28 Weeks Later
The infected still know how to scare
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Monday, 14, May 2007 11:32
Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, out May 11th, starring Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Harold Perrineau, running time 99 mins.
In a nutshell.
Big, dark, explosive, zombie excellence
What's it all about?
28 Weeks after the initial infection, under the protection of the US army Brits are starting to repopulate the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf. Things start to go awry when a family is reunited only for the mother to be a carrier of the Rage virus without suffering the symptoms. Oh yeah and her husband left her to die so she's not best pleased. Could her DNA hold a vaccine? Will the US army be forced to firebomb Canary Wharf? Will the two children manage to walk along the Jubilee Line to safety or take the DLR?
Who's in it?
As with the first film we get a cast of largely unknowns along with Robert Carlyle - excellent as the father with regrets and a bit of rage - and Harold Perrineau (Lost, Oz, Romeo + Juliet). While child actors can be annoying, Mackintosh Muggleton is only bothersome once or twice.
As an example.
"It won't come back. If it comes back we kill it. Code Red." Major Stone (Idris Elba).
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
Oscars, maybe not. Film magazine top ten horror lists for the next 20 years, yes.
What the others say
"This woeful sequel presents a strained story and a barrage of turgid action that looks like inferior outtakes from the first movie." Associated Press
"In many respects, the follow-up is a superior beast, set once again in an eerie, deserted vision of futuristic London; grey, cold, foreboding." Manchester Evening News
So is it any good?
When the TV advert for 28 Weeks Later featured scenes from the original I feared the worst that without Danny Boyle as director and with a load of money thrown at the project the film would be a zombie.
How wrong! So rarely does a sequel stand up to original and complement it so brilliantly and eventually surpass it, but I think director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has managed it.
While the original had the British army holed up in a country house, in 28 Weeks Later we have the US army in Canary Wharf. The scale of this film is bigger, but it is far from hollow.
From the opening claustrophobic group hidden in darkness, blinded as zombies attack and the refrain from the John Murphy 28 Days Later score kicks in as Robert Carlyle runs for his life leaving his wife behind you know fully you are in the world where the Rage Virus is among us, but this isn't just a rehash of the previous film.
While the trademark use of an empty London is repeated and our heroes' ability to get from Greenwich to Regents Park in next to no time a little impossible along with characters that are a little thin hold back the film, it does manages to be original, bigger and still believable.
At first, as an American voice explained that we were heading to the Isle of Dogs and US soldiers joshed around on top of Canary Wharf, the film seemed to be going in a very bad direction. But the very tight direction takes the audience into the joy of a reunited family, then dead bodies in pitch black tube stations and total war.
Political parallels between the US Army in London fighting Rage and forces in Iraq is obvious but not overplayed as is the replay of the dark panic of the July 7th bombing.
28 Weeks Later is a great sequel, has all the necessary scares and high blood-vomiting zombie count while retaining the intelligence of the original. Be warned, you'll be looking behind you for infecteds on your way home.
8 /10
Daniel Barnes