it flies by because it’s perfectly structured. It builds and builds and builds. The emotional climax - where the father is infected with the zombie virus but purged of his moral corruption – is perfectly timed at the end. As such, it’s a a beautiful film.

28 Weeks Later is actually shorter but feels longer. This is because the emotional climax comes in the middle, when Don kisses his wife, gets infected and then kills her. Shortly after he confronts his son Andy, in one of the most exhilarating ‘bad Dad’ scenes in the whole of horror history.

After that the story has nowhere to go. Perhaps the scene late in the film where Tammy kills Don as he’s attacking Andy has the potential to satisfy, but it doesn’t.

Ah - some kind of result at last. I call this round for Train to Busan. 

Result – A win on points

It’s very, very close. There’s no knock-out blow here. But Train to Busan wins on points. Although both films are equally powerful, the lighter and more optimistic Train to Busan has a far better structure.  

Thanks for reading. This is obviously totally subjective so please, please tell me what YOU think in the comments below.