28 Weeks Later--Movie Review

Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later chronicled what happened when a rage virus leapt from ape to human, creating killer zombies that decimated Great Britain, from the point of view of a newly awakened coma patient (sheer genius, by the way). 28 Weeks Later opens at the same point in time, this time giving us a hardy band of survivors: an elderly couple, a hothead, a pregnant woman, and married couple Don (Robert Carlyle) and Alice (Catherine McCormack). In a neat bit of misdirection, director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto) brings in the zombies and wipes them out--all but Don, who makes a disturbingly cowardly choice.

A series of title cards let us know that the rage virus has been contained, and that survivors are now returning to an isolated section of London surrounded by snipers. Those survivors include Andy (Mackintosh Muggleston) and Tammy (Imogen Poots), Don and Alice's two children who were on a school trip to Spain at the time of the outbreak. Don lies to the children about their mother's fate and they prepare to rebuild their lives. But then Alice shows up, still alive but carrying the rage virus. Will it remain contained. Hell no.
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What follows is a horror/action hybrid that is as devastatingly gripping (if not more so) than the original. Fresnadillo crafts superb, suspenseful sequences that manage to advance the story and develop characters within the carnage. The US Army is in charge of things, and at first they display the kind of compassion and organization that might have made a huge difference in the months following Katrina. The aerial photography and special effects that give us ravaged London evoke the disaster, while later images of burning buildings bring to mind Iraq and even September 11th, in an offhandedly powerful way.

Yet when push comes to shove, to the dismay of morally tortured sniper Doyle (Jeremy Renner), the US Army has only one final solution: Code Red. The survivors are caught in a dreadful trap that Fresnadillo exploits to its maximum potential in a way that never feels forced. Nor does he ram home the parallels to current events. He allows the images and situations to speak for themselves. The end result is a film that is exciting to watch and satisfying to ponder, proving that not all sequels have to be duds.