"28 Weeks Later" Review
Nearly two months after having seen the movie, I finally wrote the last couple of paragraphs of my review of "28 Weeks Later." Enjoy. Coming soon: My review for "Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix."
28 WEEKS LATER
Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Starring Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Mackintosh Muggleton, Imogen Poots, Robert Carlyle
This summer has had its fair share of sequels. While the big ones ("Spider-Man 3" and "Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End") are doing well at the box office, critical reception suggests that they only prove the conventional wisdom that sequels aren’t as good as the originals. This is also true of "28 Weeks Later," the sequel to Danny Boyle’s 2002 zombie flick "28 Days Later." Does it suck, though? Not at all. This is one of those most refreshing of horror sequels, one that tries to improve upon the original without abandoning what made it great. If this ambitious effort from director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo doesn’t quite reach the heights it strives for, it certainly deserves credit for trying. This is an exciting, intelligent, and frequently terrifying knockout of a summer movie.
Those of you who missed the first one needn’t worry. The sequel fills you in: a disease known as the Rage virus has swept through England, turning its inhabitants into bloodthirsty zombies. 28 weeks after the breakout, the infected have died and the American military has secured a section of London for the country’s refugees to live in. A pair of children returns to the city to learn from their father that their mother has been killed in a zombie attack. This, as it turns out, is not quite the case. Naturally, there’s another outbreak (I won’t say what causes it) and the children and their companions must escape the city.
The movie works as well as it does because of the amazing camerawork by Enrique Chediak; without it the film would not have been nearly as memorable. Chediak favors shots that plunge the audience directly into the action, refraining from shots that distance the viewer unless absolutely necessary. Frantic, jerky shots reminiscent of running around with a hand-held camera give everything a startling immediacy. The most impressive piece of camerawork is a scene shot entirely through the night-vision scope of a rifle in pitch-blackness. This limited point of view, coupled with an unbelievably creepy sound design by Glenn Freemantle, creates the most tense and terrifying scenes in the movie.
The script is another plus. It’s well-paced, intelligently written, and offers everything horror fans want (namely, mayhem and gore) in large amounts. It also offers a subtle commentary of the American military. Wisely choosing not to portray them as invading monsters, it instead views them as well-meaning but disconcertingly inept. It’s a potent message given the current war and the world’s opinion of it. It also boasts a powerful and horrifying conclusion.
For all its strengths, however, this movie has its flaws. Although it is action-packed from start to finish, nothing much happens past the first hour. The characters simply run around trying to escape, and although their predicament is exciting, I would have preferred one or two more plot twists. In addition, focus changes from character to character throughout the entire movie, refusing to tell the audience who the main characters really are until the end of the film. This technique builds suspense well by putting everyone equally in jeopardy, but it leaves none of the characters particularly well developed. Luckily, this problem is balanced well by the excellent cast. Jeremy Renner and Rose Byrne are particularly likeable (as a sniper and medical officer respectively), and Mackintosh Muggleton and Imogen Poots thankfully avoid any of the obnoxious and occasionally sentimental excess that so often plagues child actors. Robert Carlyle is also great, hitting all the right notes as a father whose unforgivable act of cowardice at the beginning of the movie comes back to haunt him.
My biggest problem with this film, though, is that it doesn’t offer anything new to the people who’ll most want to see it - zombie buffs. Anyone who’s seen the original "Dawn Of The Dead" will be familiar with the concept of the undead being chopped up by a helicopter, and fans of Sam Raimi’s "The Evil Dead" have seen a more gruesome eye-gouging than the one offered here. Even the inventive concept of the fast-moving “Rage” zombies is nothing new, simply because this is a sequel. This is, of course, a moot point to someone who’s never seen the aforementioned movies. Even if you have it’s still enjoyable (the helicopter scene is one of the best in the movie), although it diminishes the film’s overall impact.
In the end, if you’re a horror fan this is well worth seeing in a theatre, but if you only have a mild interest wait until this comes out on DVD. In the meantime, we can be glad that thoughtful and well-made horror films are still being produced. It’s likely that we haven’t seen the last of the 28 series, and if the filmmakers continue to make them up to this standard they may become this generation’s Dead saga. Given that George A. Romero’s shoes are nearly impossible to fill, that is a remarkable achievement.
