28 Weeks Later

Unlike most of the people with whom I discuss horror movies, I wasn’t too impressed with this movie’s predecessor, the acclaimed “28 Days Later” Directed by Danny Boyle. It was an intense and hugely atmospheric genre-reviver, but definitely not the horror masterpiece many fans claimed it to be. These same people were equally enthusiast and wild raving about the sequel “28 Weeks Later” and, despite my initial skepticism, I wholeheartedly have to agree this time!

Though still not perfect and inevitably suffering from the same shortcomings as the original, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s movie is a superior achievement in every department and easily one of the most disturbing and effectively petrifying stories that got unleashed upon cinema audiences throughout the past few decades. The atmosphere in “28 Weeks Later” is continuously grisly and ominous, the on-screen carnage is relentless and sickening, the London settings (or what remains of them) are depressing and the frequently repeated theme song ‘In a House, in a Heartbeat’ immensely contributes to the overall ambiance of pure damnation & hopelessness.

“28 Weeks Later” represents pure and genuine terror, but unfortunately that definition also covers some implausible situations and plot twists. The story is rudimentary simple but a logical follow-up to the events of the first film. In the aftermath of the disastrous epidemic that exterminated nearly the entire British population, US army forces have taken control of the London area and slowly begin to repopulate the save regions with survivors.

Among them is Donald Harris (Robert Carlyle in another mesmerizing performance), who was forced to abandon his wife Alice following an attack by infected people in the countryside. His children return from abroad as well and promptly escape from the quarantined zone to recover souvenirs of their mother from the parental house. This series of events causes the second outbreak of the feared virus but also raises hope to develop a vaccine, as the Harris’ kids apparently are immune to the effects of the infection.

I honestly admired how this film, even more than the original, doesn’t feature any heroic characters or daredevils. All the characters are real and identifiable people, living in dreadful fear and responding to dangerous ordeals reasonably. Even the few rational Americans that disobey orders to rescue the Harris’ children remain vulnerable and just as mortal as the people running from the gunfire.

Admittedly, you sometimes deliberately have to ignore some major plot holes and downright impossible story elements. It’s highly unusual, for example, that the children could (or even wanted to) leave the safety zone unauthorized and explore the wastelands, especially for something as banal as a photograph. Also, I understand Donald’s job as a caretaker in the safety zone granted him access to most of the buildings there, but does that really include the secluded military laboratories and top-secret evidence rooms?

The hardest aspect to acknowledge is the unexplained behavior of Carlyle’s character once he turned into one of the infected. He alone seems to have developed a quite impressive portion of intellect, orientation and reasoning skills suddenly, because he slyly escapes the military’s drastic extermination measures and successfully follows the trail of his fleeing offspring through the destroyed city.

All these, and a couple more, are obvious errors in the script that threaten to bring down the impression that “28 Weeks Later” had on you, but the good news is that they won’t necessarily bother you during the actual viewing; only afterwards. During the film itself, particularly when you watch it on a big cinema screen, you’re most likely to be overwhelmed by the virulent action, large-scaled annihilation attacks and nauseating massacres. Perhaps another slight demerit involves the chaotic digital camerawork.

Again, just as in its predecessor, the wild attacks of the infected are too often unclear and overly hectic and some of the pivot sequences are difficult to follow. The editing is roughly handled at times, but it fits the overall barbaric tone on the film. “28 Weeks Later” was one of the first movies in a long time that actually managed to scare and disturb me.

Numerous sequences are extremely powerful and irreversibly burnt in my memory as genuinely unsettling, like the bombing footage, the night vision perspective in the London underground and Robert Carlyle chased by dozens of ravenous ex-people during the intro. Fresnadillo’s directing is magnificent and surefooted, which is quite an accomplishment as well, considering it’s only his second long-feature movie; following “Intacto” in 2001.