Facts

1. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

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MED 4 – BRITISH HORROR FILMS

28 WEEKS LATERMED 4 – BRITISH HORROR FILMS

2. Is a 2007 British post-apocalyptic horror film,

3. Is sequel to the 2002 film 28 Days Later.

4. Was released in the United Kingdom and in the United States on May 11, 2007.

5. In April 2007, Bloody-Disgusting.com promoted the film by giving readers a chance to win a prop from the film. The props were included in a "District 1 Welcome Pack”, which featured an actual ID card and an Evening Standard newspaper with an evacuation headline.

6. In March 2007, Boyle announced plans to create a third chapter of the film franchise, which will be given the title 28 Months Later with a 2009 release date

7. In the film, the children are seen running into a completed Wembley Stadium; however, at the time of the virus outbreak, around late 2002, the stadium was only in the design process, meaning it wouldn't exist in the infected version of 2002 Great Britain.

8. Removable graffiti was sprayed in locations around London featuring the web address 'ragevirus.com'

9. In July 2007, while promoting Sunshine, Boyle revealed that he has a story formulating for the next film.

10. The theatrical trailer for this film featured the song "Shrinking Universe" by Muse

Institutions

Narrative

Characters Robert Carlyle Jeremy Renner Rose Byrne Idris Elba

Genre

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Genre conventions

Wider-context

Representations

Key scenes

Critical Opinion

28 WEEKS LATER

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28 Weeks Later is a 2007 British post-apocalyptic science fiction / horror film, and sequel to the 2002 film 28 Days Later. The film was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, and was released in the United Kingdom and North America on 11 May 2007.

Plot

The film opens with Donald and his wife Alice in an English cottage sheltering from the Rage virus that has ravaged Great Britain. Together, with a variety of survivors as they sit down to a quiet meal, a young boy can be heard shouting and banging the door from the other side in desperation. Against everyone's wishes, Alice opens the door and lets the frightened child in, who reveals how he managed to escape the Infected. But this peace is short lived when one of the survivors are attacked by the Infected, thus turning them and attacking another survivor before Alice kills her. Suddenly, the Infected barge in and the survivors flee the cottage. Everybody is presumed killed or infected except for Don, who flees and leaves his wife and the young boy to die in a moment of panic. Escaping from the infected, he climbs into a small boat and speeds away. Titles appear, outlining the timeline from the outbreak of infection to the quarantine of Britain, the arrival of American-led NATO troops, the last of the infected dying of starvation, the planning of repopulating and finally 28 weeks later...

Scarlett, a US Army Medical Officer, watches a single plane land in London. Among the people that have arrived are teenager Tammy and her younger brother Andy. Everyone undergoes several health inspections, and Scarlett notices that Andy has heterochromia, a trait he inherited from his mother. Americans Doyle and Flynn are introduced also: Doyle a wisecracking sniper and Flynn, a helicopter pilot and family man away from his family. Andy and Tammy are moved into District 1, a fully-functional section of London city, located in the Docklands area known as the Isle of Dogs. The children are reunited with their father, who turns out to be Don from the beginning of the film. He explains that their mother was killed and that he could do nothing about it. Later, the children decide to leave the safety area to return home to collect a picture of their mother. At the house, they discover that Alice is still alive and has been hiding in their attic in a traumatized state. Scarlett does a blood test on Alice, which reveals that she is infected but is somehow immune to the virus. It is suggested that her genes repel the Rage virus' symptoms; however, she is still technically a carrier.

Don finds out about his wife after seeing his children and manages to sneak into the operating theatre where she is being tied down. He begs for forgiveness and she accepts. While exchanging a kiss, Don becomes infected. He kills her in his rage and breaks out of the area and into District 1, quickly attacking soldiers within proximity. A code red is ordered when it becomes clear that the virus is active again. British civilians are moved underground but Don attacks them, causing mass panic and hundreds more are infected in the chaos. Scarlett rescues Tammy and Andy from containment and they flee together, though Andy becomes separated in the chaos. Doyle is given the order to take out as many of the infected as possible, but his orders are soon changed and he is told to kill anybody and everybody - including the uninfected which shocks him.