28 WEEKS LATER
Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Starring Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Mackintosh Muggleton, Imogen Poots, Robert Carlyle
This summer has had its fair share of sequels. While the big ones ("Spider-Man 3" and "Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End") are doing well at the box office, critical reception suggests that they only prove the conventional wisdom that sequels aren’t as good as the originals. This is also true of "28 Weeks Later," the sequel to Danny Boyle’s 2002 zombie flick "28 Days Later." Does it suck, though? Not at all. This is one of those most refreshing of horror sequels, one that tries to improve upon the original without abandoning what made it great. If this ambitious effort from director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo doesn’t quite reach the heights it strives for, it certainly deserves credit for trying. This is an exciting, intelligent, and frequently terrifying knockout of a summer movie.
Those of you who missed the first one needn’t worry. The sequel fills you in: a disease known as the Rage virus has swept through England, turning its inhabitants into bloodthirsty zombies. 28 weeks after the breakout, the infected have died and the American military has secured a section of London for the country’s refugees to live in. A pair of children returns to the city to learn from their father that their mother has been killed in a zombie attack. This, as it turns out, is not quite the case. Naturally, there’s another outbreak (I won’t say what causes it) and the children and their companions must escape the city.
The movie works as well as it does because of the amazing camerawork by Enrique Chediak; without it the film would not have been nearly as memorable. Chediak favors shots that plunge the audience directly into the action, refraining from shots that distance the viewer unless absolutely necessary. Frantic, jerky shots reminiscent of running around with a hand-held camera give everything a startling immediacy. The most impressive piece of camerawork is a scene shot entirely through the night-vision scope of a rifle in pitch-blackness. This limited point of view, coupled with an unbelievably creepy sound design by Glenn Freemantle, creates the most tense and terrifying scenes in the movie.
The script is another plus. It’s well-paced, intelligently written, and offers everything horror fans want (namely, mayhem and gore) in large amounts. It also offers a subtle commentary of the American military. Wisely choosing not to portray them as invading monsters, it instead views them as well-meaning but disconcertingly inept. It’s a potent message given the current war and the world’s opinion of it. It also boasts a powerful and horrifying conclusion.
For all its strengths, however, this movie has its flaws. Although it is action-packed from start to finish, nothing much happens past the first hour. The characters simply run around trying to escape, and although their predicament is exciting, I would have preferred one or two more plot twists. In addition, focus changes from character to character throughout the entire movie, refusing to tell the audience who the main characters really are until the end of the film. This technique builds suspense well by putting everyone equally in jeopardy, but it leaves none of the characters particularly well developed. Luckily, this problem is balanced well by the excellent cast. Jeremy Renner and Rose Byrne are particularly likeable (as a sniper and medical officer respectively), and Mackintosh Muggleton and Imogen Poots thankfully avoid any of the obnoxious and occasionally sentimental excess that so often plagues child actors. Robert Carlyle is also great, hitting all the right notes as a father whose unforgivable act of cowardice at the beginning of the movie comes back to haunt him.
My biggest problem with this film, though, is that it doesn’t offer anything new to the people who’ll most want to see it - zombie buffs. Anyone who’s seen the original "Dawn Of The Dead" will be familiar with the concept of the undead being chopped up by a helicopter, and fans of Sam Raimi’s "The Evil Dead" have seen a more gruesome eye-gouging than the one offered here. Even the inventive concept of the fast-moving “Rage” zombies is nothing new, simply because this is a sequel. This is, of course, a moot point to someone who’s never seen the aforementioned movies. Even if you have it’s still enjoyable (the helicopter scene is one of the best in the movie), although it diminishes the film’s overall impact.
In the end, if you’re a horror fan this is well worth seeing in a theatre, but if you only have a mild interest wait until this comes out on DVD. In the meantime, we can be glad that thoughtful and well-made horror films are still being produced. It’s likely that we haven’t seen the last of the 28 series, and if the filmmakers continue to make them up to this standard they may become this generation’s Dead saga. Given that George A. Romero’s shoes are nearly impossible to fill, that is a remarkable achievement.