When Fox created their new "Fox Atomic" production company, it looks like their mission was to put out sequels to any popular horror movie from the past 5 years they could get their hands on. First it was The Hills Have Eyes 2 and now we have 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to the surprise horror hit of 2002 that boosted Cillian Murphy's career, gave Danny Boyle fans something to be happy about again, and grossed ten times its eight-million dollar budget in global box office receipts, all shot on digital cameras. But, given the low-budget "grim and gritty" (i.e. buzz wordsy) charm that helped the original succeed so well with audiences, does Fox Atomic know what they're doing by making a slick and pricey sequel half a decade later, or has the eyeball eating zombie bird already flown the coop on this franchise? Considering that neither Boyle nor Murphy were brought back for the sequel and the box office pull was about half that of the first movie, I'm not all that confident...
So, when we last left the world of 28 (not to be confused with Drunkie Sutherland's "24"), the US had finally come to the aid of the UK, whose people had been stricken by a synthetic plague called "Rage" that turned everyone into contagious berserkers whose only primal urge was to attack and infect any normal people around them. You know, kinda like how supremacist groups like to attack anyone who's not like them. KKK, I'm looking at you... Anyway, instead of trying to kill off the diseased ones, the US just picked up any non-infected survivors they could find and left the bloodthirsty mobs to die out on their own, with starvation killing them all off within five weeks or so. At the 24 week mark, after a research team had been sent in to verify that the carriers of the disease were all nice and dead, the reconstruction of England could begin... but of course we all know that that's not how it's going to end, so here's where we come in, you guessed it, 28 Weeks Later.
Back during the crisis, our intro introduces us to one group of survivors (including our hero, Donald, as played by the always ass kicking Robert Carlyle, who provides the Trainspotting connection now that Boyle's out of the picture) who had locked themselves away in a small farm house out in the middle of nowhere. They got along well enough until a little boy came banging on their door begging for sanctuary... and bringing a mob of infected wankers along with him. Bollocks. You can imagine where this is going and if you can't then allow me to spell it out for you: the fodder all wound up infected while Donnie's "fight or flight" instinct kicked in and he opted for the douche bag way out, leaving everyone else, including his lady love Alice and the little boy (who I would've left in a heartbeat considering the little shit burger led them there) to die while he escaped in a motorboat. Sure, it would be easy to say the guy's a cowardly little prick for running away, but I like to think of it as evolution that Don had the sense to drop Alice (why does it seem like every English woman is named Alice anyway?) like so much dead tail weight that would've just slowed him down and doomed him to a very short screen time. I probably would've done the same to be honest... though if we're ever in a situation like that and I'm the one in trouble, don't be a Donald ya jerk, save my ass!
The repopulation of Britain is being done in sections as remaining bodies and the occasional wild dog, rat, or member of Parliament are still being cleared from portions of the city. As such, there's a heavy military presence (as represented by the typical military movie stereotypes) in the populated area, but we all know that's not gonna mean shit when the disease eventually sparks up again which, if my plague watching movie experience serves me, will probably be around the 30 or 40 minute mark. As for our old pal Donald, his kids Andy and Tammy (Alice was their mom) were just admitted to be with him in the "safe zone", where he's been given a position of semi-power as the glorified super for a big luxurious apartment building. While Donald regales the kids about what happened to their mum, the movie decides to pepper his tale with clips from the opening... that we just watched 10 minutes ago... oye.
While "securing the perimeter" by peaking through peoples' windows with the scopes on their loaded weapons (do people really still fuck with their blinds open? and how do I find this neighborhood?), the fuzz catch the brats sneaking into one of the uncleared zones, looking for some fun and grabbing a few things from their old home. Yet another cinematic testament to what Hollywood thinks of the old "military intelligence" oxymoron as the youngest people on the island slip through supposedly airtight security with ease. Anyway, the kids actually find their mom huddled in a corner, seemingly only mildly psychotic, and the military shows up to take her in to the lab jockeys. Some poking and probing turns up that Alice is now some kind of Typhoid Mary for the Rage virus (she carries it but she's not affected by it) and you can imagine this is of course is where the feces is flung into the fan and this little "security state" proves itself not-so-secure... yep, a little over 40 minutes. Right on schedule. The only question now is how many people will survive the plague (less than four) and whether or not the ending will leave itself open for another sequel (can you say "Eiffel Tower"?), which would probably be called 28 Months Later... unless it's a UK production, in which case I guess they could call it
28 Fortnights Later...
The direction and cinematography are good enough to get by on for the most part. There are some action scenes, explosive moments (literally), cityscape shots, and general spots of people panicked and on fire that will get your attention. However, shaky cam haters beware, as every director in Hollywood these days seems to think that's the only way to "put people into the movie". If you're not falling for the "it makes the scenes intense and scares the audience by not letting them know what the fuck is going on!" bullshit that goes with it, you're not gonna be happy. Sometimes it's not so bad, sometimes it's worse than those river parasites that burrow into your urethra and lay eggs. Mix that with numerous scenes already condemned to poor or limited lighting and your eyes aren't going to be putting in for transfer to a new head by the time it's over with. You've been warned.
Story wise this is nothing special, but I admit there are a few surprises to be had here and there, including an always enjoyable helicopter rotor attack that elicits happy memories of Planet Terror. Most notably though, I actually found it pretty disturbing when the military is given orders to start killing people indiscriminately, infected or not. You can tell they don't want to, but being the gun-toting movie army guys they are they follow their orders and start blowing away innocent people. I actually felt bad not only for the people being killed for no reason, but for the guys being forced to murder in cold blood on orders from their superiors. This could be because there's actually some genuinely well done moviemaking going on for this scene, or it could just be all the synthetic estrogen that's been spilling into my blood stream from the cheap plastic used for the bottles of generic Kool-Aid I buy from the dollar store around the corner. In closing, there isn't much going on in 28 Weeks Later that you haven't seen elsewhere. If plague movies about mobs of blood vomiting maniacs trying to kill a small band of survivors is your cup of happy juice, you could definitely do worse. It's passable considering it was written and directed by a handful of no names. Rent it before you buy it though. Either way, I do like the fact that the kid who plays Andy is named "Mackintosh Muggleton".