Andy escapes the crowd into a safe area with others who have not been infected, where he is reunited with Tammy and Scarlett. It is revealed that Doyle is a part of the group. He tells them he will lead them to safety. While attempting to escape, they find themselves being shot at by the American soldiers and fighting against the infected. Flynn contacts Doyle and tells him that in four minutes the district will be firebombed and that they need to escape. They do so, hiding in a tunnel, dodging the attack as a section of London is destroyed. Later, in an abandoned park, Scarlett informs Doyle that the key to curing infection is in the children and they agree 4m4/bhf/28 weeks later/07document.doc – May 07 – source from wikipedia/Guardian unlimited/

that they must do what they can to deliver them safely. Flynn arrives to pick Doyle up and only wishes to take Doyle and no one else, but things go wrong. A large group of the infected who are docking on the horizon give chase. Flynn flies away, assigning the stadium as the new pick-up point and telling Doyle to meet him alone.

The group, now consisting of only Doyle, Scarlett, Tammy and Andy, find themselves suddenly in danger of a powerful nerve gas being sprayed throughout London. They climb into a car and Doyle is killed in self-sacrifice when he attempts to save them by jump starting the car. Scarlett drives the car away and the remaining trio enter a subway. Using the night vision scope on Doyle's assault rifle, Scarlett steers them all down into the underground tunnels but is attacked and beaten to death by an infected who is revealed to be Don, who continues to attack his own son and bites him. Tammy is forced to kill her infected father. Andy, though bitten, remains without symptoms like his mother. The two continue to escape and are picked up by Flynn at Wembley stadium. Flynn flies them to safety as they pass the burning ruins of District 1 and eventually over the White Cliffs of Dover and into France.

28 Days Later, the remains of the helicopter are contrasted against images of Paris, France. Infected humans dart towards the Eiffel Tower, suggesting that the virus has possibly passed on from Andy and will continue to consume the rest of Europe.

Cast Robert Carlyle as Don Jeremy Renner as Sergeant Doyle

Rose Byrne as Major Scarlett Ross

Idris Elba as Brigadier General Stone Catherine McCormack as Alice Harold Perrineau as Flynn Imogen Poots as Tammy Mackintosh Muggleton as Andy Shahid Ahmed as Jacob Emily Beecham as Karen Garfield Morgan as Geoff Meghan Popiel as Soldier DLR Fruit Philip Scott as Jason Amanda Walker as Sally Jon Beniston as Private Ford Tim Shields as Corporal Long

Production

In March 2005, 28 Days Later's director, Danny Boyle, said in an interview that he would not direct the sequel, but he would serve as executive producer. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was instead attached to direct 28 Weeks Later. On 1 September 2006, the studio announced that principal photography for 28 Weeks Later began in London. On 3 December 2006, second unit filming finished near the IMAX cinema in London.

Promotion

Trailers

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Cinema Trailers began in the UK in the Week Commencing 9 April 2007 with Muse's Shrinking Universe used in the background.

Biohazard Warning

On Friday 13 April 2007, 28 days before the release of the film in UK cinemas, a huge biohazard warning sign was projected against the White Cliffs of Dover. The sign contained the international biological hazard symbol, as well as stating that Britain was "contaminated, keep out!"

Graphic novel

In July 2006, Fox Atomic Comics and publisher HarperCollins announced that they were publishing a graphic novel titled 28 Days Later: The Aftermath in early 2007 to bridge the gap between 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.

Viral Advertising

Removable graffiti was sprayed in locations around London featuring the web address 'ragevirus.com'. However, the web address was found to be unregistered and quickly snapped up by a b3ta reader. The advertising agency who made the mistake agreed to purchase the rights to the domain for an undisclosed but significant sum.

