28 Days Later:West Lecture Hall. Friday, 7, 9 and 11 p.m. $1.

Danny Boyle’s (Trainspotting, Shallow Grave) tribute to the zombie films of George Romero crackles with intensity and raises some interesting questions about humanity. When some animal rights folks try to free some animals from a science lab, they manage to unleash a violence known only as “Rage” which, transmitted through blood and saliva, turns its victims into violent, red-eyed, savage beasts. One of the activists gets infected and 28 days later civilization no longer exists.

Awakening in an empty hospital, a young man named Jim (Cillian Murphy) gets up and wanders through the empty streets of London in a creepy and tense sequence where the slightest noise makes the heart jump. The first half of the film focuses on the destruction of civilization and Jim banding together with what remaining survivors he can find. Knowing that staying in London will not be safe, Jim and the other survivors travel to a military outpost where the terror of the film changes from the mindless, ravaging infected to a band of soldiers with no one to report to, no one to protect and nothing to care about other than their own survival.

28 Days Later is a fantastic film where every shadow holds the potential for terror. But more than the terrifying presence of the infected, the film asks far more frightening questions: Does civility matter if civilization no longer exists? Does it only take one month and a deadly virus to undo thousands of years of human progress? It’s one of those great horror films that not only keeps you tense throughout, but also keeps you thinking after you leave the theatre.

If you haven’t seen it, check it out. If you have seen it, check it out again.

8 1/2:West Lecture Hall. Sunday, 7 and 10 p.m. $1.

If you enjoyed Charlie Kaufmann’s mind-blockage-release Adaptation, you should check out how Frederico Fellini undid his director’s block 40 years earlier in 8 1/2. A strange mix of fantasy, biography, and introspection, 8 1/2 features great performances, stunning cinematography and great concepts of wrestling with creativity and romance. The film is shortchanged in this brief description, but any film buff should own this film.