The summer o' sequels has begun and for those of us unsatisfied by the largest one (Spider-man 3...for those of you in a coma last week), the grand ol' cinema has deemed us worthy for a decidedly tastier morsel than Sony's webslinger could provide. In the last decade, Zombie flick aficionados near and far have munched down on the corpse of their beloved genres remains. For awhile it seemed the zombie genre had devolved into a corny joke-fest about not getting eaten and holding whiteboards up to display kill counts. I'm looking at you Romero.
Then out of the darkness (Indy studios) came the genre's unexpected hero: 28 Days Later. Britain was taken by storm - destroyed by zombie-like dead infected with a virus that provokes the mind to violent frenzies of bloodlust.
But now it's 28 Weeks Later. The last of the infected have died of starvation thanks to a military quarantine. England starts the rebuilding process as the survivors welcome home their family from foreign refugee camps. Don, a survivor with an ugly story, awaits his two children Tammy and Andy at the train station. Security is tight in London and everyone lives in fear of what still lurks outside the safe zone. But apparently not the children...
Tammy and Andy, totally unaware of the horror of the events of the infection, wander off to find their old home. As they scrounge for memorabilia to bring home to their new apartment they stumble across another survivor: their mother. Their mother that their father said he saw die at the hands of the infected is still alive. As a series of events unfolds, the virus is given new life and the infected once again run rampant and bloodthirsty in the British streets.
The film is easily on par with its predecessor throwing any number of twists into a plot whose psychological edge keeps the audience jumping at every shadow. Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo relies on the keen eye of the modern audience to make the film's zombies all the more frightening. The opening ten minutes of the film are breath-taking as they start the unpredictable chain of events that defies traditional anti-common sense trends of past zombie movies in favor of smarter characters capable of making wise, survival based decisions. Make sure you don't miss any of this amazing opening sequence. Get their early purely so you don't miss it. My god, it's spectacular.
With the opening ten minutes setting such a fantastic trend I naturally expected the film to take sudden turns to horrible filmmaking...after all, Spider-man 3 crushed my hopes for a decent sequel to ever be made again (X-Men 3...you're not innocent here either).
The obvious benefit of a movie set in Britain is British actors. Every single one of them is bloody fantastic. Robert Carlyle plays Don, the father who makes an impossible decision in the opening ten minutes. Carlyle is an astounding actor that brings 28 Weeks Later a nice glossy layer to it's already well-crafted celluloid surface. No matter what the circumstance of Don, Carlyle keeps the character acted so that we don't feel it to be ridiculous or laughable. Catherine McCormack (from Braveheart...Mel's wife...another movie where she doesn't last too long) is Don's guilty conscience as she reappears as a key plot point. Her role is limited but she plays it brilliantly with no overacting typical of American actors (because they all think they deserve bigger parts than they receive...). Catherine is fantastic and plays the entire gambit of emotions assigned to her character.
My biggest fear for 28 Weeks Later was its concentration and reliance upon child actors. Usually this spells a films demise rather quickly. Director Fresnadillo has found two exceptional stars in Imogen Poots (Tammy) and Mackintosh Muggleton (Andy). Imogen's adolescent beauty is quite eerie and she plays her role with conviction and she does a bloody beautiful job at that. Mackintosh also rewards the viewers with an understated and well-played performance that never makes the audience want to vomit. Dakota Fanning eat your heart out. Assuming you become a zombie and get hungry.
28 Weeks Later borrows the score of the original and uses it to no short amount. The scene of sniping sees its perfect integration and shows a nice parallel between the predecessor's and the sequels action. The movie is well constructed and the soundtrack only adds to this masterpiece of a zombie film.
The cinematography is really what sets this film above others. Unlike the really cheesy and painful to watch ‘zombie vision' of other recent films, 28 Weeks Later keeps the viewer disoriented keeping them scrambling to catch up with the rapid progress of the infected. The jostled camera can get a bit confusing at times, especially in the scene when the quarantine breaks, but beyond that it adds a great finish to the psychological-thriller-horror aspect of the film. Brilliantly done.
If you didn't see 28 Days Later, don't let that stop you. Go see the film regardless. Or rent it, and then go see it. Either way this film will help to redeem the sequel blues that's swept the country's viewership since last week's catastrophe of superhero stupidity. 28 Weeks Later is a film worthy of its meager budget and time slot, it excels the expectations of any zombie lover and catapults itself into my list of top summer blockbusters of 2007. Granted 28 Weeks Later and Spidey 3 are the only two contestants...this is what the list looks like:
1. 28 Weeks Later
2.
3.
4.
5. Spidey 3 tied with _______
See 28 Weeks Later!!!!
"28 Weeks Later" opens May 11, 2007 and is rated R. Horror. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Written by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Alex Garland, Eugene Lopez-Lavigne, Jesus Olmo, Rowan Joffe. Starring Catherine McCormack, Harold Perrineau Jr, Jeremy Renner, Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne.
