28 Weeks Later (2007)
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Screenplay by: Rowan Joffe, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, & Jesús Olmo
Cast: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, & Harold Perrineau
Runtime: 99 min.
Rating: R
Trailer
Three ominous signs made me nervous prior to seeing 28 Weeks Later. First, it was a sequel to Danny Boyle’s respected 28 Days Later, a horror film that rejuvenated the genre and sequels to horror movies rarely fair well. Second, the plot revolves around another rage outbreak inside a quarantined green zone guarded by the U.S. military, which usually screams lazy narrative construction and clichéd stereotypes. And third, children as leading characters more than often produce pandering, sentimental plot points and few thrills, and here, those children are played by Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton), who sneak away from the protected green zone, and their father Don (Robert Carlyle), consequently resulting in them bringing back an infected human into the secure compound.
It is, however, a great relief and a good deal of pleasure to be able to report that 28 Weeks Later succeeds on every level, not in spite of those aforementioned caveats, but because of how well they are used. Thrilling from its opening assault to its elegiac finale, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s film far surpasses Danny Boyle’s original in almost every way. It is far scarier, moodier, exhilarating, and narratively consistent, not only to 28 Days Later but to most horror movies. One can’t overemphasize how morbid this film is. From the outset, it’s clear we are watching a different kind of horror film, one where our notions of heroism literally gets thrown out the window as Don is forced to leave his wife in an isolated cabin under attack from rage infected crazies. Losing that well established character virtue, we, as an audience, are left helpless and as scared as the characters. Because we don’t have a solid anchor to hold on to until much later in the film, when introduced to Scarlet (Rose Byrne) and Doyle (Jeremy Renner), a medical officer and a soldier, the events are more terrifying than if we were living vicariously through a gallant figure. Fresnadillo translates that fear visually, using a dizzying combination of jolting under cranking and staccato, breakneck editing to discombobulate and confuse, leaving a few moments blurry or incoherent action to allow us to finish the picture in our minds.
One sequence involving hordes of the infected attacking panicked Londoners packed into a cell designed to protect them, takes place almost entirely in the dark, with just a few flashes of light now and again to give us an idea of what’s going on. If the strobe effects don’t induce seizure in the meek, the scene will inevitably scare and unnerve the hell out of you. Despite the confusion and the hectic pacing of 28 Weeks Later, the director manages to always keep the audience orientated with the action, constantly cutting back to wide vistas of London, usually on fire or in the process of being bombed, and as a result, keeps the audience in step with where the characters are and where they are going. Sure, this may all seem trivial but it is sorely lacking in too many of today’s action and horror films. The illusions to the war in Iraq are inevitable when the plot concerns American soldiers protecting foreign citizens from themselves and rage-fuelled terrorists, err, zombies. Fresnadillo and his screenwriters keep the subtext muted, but it is no doubt there by design.
The grim tone of the film parallels the hopelessness of the mission when at any moment the people you are meant to protect become your enemies. In the end, the film suggests hope lies in the innocent, but just barely. Is there a more subversive scene in recent mainstream horror films than when soldiers begin firing on a terrified crowd during an all out evacuation procedure that goes horribly wrong? There are too many terrific sequences to name, and I wouldn’t want to give away any of the secrets or twists, but rest assured, the film is scary, relentless, and surprisingly moving. As luck would have it, I was more nervous stepping out of that darkened theatre than when I went in. Surely, that’s a good sign.
Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2007
