David O'Connell28 Weeks Later: a superior sequel at last!
August 14th 2008 03:46
It’s taken a while for me to catch up with this follow-up to Danny Boyle’s original, 28 Days Later, a film I really enjoyed back in 2002. I’d been looking forward to this for a while but was in no way prepared for how stunning a film it would turn out to be, being fearful of another lazy, money-chasing follow-up, which is par for the course in Hollywood these days.
I’d seen Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s previous film, Intacto, a disturbing rumination on the whims of chance and mortality, and was impressed enough to hope he could deliver the goods in giving this film a fresh perspective.
He hasn't just delivered a worthy successor however, but a stunningly good horror film in its own right, a bloodied gem throbbing with vitality and exhibiting the dexterity of a master craftsman.
The opening prologue sets an incredibly high standard with a frenetic, in-your-face attack on the senses as we once again bear witness to how the virus has ravaged England as a remote cottage and its crew of previous survivors is torn apart. Robert Carlyle’s head of the family, Don, is seemingly the only one to survive after a cowardly moment of betrayal in leaving his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) behind.
We then learn what happens in the following months as London is quarantined, the area contained with US military assistance, before the process of re-population slowly begins again, though with large sections of the city still off limits and to be fully cleansed of all threats.
Don is reunited with his two children, Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) and they begin to contemplate picking up the pieces of their life and starting anew in a very different London. But trouble of the worst kind is about to rear its ugly head when the kids sneak inside the quarantined zone to find a photo of their mum in their old family home.
Alice is hiding there, a carrier of the virus yet somehow not exhibiting the rage and violent tendencies of all the other infected. But death and mayhem will soon return to London streets as a chain of events is set off as Don, full of guilt about his betrayal to both his wife and kids, confronts her in the military facilities where she’s being held and studied under the eye of American doctor, Scarlet (Rose Byrne).
Fresnadillo never slackens the pace – or the gore – from then on as the chaos erupts and reaches out of control proportions again. As fine as Boyle’s film was, this one exceeds it in nearly every way I think. The brilliant, frenetic hand-held camerawork has a spectacular effect on the film’s overall impact – it confronts us with the action and the terror in a visceral, compelling way.
There are many truly disturbing moments of violence but the tone of grim reality is set and never wavers. It never falls into the cartoonish realm that some horror films fall victim to (although a jaw-dropping, show-stopper of a scene involving a helicopter comes awfully close!), and the performances are all excellent without any of the actors having the carry the film on their own.
Carlyle especially is brilliant in the first half in conveying the heartbreak and guilt of his painful choices, whilst both the children are strong in their key roles. Rose Byrne’s performance may be a bit flat but then she is portraying an American again!
Cinematographer Enrique Chediak, who has shot other genre films like The Faculty, Turistas and The Flock, gives the film’s best sequences an incredible immediacy and vitality – it’s such an astonishing film in many ways, but visually it just continually bowled me over. The slick editing of Chris Gill is noteworthy as well.
John Murphy, who worked on the original, returns with another effective score, his sinuous dark melodies embedded in his very modern sound palette of eerily droning electronic effects.
I can’t recommend this gripping film highly enough; I’m sure any fan of the genre or the first film has seen this already and needs no further help in deciding whether to watch it but if there’s anyone else sitting on the fence like I was, wait no longer – this may be considered one of the great sequels in the years to come.
I’d seen Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s previous film, Intacto, a disturbing rumination on the whims of chance and mortality, and was impressed enough to hope he could deliver the goods in giving this film a fresh perspective.
He hasn't just delivered a worthy successor however, but a stunningly good horror film in its own right, a bloodied gem throbbing with vitality and exhibiting the dexterity of a master craftsman.
The opening prologue sets an incredibly high standard with a frenetic, in-your-face attack on the senses as we once again bear witness to how the virus has ravaged England as a remote cottage and its crew of previous survivors is torn apart. Robert Carlyle’s head of the family, Don, is seemingly the only one to survive after a cowardly moment of betrayal in leaving his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) behind.
We then learn what happens in the following months as London is quarantined, the area contained with US military assistance, before the process of re-population slowly begins again, though with large sections of the city still off limits and to be fully cleansed of all threats.
Alice (Catherine McCormack) is left for dead....or not quite!
Don is reunited with his two children, Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) and they begin to contemplate picking up the pieces of their life and starting anew in a very different London. But trouble of the worst kind is about to rear its ugly head when the kids sneak inside the quarantined zone to find a photo of their mum in their old family home.
Alice is hiding there, a carrier of the virus yet somehow not exhibiting the rage and violent tendencies of all the other infected. But death and mayhem will soon return to London streets as a chain of events is set off as Don, full of guilt about his betrayal to both his wife and kids, confronts her in the military facilities where she’s being held and studied under the eye of American doctor, Scarlet (Rose Byrne).
Don (Robert Carlyle) runs for his life!
Fresnadillo never slackens the pace – or the gore – from then on as the chaos erupts and reaches out of control proportions again. As fine as Boyle’s film was, this one exceeds it in nearly every way I think. The brilliant, frenetic hand-held camerawork has a spectacular effect on the film’s overall impact – it confronts us with the action and the terror in a visceral, compelling way.
There are many truly disturbing moments of violence but the tone of grim reality is set and never wavers. It never falls into the cartoonish realm that some horror films fall victim to (although a jaw-dropping, show-stopper of a scene involving a helicopter comes awfully close!), and the performances are all excellent without any of the actors having the carry the film on their own.
Carlyle especially is brilliant in the first half in conveying the heartbreak and guilt of his painful choices, whilst both the children are strong in their key roles. Rose Byrne’s performance may be a bit flat but then she is portraying an American again!
Rose Byrne as Scarlet
Cinematographer Enrique Chediak, who has shot other genre films like The Faculty, Turistas and The Flock, gives the film’s best sequences an incredible immediacy and vitality – it’s such an astonishing film in many ways, but visually it just continually bowled me over. The slick editing of Chris Gill is noteworthy as well.
John Murphy, who worked on the original, returns with another effective score, his sinuous dark melodies embedded in his very modern sound palette of eerily droning electronic effects.
I can’t recommend this gripping film highly enough; I’m sure any fan of the genre or the first film has seen this already and needs no further help in deciding whether to watch it but if there’s anyone else sitting on the fence like I was, wait no longer – this may be considered one of the great sequels in the years to come.
The infected keep charging!
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Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
After that, I dunno... it fell to pieces for me, actually. I preferred the Day of the Triffids-inspired opening of the first movie, though that wasn't great, either...
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I was surprised by this one too after being underwhelmed by the original (had that seen it all quality care of Rabid, Shivers, Omega man and last man on Earth etc)
If your Interested you vcan read my review for the sequel HERE
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Great review. Check mine out here
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
And thankyou JD and Bryn for the review links, I enjoyed reading both of those, it's great that we pretty much agree on this one!
Comment by Daniel Mason
Review Mad
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic