3 out of 5

Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later was a pretty nifty re-invention of the zombie genre.  Not only did the maverick director put his trademark visual spin on a well-worn horror idea, he even added a few more new ideas, mainly having the zombies (erm, I mean “infected”) run at a rapid pace and making the transformation practically instantaneous, thereby bypassing some of the dull slowness of zombie flick conventions.  The film was spectacular for its first hour or so, but when it hit the 3^rd act, wherein hormonally charged military goons threatened the main characters, it became a let down. The sequel, 28 Weeks Later, has a more consistent tone, but you can’t help but feel you’ve been on this ride before. It’s all very well done, for the most part, just kinda rote.

28 Weeks Later picks up, uh, 28 weeks later, after the zombie outbreak in Merry Old England.  Supposedly, all of the zombies have died off, and citizens begin to relocate back home.  Two children (Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton) are reunited with their father, Don (the always entertaining and compelling Robert “Francis Begbie” Carlyle).  Don, however, is harboring a secret guilt that he left their mother to supposedly die at the hands of the infected.   Now, the movie wants us to think that he’s a coward for leaving her behind, but I didn’t feel that at all.  If you’ve seen enough zombie movies, you have to know when to go when the getting’s good.   He wasn’t a coward, he was just being smart.

Anyway, its a moot point because Mommy Dearest (Catherine McCormack) turns up alive and well, seemingly unaffected by the zombie plague.  However, it is revealed that while she may not show symptoms of zombie-ness, she is still a carrier of the Rage Virus.  And, when you have a single carrier of a virus in a zombie movie, you know its only a matter of time until mayhem erupts.

And erupts, it does do.  Rather spectacularly, as the zombie plague runs anew across Europe.  There is a lot of scope to this movie, but much of it squelched by the director’s style.  There are only so many shots of herky-jerky camera with a possible zombie at the center of the frame that one can endure. Yes, it does add to the series’ distinctive style, its as if you’re watching a COPS episode about real zombies, but you can’t appreciate it if you can’t see it.  However, even if the style does get in the way of the movie, there are still a lot of great moments that’ll make you jump.  The Army trying to hopelessly contain a few zombies, then just devolving into an all-out free-for-all slaughter is an early highlight.  The film is slickly executed, but not as outside-the-box as you would have hoped.  At its worst, 28 Weeks Later feels like a bigger budget remake of the original, and not a true sequel.

There are some singularly stupid decisions made by the characters, and filmmakers, that stretches believability to a breaking point.  Stupid decisions that the original movie smarty avoided, but this one lazily falls back on.  Example: all of the non-infected humans are stuffed into a basement to keep them secret and safe.  Then a zombie walks into the backdoor, which just happened to be unlocked.   Yes, it was established earlier on that this particular zombie had a key card, but, come on, they can open freakin’ doors now? 

Probably one of the bigger, and stupider, moments is when the army unleashes a chemical attack on the city of London to take out the zombie plague. What do our intrepid human adventurers do to survive?  They find a car, close the door, and roll up the windows.  Oh, and they pull their shirt collars over their mouths.  And then the Big White Cloud of Chemical Death roll along and kills every single freakin’ zombie outside of the car.  But the humans are okay.  Because they’re inside a miracle, airtight automobile.  Just very, very silly. 

A mention has to be made of the absolutely fantastic music by John Murphy, the highlight being a recurring musical motif used throughout that forgoes any of the standard “horns and violins” orchestral arrangement that you usually get in horror movies.  Instead, Murphy continually uses a slowly building guitar riff, something with a hint of modern prog-rock / metal, that eventually bursts out into a full-out apocalyptic guitar-driven storm.  It’s a perfect slow-burner of a track that’ll engross you and draw the listener in as it goes on.  Hellova track, works amazingly well in various scenes. 

28 Weeks Later may not be a perfect film, but there is potential in this burgeoning franchise.  The Zombies are the most intriguing undead baddies to come along in awhile, and the Rage Virus that spawned it remains a nifty enigma.  There seems to be a larger story burrowing underneath both films about this Virus, its origins, and how it exactly works.  Boyle has hinted as possibly helming a 28 Months Later, and who knows where it’ll go next?  Heck, how cool would it be to see 28 Centuries Later where its just Human/Robots Vs. Zombies for domination of the planet? Or, even better, Zombie Robots! Vs. Aliens!  Now that I’d line up to see!

