When I watched the trailer for 28 Weeks Later, I wasn't too impressed. Danny Boyle's original was a classic - a reinvention of the tired zombie genre, with great low-budget visuals and a no-name cast (this was before Cilian Murphy was known). The sequel trailer sported a bigger budget, explosions, and known actors such as Rose Byrne (Troy, Sunshine), Robert Carlyle (the Full Monty, the World is Not Enough) and even Michael from Lost. Oh, and a new director. To me it looked like a complete waste of a franchise. Why mess with a good recipe?
But from the opening scene of the sequel I was hooked. I'm a sucker for great openings (among my favorites are Saving Private Ryan, Enduring Love and of course Raiders), and this one really hit the spot. The last movie that terrified me was Alien, back in 1997, so it takes a lot to chill my bones...but the tension on display here it so tangible it's hard not to wince. The zombies of this universe are faster, meaner, savager and more, um...blood-spitting...and the result is an enemy that's impossible to escape and hard to hide from.
After the mid-blowing opening there is a good half hour of intriguing setup for the main plot, and then it's back into the action. Once it starts it never stops. The premise involves the US government cleaning up London after the first film's viral outbreak. Everybody has been evacuated and now the first residents are being reintroduced to the city. When the virus shows itself once more, the US soldiers don't know who to shoot down...and the result is a bloodbath and a slaughtering of innocents that brings the kind of tragedy we don't really get from typical George A. Romero zombie films. There are some great setpieces, including one in a tunnel seen only through the scope of a gun, which recalls the brilliant climax in Silence of the Lambs, and most notably a showdown between a crowd of zombies and some whirring helicopter blades. Awesome.
So if you're in for a good scare with some intelligent social resonance, check out this great sequel, but watch it in the dark.
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