28 Weeks Later
The sequel to 2002′s Danny Boyle film 28 Days Later is, of course, 2007′s 28 Weeks Later. Without a word of a lie, there is an alleged third film in the works for this horror series and its title is, you guessed it, 28 Months Later. Plans for 28 Weeks Later were in the works after the enormous success of the first film. Danny Boyle, Andrew Macdonald, and Alex Garland all decided that the time was right to pump out another film, so they went to work on a script and started planning the project. In March 2005, it was learned that Danny Boyle would not be back in the director’s chair for the sequel as a result of his commitment to the film Sunshine. Instead, Boyle would be an executive producer. Boyle chose director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to direct 28 Weeks Later instead.
So with Boyle’s blessing, Fresnadillo went to work on his first English language film. Boyle also announced in March of 2005 that the sequel would feature a new cast, as the stars from 28 Days Later were also occupied. Casting was announced not long after that and shooting was underway by September of 2006. Once again, various London locations were used and many of Boyle’s efficient and quick shooting techniques were dispatched by Fresnadillo in the filming of 28 Weeks Later. The result, then, is a film that maintains the gritty feel of 28 Days Later and contains a lot of the same concise energy. Ultimately, however, 28 Weeks Later fails to capture any actual mood and the characters are relatively thin for the most part.
28 Weeks Later takes place six months after the rage virus was inflicted on Great Britain. The United States Army, of course, has been dispatched to help secure part of Great Britain and they now sit as occupiers as most signs of the threat have vanished. The film opens with a repopulation of the city, under the watchful and decidedly arrogant eye of a gaggle of American soldier perched on rooftops. The film follows the story of a family, one father (Robert Carlyle) and his son (Mackintosh Muggleton) and daughter (Imogen Poots). The father, Don, survived the initial infection scare but abandoned his wife (Catherine McCormack) in the process in a moment of fear and weakness. Thinking his wife to be dead, Don gathers his children after they are allowed reentry into the city and begins to start a new life. The children are curious about their mother and her apparent passing, however, and head off to the “danger zone” to look for answers. This, naturally, unleashes a recurrence of the rage virus and all hell breaks loose in London once again. This time, however, the Americans are there to “help.”
The film plays out with much of the same energy, but it packs in a few polemical points of view along the way that dampen the project. The portrayal of the American soldiers as occupiers doesn’t require much reading between the lines to decipher, as the vision for these characters is quite clear from the outset. Who are the real villains: the infected or the Americans? Ha! 28 Weeks Later plays this for what it’s worth, allowing characters to synchronize into personal stereotypes with incessant glee. That’s all well and good, as it did give me a chuckle, but it also was similarly overbearing as it drudged on. The relative ineptitude of the military as occupiers is demonstrated ably, too, as the kids essentially walk over to the unsafe part of the city to look for their infected mother.
28 Weeks Later also suffers from a very distinct lack of terror. With 28 Days Later, the film captured the terror of being alone and being stranded without assistance. It captured the struggle to survive and protect one another, using loneliness and character growth as core focal points. 28 Weeks Later abandons this and goes for the jugular without hesitation, which is fine if that’s what you’re looking for. Fresnadillo, sadly, seems more interested in spilling large buckets of blood than he does with spilling atmosphere and genuine creepiness. The plot holes are often immense and disturbingly blunt, which adds to the rushed and careless nature of this sequel.
It’s not all bad, though. 28 Weeks Later does contain some good rousing splatter moments that will likely please the fans. It is bloodier and more action-packed than 28 Days Later, although lacks in any real sort of horror. 28 Weeks Later may provide jumpy moments here or there, but overall it is a rather predictable scare and its bark is far worse than its bite. The supposed rules of the infected individuals, for example the 20-second transformation, are tossed out the window and more subsets are brought in instead, like an apparent mood that these individuals can capture and an immunity.
So yeah, 28 Weeks Later lacks the performances and the character development of 28 Days Later. It contains more action, however, and does move at a bit of a quicker pace. The direction is of the same style, by and large, and the looming soundtrack of post-rock continues to lead the way into fragmented segments of desperation and panic. Fresnadillo’s 28 Weeks Later is, for these reasons and more, about as average and forgettable a horror film as one could get.
Trailer:
