Thank you, Danny Boyle. You made an effective thrill ride with 28 Days Later, combining the best of the zombie genre with modern bioterrorist malaise.

Now everybody’s got the “crazy.”

Since the 2002 debut of Boyle’s left-field horror hit, we have been inundated with films attempting to use shaky-strobe cams and snarling, infected humans as horror film backdrops. Some, like Dawn of the Dead, actually succeed on their own merits. Others just pale by comparison.

We have three more in this burgeoning sub-genre coming our way over the next few months. As we told you here, a new movie called REC deals with a virus that infects a building full of people. We will also soon see a version of the Stephen King novel CELL, which details a mysterious, murderous cell phone outbreak.

Arriving before either film is a movie called The Signal. Its plot sounds remarkably familiar if you’ve read the previous two paragraphs … a broadcast signal goes out of every electronic device, causing people to become maddened psychopaths.

Tell me this new trailer doesn’t look EXACTLY like 28 Days Later:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLnUcuy6078[/youtube]

I am all for horror films exploring our inner psyche and sociological paranoia, but seriously – get a fucking tripod and shoot something besides snarling, animalistic humans. PLEASE!! This almost makes me want to go see Zombie’s Halloween just so I can get a more traditional horror film.

I can’t believe I just wrote that.

Thanks Obsessed With Film!