28 Weeks Later (2007) Review

28 Weeks Later (2007) Review

 

“When days turn to weeks, the horror returns…” So reads one of the taglines for the sequel to 28 Days Later: a sequel that had a lot to live up to. The first movie was a gritty, adrenaline-pumping post-apocalyptic horror-thriller, and is still talked about today as one of the movies that contributed to a resurgence in the zombie sub-genre (even though the monsters aren’t really zombies), but 28 Weeks Later isn’t brought up as often, especially not in the discussion of great horror sequels. Is that because it’s bad? Well, no, actually. I don’t think a sequel was strictly necessary with the way 28 Days Later wrapped up at the end, but 28 Weeks Later, despite not being quite as revered as the first movie by most, is a top-notch sequel.

It begins with Don and Alice, a couple holed up in a cottage with other survivors during the initial outbreak of the Rage Virus, discussing if their absent children will be OK. Soon, the infected are busting their way into the cottage, and Don does the unthinkable: he abandons his wife so he can escape, and it is a harrowing chase sequence. We skip ahead several months and a safe zone has been established, called District One, which is protected by American forces. Don managed to survive, and he is reunited with his two kids who were out of the country when the outbreak occurred. He lies to his kids about their mother, saying she died, and already there is significant tension in the audience knowing the truth that the kids don’t know. The brother-sister sneak out of the safe zone in search of their old home, and what they find leads to the virus breaking out again. The military forces put all their efforts into protecting an individual who may carry immunity in their blood and trying to keep the virus from reaching the mainland.

The cast is good, but a bit distracting with how famous some of the actors have become. This was before Jeremy Renner was in several action movie franchises or Idris Elba had played several badass characters in genre films or Rose Byrne was known for her comedic roles. For the time, Renner seemed perfectly apt as a sniper soldier and Elba made a great US army sergeant and Byrne played a convincing (if somewhat dull) scientist. It’s strange that neither Elba nor Byrne use their British accents though. It makes sense for the characters they’re playing, but with it still being set in Britain I find it curious they didn’t get cast as British characters, but I think the international success of 28 Days Later influenced this outcome. The original’s success also meant a slightly higher production budget for the sequel, and it definitely achieves a larger sense of scale compared to 28 Days Later, with a more refined look, bigger cast, bigger moments, and more special effects, but not to the detriment of the story being told.  

28 Weeks Later recaptures much of the grittiness and humanism depicted in the first movie despite having a different director. 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle (who handpicked the new director, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo) and writer Alex Garland only returned as executive producers, and none of the actors from the original returned, so aside from the location and general premise, there’s little continuity from the first movie story-wise or in terms of who was behind and in front of the camera. One of the only carryovers is composer John Murphy, who re-uses his own theme from 28 Days Later quite a bit. Normally I would be more annoyed at a sequel re-using the same music repeatedly, but he’s the guy who came up with it in the first place, so I can’t be that annoyed, though I do think the score is a little repetitive at times. But, with a theme that effective, I get why it’s used so much. You might think since it’s basically a whole new creative team and a different cast of characters and it’s a bit more polished that it might pull some punches, but let me assure you the brutality is just as severe as before, if not even a bit more severe. 

There’s more action in this one than the original, but it doesn’t turn into a full-on action movie, it’s still primarily about the horror of living in post-apocalyptic Britain. There is one particularly horrific moment that’s a bit of a callback to something horrific that happens at the end of 28 Days Later and this time it’s even more blatant and disturbing, though overall the sequel is still not excessively gory for this kind of movie. One scene that’s a bit of an exception is when a helicopter flies into a horde of infected and chops them up with the rotor blades. Isn’t it weird that another zombie movie came out the same year as 28 Weeks Later that also has a scene with a helicopter chopping up infected people with the rotor blades? The same thing happened in Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez’ half of Grindhouse, but Planet Terror came out first. It’s probably just a weird coincidence. I wonder if anyone else has ever noticed this.

Not only is 28 Weeks Later a worthwhile sequel, it stands well enough on its own that you don’t even need to have seen the original to get it and to enjoy it (but you should definitely see the original, too) and for anyone who found the first one too slow or lacking action you might even enjoy this one a bit more. While it may seem unlikely that we’ll ever see a third film with it having been so long since the second film came out, 28 Days Later star Cillian Murphy has expressed interest in returning for a third entry, as has original director Danny Boyle, and original writer Alex Garland has since gone on to directing as well, so if the tentatively titled 28 Years Later ever does come out with either of those guys behind the camera and Murphy in front, I for one wouldn’t mind seeing it. Maybe they’ll wait until 2030 to release it, because by then it will actually have been 28 years since the release of the first movie!