I don't generally enjoy scary movies; in fact, I usually go out of my way to avoid them. And yet, for some reason, I agreed to watch 28 Days Later with a friend a while ago. I actually liked it quite a bit. It had its heart pounding moments and enough blood to make you cringe, but it was also balanced by an amazing sound track and peaceful long takes of landscape and sky, which managed to make you reflective and not simply filled with fear. It resonated with me aesthetically and even attempted to dig at the question of what defines our humanity (I am not sure it got too far on this, but at least it tried).
All to say, it’s no wonder I was so excited when I heard they were putting out a sequel, 28 Weeks Later. I had been waiting a while to see the film after it came out just so I could read what other people were thinking about it and I can say it’s been relatively mixed. I guess it depends on where you are coming from in your movie preferences, if you like scary movies you probably liked it, if you simply liked the first one and thought the second would follow suit, well, you might be a little disappointed.
The opening sequence is fairly well done. It manages to set up a story line and instill a decent level of fear for what these zombies are capable of doing. It begins with a husband and wife who are hiding out in a cottage with a couple of other survivors. Chaos ensues when a child knocks on the door after being chased by zombies across the countryside. Within seconds after his arrival the zombies arrive too and everything becomes a mess of blood, screaming, and shaky camera work. There is a crucial moment where the husband decides to abandon the wife in the bedroom and make a run for it himself. There is a haunting shot of her screaming in the window and then she is gone, presumably dead.
After the husband escapes there is a time lapse with the details of 24 weeks being narrated by text on the screen. Enter the American armed forces, come to save the day or at least control everything until it goes to complete crap and they simply shoot everyone or blow everything up. Yey, America. The rest of the narrative follows the children of the initial husband and wife. As it turns out, the wife is actually immune to the effects of the zombie virus, but is still a carrier. She is found and brought into the safe zone where her guilt-ridden, less-than-intelligent husband contracts the virus and, well, starts spreading the love. The children, being possible genetic matches to their mother, are the only potential hope for an antidote or immunization.
The remainder of the film follows the brother and sister as they attempt to escape from their zombie father who is stalking them. I won’t tell the rest of the film, but I will say that it sets the stage for a third film rather obviously. Is anyone else sick of the trilogy rash?
In comparison to the first film, 28 Weeks Later is a poor imitation of the original with different narrative goals. There were still some great shots that provided a sense of peace in a violent setting, but they were not really integrated into the narrative and were definitely not paired well with sound design. The soundtrack was redundant at best, they simply kept repeating the same theme from the opening sequences, which was great at first, but just became annoying after a while. The use of silence in scary movies has become somewhat cliché, i.e. when it becomes quiet, something bad is going to happen. You would think the sound designer might want to innovate on that basic assumption, but instead organized it exactly as you would expect, making most of the sequences predictable. The acting wasn’t bad, and I even enjoyed some of the character interactions, unfortunately all the people that I really liked were killed off before the film was over. Heck, maybe they’ll be resurrected in the third one. It was mostly blood, screaming, and running, not things in which I am particularly interested.
Over all, I was kind of annoyed with the film. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but the reasons for which I could have enjoyed it were not the same as those of the first film. So, unless you like horror flicks, this might not be a film you want see. Or at least, don’t see it simply because you liked the first one…
Oh yeah, just so you know, I also really liked Shaun of the Dead. I'm obviously not a hardcore Zombie Movie fan, I prefer to be inspired or humored, not scared.