Scan and Pan
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
28 Weeks Later
The film opens in the same time period as the first film. Donald (Robert Carlyle) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) are hiding out in a rural cottage with several other people. When the cottage is attacked by people infected by the Rage virus (which causes zombie-like behavior), Donald panics and leaves his wife to be killed. Twenty-eight weeks later, the infected have all died of starvation and a section of London has been made safe by the US military. Survivors and those who were outside of the country when the outbreak began are allowed back into the safe zone, and Donald is reunited with his children, Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton). When a new outbreak occurs inside the safe zone, it's up to an Army medical officer (Rose Byrne) and sniper (Jeremy Renner) to lead them to safety.
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto) replaces Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) in the director's chair for this sequel, although Boyle and the first film's screenwriter Alex Garland serve as executive producers. Fresnadillo picks up where Boyle left off, taking the audience on a horrific ride through a familiar world turned chaotic, and he's more than up to the task of keeping you on the edge of your seat for 99 minutes. If 28 Days Later was Alien, this would be Aliens. It's also quite a gory film at times, so viewer beware.
The screenplay by Fresnadillo, Jesús Olmo, Rowan Joffe, and Enrique López Lavigne has a rare emotional resonance for a horror film by making you care about the characters, even though you suspect that very bad things will happen to them. It expands on the first film's themes while suggesting that real horror results from the choices people make in the face of terror and death. Like George A. Romero's zombie films, there's also some charged social and political commentary, which here parallels the war in Iraq.
Cinematographer Enrique Chediak (Turistas) uses harsh lighting, desaturated colors, and handheld cameras (both film and video) to capture a sense of immediacy that thrusts you directly into a situation that is as terrifyingly real as a report from a war zone while under fire. John Murphy (28 Days Later, Miami Vice) provides a strong score but he and Fresnadillo also know when to silence the music for greater impact.
Carlyle never fails to deliver a strong performance, and this holds true again. The scenes where he realizes what he's done to his wife and where he has to tell his children about their mother's death are effectively carried by his acting. McCormack makes an impact in limited screen time as his wife. Poots and Muggleton are convincing as the teenaged daughter and younger son, and it's their reactions that draw one into the story as it unfolds. Byrne, Renner, and Harold Perrineau (Lost) are well-cast as the military characters, with Renner nicely conveying the conflict between obeying orders and making his own ethical choices.
28 Weeks Later succeeds by being more than a retread of a sequel and by intelligently balancing the requisite action scenes with characterization. It also never sells out on its bleak worldview. If you liked the first film, you should like this one, too. If you never saw the first film, this sequel can be watched as a standalone story. Recommended.
[4.5 out of 5 stars]
This follow-up to 2002's 28 Days Later is every bit as good as its predecessor and perhaps even surpasses it.
The film opens in the same time period as the first film. Donald (Robert Carlyle) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) are hiding out in a rural cottage with several other people. When the cottage is attacked by people infected by the Rage virus (which causes zombie-like behavior), Donald panics and leaves his wife to be killed. Twenty-eight weeks later, the infected have all died of starvation and a section of London has been made safe by the US military. Survivors and those who were outside of the country when the outbreak began are allowed back into the safe zone, and Donald is reunited with his children, Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton). When a new outbreak occurs inside the safe zone, it's up to an Army medical officer (Rose Byrne) and sniper (Jeremy Renner) to lead them to safety.
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto) replaces Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) in the director's chair for this sequel, although Boyle and the first film's screenwriter Alex Garland serve as executive producers. Fresnadillo picks up where Boyle left off, taking the audience on a horrific ride through a familiar world turned chaotic, and he's more than up to the task of keeping you on the edge of your seat for 99 minutes. If 28 Days Later was Alien, this would be Aliens. It's also quite a gory film at times, so viewer beware.
The screenplay by Fresnadillo, Jesús Olmo, Rowan Joffe, and Enrique López Lavigne has a rare emotional resonance for a horror film by making you care about the characters, even though you suspect that very bad things will happen to them. It expands on the first film's themes while suggesting that real horror results from the choices people make in the face of terror and death. Like George A. Romero's zombie films, there's also some charged social and political commentary, which here parallels the war in Iraq.
Cinematographer Enrique Chediak (Turistas) uses harsh lighting, desaturated colors, and handheld cameras (both film and video) to capture a sense of immediacy that thrusts you directly into a situation that is as terrifyingly real as a report from a war zone while under fire. John Murphy (28 Days Later, Miami Vice) provides a strong score but he and Fresnadillo also know when to silence the music for greater impact.
Carlyle never fails to deliver a strong performance, and this holds true again. The scenes where he realizes what he's done to his wife and where he has to tell his children about their mother's death are effectively carried by his acting. McCormack makes an impact in limited screen time as his wife. Poots and Muggleton are convincing as the teenaged daughter and younger son, and it's their reactions that draw one into the story as it unfolds. Byrne, Renner, and Harold Perrineau (Lost) are well-cast as the military characters, with Renner nicely conveying the conflict between obeying orders and making his own ethical choices.
28 Weeks Later succeeds by being more than a retread of a sequel and by intelligently balancing the requisite action scenes with characterization. It also never sells out on its bleak worldview. If you liked the first film, you should like this one, too. If you never saw the first film, this sequel can be watched as a standalone story. Recommended.
[4.5 out of 5 stars]
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