But, that’s far in the indefinite future and many ticket / DVD sales away. As it stands right now, 28 Weeks Later is an good sequel to the original, even if it lacks that film’s post-modern zombie flick pizzazz.  28 Weeks Later may not be the most original zombie movie ever made, but at least it’s a pretty cool one

28 Weeks Later picks up, uh, 28 weeks later, after the zombie outbreak in Merry Old England.  Supposedly, all of the zombies have died off, and citizens begin to relocate back home.  Two children (Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton) are reunited with their father, Don (the always entertaining and compelling Robert “Francis Begbie” Carlyle).  Don, however, is harboring a secret guilt that he left their mother to supposedly die at the hands of the infected.   Now, the movie wants us to think that he’s a coward for leaving her behind, but I didn’t feel that at all.  If you’ve seen enough zombie movies, you have to know when to go when the getting’s good.   He wasn’t a coward, he was just being smart.

Anyway, its a moot point because Mommy Dearest (Catherine McCormack) turns up alive and well, seemingly unaffected by the zombie plague.  However, it is revealed that while she may not show symptoms of zombie-ness, she is still a carrier of the Rage Virus.  And, when you have a single carrier of a virus in a zombie movie, you know its only a matter of time until mayhem erupts.

And erupts it does do.  Rather spectacularly, as the zombie plague runs anew across Europe.  There is a lot of scope to this movie, but much of it squelched by the director’s style.  There are only so many shoots of herky-jerky camera with a possible zombie at the center of the frame that one can endure. Yes, it does add to the series’ distinctive style, its as if you’re watching a COPS episode about real zombies, but you can’t appreciate it if you can’t see it.  However, even if the style does get in the way of the movie, there are still a lot of great moments that’ll make you jump.  The Army trying to hopelessly contain a few zombies, then just devolving into an all-out free-for-all slaughter is an early highlight.  The film is slickly executed, but not as outside-the-box as you would have hoped.  At its worst, 28 Weeks Later feels like a bigger budget remake of the original, and not a true sequel.

There are some singularly stupid decisions made by the characters, and filmmakers, that stretches believability to a breaking point.  Stupid decisions that the original movie smarty avoided, but this one lazily falls back on.  Example: all of the non-infected humans are stuffed into a basement to keep them secret and safe.  Then a zombie walks into the backdoor, which just happened to be unlocked.   Yes, it was established earlier on that this particular zombie had a key card, but, come on, they can open freakin’ doors now? 

Probably one of the bigger, and stupider, moments is when the army unleashes a chemical attack on the city of London to take out the zombie plague. What do our intrepid human adventurers do to survive?  They find a car, close the door, and roll up the windows.  Oh, and they pull their shirt collars over their mouths.  And then the Big White Cloud of Chemical Death roll along and kills every single freakin’ zombie outside of the car.  But the humans are okay.  Because they’re inside a miracle, airtight automobile.  Just very, very silly. 

A mention has to be made of the absolutely fantastic music by John Murphy, the highlight being a recurring musical motif used throughout that forgoes any of the standard “horns and violins” orchestral arrangement that you usually get in horror movies.  Instead, Murphy continually uses a slowly building guitar riff, something with a hint of modern prog-rock / metal, that eventually bursts out into a full-out apocalyptic guitar-driven storm.  It’s a perfect slow-burner of a track that’ll engross you and draw the listener in as it goes on.  Hellova track, works amazingly well in various scenes. 

28 Weeks Later may not be a perfect film, but there is potential in this burgeoning franchise.  The Zombies are the most intriguing undead baddies to come along in awhile, and the Rage Virus that spawned it remains a nifty enigma.  There seems to be a larger story burrowing underneath both films about this Virus, its origins, and how it exactly works.  Boyle has hinted as possibly helming a 28 Months Later, and who knows where it’ll go next?  Heck, how cool would it be to see 28 Centuries Later where its just Human/Robots Vs. Zombies for domination of the planet? Or, even better, Zombie Robots! Vs. Aliens!  Now that I’d line up to see!

But, that’s far in the indefinite future and many ticket / DVD sales away. As it stand right now, 28 Weeks Later is an good sequel to the original, even if it lacks that film’s post-modern zombie flick pizzazz.  28 Weeks Later may not be the most original zombie movie ever made, but at least its a pretty cool one