Retail Price: $29.95

Reviewed by:
Ian Jane on November 9, 2007.

Seven months after the outbreak that decimated the population of London, England in Danny Boyle’s excellent 28 Days Later, the military has moved in and essentially shut the city down. Civilization exists only by way of a group of survivors who work alongside the military. Snipers are set up around the camp to take care of any straggling contaminated types who might wander into the area, as everything around this highly fortified compound is more or less a deadly wasteland. 

Major Scarlet Ross (Rose Byrne) and her crew work together to allow two kids to head back into London once it’s been locked down and made safe again. The father of these two kids, Donald (Robert Carlyle), is excited to be reunited with his children, especially since his wife disappeared during the initial outbreak and is presumed dead. Unfortunately for Donald, his kids don’t believe him, they suspect that their mother, Alice (Catherine McCormick), may still be alive outside the safe zone. They decide to find out whether or not she’s alive on their own without any thoughts to the ramifications that their actions may have on the city of London should some contaminate finds its way back to the area thanks to their carelessness. Of course, that’s exactly what happens and before you know it, the last remnants of society begin to crumble. 

Using a visual style very similar to the gritty, bleached out look that Danny Boyle employed for the first film in the series, 28 Weeks Later maintains a sort of fly-on-the-wall feel that makes the film more intense and more believable than it would be if shot in a more traditional manner. The action feels frantic and the horror/scare scenes are jarring and intense. A shame then that it’s hard to care about the characters. With the first film we became attached to the survivors whereas here they’re fairly one-dimensional and we’re not given enough to work with in able to make the same emotional investment. As such, the movie lacks resonance. 

That said, even without characters to keep us emotionally involved in the story, director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo keeps us on the edge of our seats by hitting us with a few impressive (and often times quite bloody) action scenes which keep coming at a good pace until the film’s tense conclusion. There are some wonderfully tense moments here and a few really solid scares to boot, and because of that the movie works really well as a thrill-ride even if it isn’t as successful as a character driven horror picture. The fast moving ‘zombies’ (or ‘infected’ if you prefer) that Boyle used so well in the first film are seen here again and are used well. When they react, which is often times in a very aggressive and surprising manner, we’ve no choice but to notice. Sometimes the choppy editing employed in these scenes is a little headache inducing and a bit over done but for the most part the rough style compliments the action and carnage and furthers the ‘anything can happen’ feeling that Fresnadillo builds. Along the way we’re treated to a bit of social commentary and some political allegories in the same way that the first film slipped a few ideas and themes into our collective consciousness. It isn’t as effective on that level as Boyle’s picture was but neither does it beat us over the head or talk down to us. The end result is a smart, if slightly hollow action-horror film that makes for great entertainment if not much more.

Despite the poor video quality on the screener of 28 Weeks Later sent to review, the rest of this disc shapes up to be a winner. The film is a strong sequel that does a good job of expanding on the elements set up by its predecessor and the performances and effects are strong and impressive. The disc sounds good and there are some decent supplements included here as well.

Catherine McCormack, Robert Carlyle, Amanda Walker, Shahid Ahmel