28 Days Later - XL

Danny Boyle's arty horror flick started brilliantly, ended badly, and was scored by a fast-rising Brit, John Murphy. But the musical highlight is Blue States' "Season Song", which is both chilling and reassuring. Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)" is also ambivalently touching, while Grandaddy are, as ever, incapable of dullness. Not sure why Godspeed You! Black Emperor's efforts for the film don't feature, but Perri Alleyne's "Ave Maria" should cheer up disappointed crazed extremists. In the name of research I recently asked Boyle for his favourite music of all time—he went for Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Ziggy Stardust and Underworld. I'm pretty sure you could locate the spirit of most of those here, given a capacity for lateral imagining.

Rating: 4 / 10