28 Weeks Later

by Brian Zitzelman

The quality of a film can too often be diminished by lackluster, uninspired sequels. The situation is frequent in the realm of horror. Dull to ghastly follow-ups can butcher the original’s legacy, turning the movie into just another product, quickly produced and even more rapidly forgotten. Scream and The Blair Witch Project are remembered as junk food cinema, tarnished by insipid sequels which lacked the flair or freshness of its predecessors. With director Danny Boyle relinquishing the helm of the continuation to 28 Days Later, the fear has grown in many that the same old scenario was armed and ready. There is much to fear about the second part of the series, 28 Weeks Later, thankfully none of it springs from cashing in for another round of pseudo-zombie madness.

In the hands of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 28 Weeks is a frightening, engaging tale of London struggling to recover from the vicious outbreak that rushed through its veins in the first installment. The film begins amidst the initial eruption of the Rage virus, a blood infection that within seconds leads a person to blinding fits of anger, pain and brutality towards all one can find. In a boarded up house in rural Britain, Robert Carlyle’s Don is in hiding with his wife and a handful of survivors, low on food and antsy about when and if their time will come to encounter the infected. The inevitable occurs and Fresnadillo shoots the chaos with speedy precision, constructing a world where every second counts, not to mention may be your last. Carlyle’s Don chooses an every man for themselves attitude, bolting the onslaught, chased by a flock of gore hungry individuals, descending like locusts desiring their own pound of flesh.

Times goes by, London is quarantined and with the assistance of the United States military, a small safe-zone is being repopulated. Don has survived, reuniting with his two children who ponder what happened to their mom. An array of circumstances emerges leading to the family’s confrontation with a fresh round of the disease surfacing, equally lethal and swift as it had been months before. The ailment is the unchanged but the new chapter of the 28 Days saga is fresh, with Fresnadillo and company refusing to rest on their laurels.

In Days, the characters were disoriented and scared but had time on their hands. Supplies were somewhat minimal but not impossible to achieve, roaming like nomads, even if paranoid ones. With Weeks, one of the script’s smartest maneuvers is having a time restraint. The American troops leap to their last resort when the infected return, complete annihilation, leaving the small crew of this round’s survivors to not only seek refuge from ravenous Britons but from gun wielding, fire bombing Americans. The allusions to the current conflict in Iraq are prominent yet fine. The military presence is not solely corrupt, ignorant soldiers, even if an arrogance and ignorance lingers in some. Instead, they are peppered with sympathetic gunmen and doctors, making rash decisions, panning out in diverse ways. The desperation spirals and the choices become kill or be killed. Chris Gill’s editing and John Murphy’s score escalate the tension as the screen grows ever claustrophobic.

Along with cinematographer Enrique Chediak, Fresnadillo constructs several haunting scenarios that linger far beyond 28 Weeks Later’s credits. The best comes in a brief second of tranquility where the survivors hear of an incoming barrage of blood-soaked madmen and madwomen – Chediak and Fresnadillo flash the newcomer’s presence, an assortment of rapid silhouettes in the distance, roving the plains and looming ever closer. Boyle’s picture remains the better of the series but at times like these, the new breed are equals to their predecessors, producing one of the supreme horror sequels in ages.