Dir.
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2007, UK, 99mins
Cast: Robert Carlyle, Catherine McCormack,
Imogen Poots, Mackintosh Muggleton, Idris Elba, Harold Perrineau
Review by Matthew Rodger
Like a rage infected human 28 Days Later came from nowhere
and shook audiences with its minimalist budget, edgy horror
and impressive scope to be a worldwide hit in 2003 for the
Sunshine team of Boyle, Garland and Macdonald. A sequel was
never a necessity for a self-contained story that had satisfying
closure, but in the right hands there were endless possibilities
of telling stories of others affected by the outbreak that
resulted in the stunning cinematography showing barren vistas
of the London cityscape.
Six months later in narrative terms
the virus appears to have subsided on mainland Britain.
The army has set up camp on the Isle of Dogs, once again
stunningly filmed to make the big smoke look more like
Metropolis, and the first of the refugees are returning
to the country. One particular fractured family, brother
and sister Andy and Tammy (newcomers Poots and Muggleton)
are reunited with patriarch Don (Carlyle – Trainspotting),
who hides a morally soul destroying secret regarding the
whereabouts of his wife.
The most predictable aspect of 28 Weeks Later is that you
know eventually the proverbial is going to hit the fan in
a big way, the surprising thing is that with a guiding hand
from the original team, Intacto director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
has created a lean, breathless, and downright scary, companion
piece to Days.
The film hits the ground running with an opening that condenses
the entire plot of Night of the Living Dead into approximately
28 minutes (clever huh?). It is a brilliant sequence that
sets a precedent that the remainder of the movie never quite
matches. A boarded up farmhouse, all creaks and groans, where
the stale air reeks of tension because the audience are well
aware what the knock at the door signals. It would be unfair
to reveal specifics but it is the sort of panic-laden scene
that will require surgery to remove your fingers from the
chair arms.
Credit has to go to Fresnadillo because the film is above
the formulaic nonsense that was expected from a sequel with
more money thrown at the screen. Admittedly the level of
claustrophobic intimacy that the first film achieved is only
rivalled in the opening moments, but the sequences that are
on a grander scale, particularly the visually stunning firebombing
of the streets and the lawnmower effect of helicopter blades
on marauding infected, are inventive and expertly handled.
The only mis-step (probably arm twisted out of the scriptwriters
from a sequel demanding studio) is an awful ending that appears
unnecessarily tacked onto a satisfactory denouement.
As with all horror efforts they are only ever successful
if we care about the people about to become zombie fodder.
In this case, the fact that it's a family helps because threats
to children always heightens tension, but that takes nothing
away from the accomplished performances of the ensemble cast
who are all highly effective. Carlyle is believable as a
man in an impossible situation wrestling with the demons
caused by the absence of his wife and the self sufficiency
survival instincts of the children are never questioned because
they have a recognisable chemistry as siblings, with Poot
in particular impressive as the older sister.
Unsubtle war allegories aside, 28 Weeks Later is a bloody,
inventive chase movie set against the backdrop of a susceptible
post 7/7 London that lacks the heart of Danny Boyle's original,
but makes up for it with pulse-pounding results.
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