28 Weeks Later (2007)

Directed By: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Cast: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Amanda Walker, Shahid Ahmed, Harold Perrineau, Catherine McCormack, Mackintosh Muggleton, Imogen Poots
Released: 11/05/2007

The opening sequence of 28 Weeks Later owes so much to George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead that it is almost a 5 minute short film remake of the that classic 1968 horror. Robert Carlyle and his wife Catherine McCormack are shacked up with a group of survivors in a farm house, getting by and thanking their lucky stars their children had been on holiday when the outbreak begun. As the tension rises to the inevitable, the central theme of the film is set up; that of cowardice and the familial relationship.

It doesn’t take too long though for this theme to be forgotten and sidelined when in fact it should probably have been the main focus through to the films conclusion. Instead the film attacks the military machine; another staple of the zombie genre. 28 Weeks Later presents Britain as a quarantined zone, occupied by US military who have been given the job of making it safe and free of infection. We pick up the story following the pre credit sequence with the arrival of the first returnees from overseas. Amongst them are Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton), children of Don (Robert Carlyle). They live on the Isle of Dogs, the designated safe zone, and they are forbidden to leave.

As the film progresses we begin to see how this film fails to emerge from its predecessor but manages to create some truly iconic scenes and genuinely provocative ideas. As with most zombies films the definition of the undead or infected in this case has evolved. Now they can be poisoned to death with chemical warfare, appear to have memories and perhaps most significantly for this trilogy there seems to be a sort of immunity developing. This proves to be one of the most innovative designs within the film.

Directed by Intacto helmer Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, the film has some inspired cinematography and hurries along at an enjoyable pace. It’s not long before the might of the US military is brought to its knees, as poor and even poorer designs unravel the small community that has developed. London looks beautiful as a ghost town as more landmarks are exploited for cinematic gold. Fresnadillo shows his true quality though in the action scenes, and one particular scene sees a helicopter used to brutally visceral effect to subdue and oncoming zombie horde.

Ironically for a zombie film, one of the most disappointing aspects of the film is the graphic violence. Fresnadillo seems unable to hold on a shot, with the most violent scenes playing either with frantic handheld camera work or through a night vision viewfinder. Zombie films are expected to have extreme acts of violence perpetrated against the body, not for the gratuitous nature of violence but because a deep rooted theme of zombie films is the vulnerability of the human body. Like the horror films of the eighties the idea of a foreign host invading and destroying that which makes us human has always found itself a central idea explored by the zombie genre. The loss of identity and individuality dates back to the voodoo zombies of Haiti.

But this is just nitpicking, 28 Weeks Later is a bolder film than its predecessor for the simple reason that we are not left with hope in our minds. A peculiar ending set in the New Wembley (It’s nice to know that in preparing Britain to be repopulated, the U.S. military found time to finish the stadium for us) sets up a third potential instalment in this franchise and leaves viewers with nothing close to a happy ending.

Although the film lacked any real scope and only scratches the surface of its key thematic issues, Frenadillo does a great job of creating atmosphere and his handling of the set pieces accompanied by the fatalistic ending ensure there’s enough in the film to satisfy the hordes of zombie fans driven to see this film.