28 Weeks Later (2007) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

U.K. 2007
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Cast: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Catherine McCormack, Jeremy Renner, Idris Elba, Imogen Poots
Rating: R
Release Date: April 26th 2007 (U.K.); May 11th 2007 (U.S.)
Running Time: 1 hour 38 minutes

The Movie Review

28 Weeks Later film still 1


28 WEEKS LATER
Storyline:
Cast:
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Whew, the Zombies are getting more and more mobile these days, well to be precise in 28 weeks later they will. Fully energized zombies with great agility are back to strike London again in this sequel of 28 Days Later.

I've always thought Zombies are fun! With their freaking but empty looking faces, they're darn scary but still fun and that too with the exception of The Night of the Living Dead (1968) which was absolutely horrifying and memorable. However after seeing 28 Days Later in 2003, I began to think that Zombies are absolutely dangerous and the terror they bring felt more real than before.

The sequel, 28 Weeks Later, continues the first story. The chronological order of the story is that on week 4 mainland Britain has been destroyed by the rage virus, on week 5 all the zombies have died of starvation, on week 11 NATO force enters London, on week 24 London is being reconstructed, and week 28 is exactly where the story begins. Some survivors are dwelling secretly in a farm house outside London. Most notably of them are Don (Robert Carlyle) and Alice (Catherine McCormack). After helping a kid seeking refuge on their house, a pack of Zombies swarm the area. Don and Alice are trapped on the upper floor, but Don cowardly manages to escape leaving Alice behind who looks at him in shock and disappointment.

The story then shifts to the new reconstructed London, where they are gradually accepting new citizens that are brave enough to re-populate London. Two out of them are Don's children Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton), where Don is now the supervisor of the tall building where all the other fifteen thousand citizens have already been residing in District 1. Don keeps the grim secret between him and Alice from his children. But Andy's curiosity to find out about their house and to grab some picture of Alice in their real home in London makes Andy and Tammy secretly sneaking out from the heavily-protected area. Things are about to be unraveled in an unpleasant and horrifying way.

28 Weeks Later's story is delivered in a great pace, it brings up your tension in a dramatic way, then it tells you the story of the district 1 while introduces you a little bit to the characters and all that while also giving you the sight of the empty and abandoned London. The Drama between the characters are may not be that heavily emphasized but it also minimize any elements of humor thus making it a seriously scary Zombie film. Recalling that after a person got bitten by a Zombie, it will only takes a couple of seconds to turn him into a zombie. And man! The way that Zombies move like they are all made out of adrenalin and hunger only is absolutely scary. It feels like war, but without the slightest intention to captive you, but only to munch you.

And what is helping all the scenes to be even scarier? It is the music that really thrills and pumps your heart to beat even faster, probably it hints you to say "don't go there!" but the music doesn't spoil the surprises. And superb camerawork that knows the timing in using the steady ones or the shaking ones. And of course thanks to the great performances of the actors.

Unfortunately 28 Weeks Later has a little flaw, that if you're nit-picking enough, you would notice that after 28 Weeks of being abandoned, London and the rural area where the first scene begins are still as neat as ever with the grass are still short just like it's being gradually trimmed. Well not all of them, but the majority they are.

After 28 Days Later, I was a bigger fan of Zombie movies, now after 28 Weeks Later, I'm even more a bigger fan than ever before. 28 Weeks Later is a great and seriously scary Walking-Dead movie.

© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com