Release

Prior to the film's opening the MPAA gave 28 Weeks Later an R for strong violence and gore, language and some nudity. The film has been rated "(18)" in the UK. The film has opened in 2,000 theatres across the United States.

Reception

28 Weeks Later garnered generally positive reviews. The film has been praised for being "exciting, action-packed and superbly directed thriller that more than lives up to the original film" and "28 Weeks Later is brutal and almost exhaustingly terrifying. It is also bracingly smart, both in its ideas and in its techniques". The film has generated a rating of 70% on Rotten Tomatoes with 98 positive reviews and 42 negative reviews. The film made $9.8 million in its opening weekend, coming in second place at the box-office, well behind Spider-Man 3. As of the 23rd May 2007 the film has grossed $19,607,447 domestically[US] and $10,808,116 in foreign countries bringing the worldwide total to $30,415,563 according to Box Office Mojo.

Sequel

In March 2007, plans were announced by Danny Boyle to create a "third chapter" of the film franchise, which may be given the title 28 Months Later, thus creating a trilogy. The action will

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presumably take place in France, picking up where the second film left off (ref: L'écran Fantastique, a French magazine about horror and fantastic films).

Political Subtext

Reviewers have commented on parallels between the film's plot and the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the September 11, 2001 attack in New York.

A realitysandwich.com review offers the thesis that "Maybe apocalyptic films provide a socially acceptable way to consider the near-inevitable disasters on our horizon."

APOCALYPTIC AND POST-APOCALYPTIC FICTION

Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction (or, in some cases, the more general category speculative fiction) that is concerned with the end of civilisation through nuclear war, plague, or some other general disaster. Post-apocalyptic fiction is set in a world or civilisation after such a disaster. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilisation has been forgotten (or mythologised). Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in an agrarian, non-technological future world, or a world where only scattered elements of technology remain.

There is a considerable degree of blurring between this form of science fiction and that which deals with false utopias or dystopic societies. A work of apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic fiction might also be called a ruined Earth story, or dying Earth if the apocalypse is sufficiently dire.

The genres gained in popularity after World War II, when the possibility of global annihilation by nuclear weapons entered the public consciousness. However, recognisable apocalyptic novels existed at least since the first quarter of the 19th century, when Mary Shelley's The Last Man was published. Additionally, the subgenres draw on a body of apocalyptic literature, tropes, and interpretations that are millennia old.

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Ancient predecessors

The roots of modern apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction lie in the apocalyptic literature of the past. Various mythologies and religions around the globe include stories depicting or predicting an end to the world and human society. In the ancient Kingdom of Judah, apocalyptic notions appear in the prophetic literature after the Babylonian captivity, most notably in the Book of Daniel; they remained popular in Roman Judea at the time of the birth of Christianity, and greatly influenced the development and teachings of the new religion, Jesus himself discussing the issue in the Four Gospels. Even as the Christian faith spread through the Roman Empire and beyond, the idea that Jesus would return to his followers during the end times remained central. The first centuries AD saw the creation of various apocalyptic works, the best known of which is the Book of Revelation, due to its inclusion in the New Testament. The beliefs and ideas of this time went on to influence the developing Christian eschatology.

Because of its prominence Revelation influenced nearly every subsequent apocalyptic work in Western culture. However, it was not the only representative of its literary genre produced during the period. The corpus of New Testament apocrypha includes Apocalypses of Peter, Paul, Stephen, and Thomas, as well as two of James and Gnostic Apocalypses of Peter and Paul. Some of these works continued to inform the eschatological imagination of Christianity despite their exclusion from the Bible.

The early Middle Ages saw the development of new apocalyptic works, such as the 7th century Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, as well as entirely new concepts, like Islamic eschatology, which was strongly influenced by Christian and Jewish eschatology. A later addition is the Prophecy of the Popes, ascribed to the 12th century Irish saint Malachy, but perhaps a product of the late 16th century.

Most of these works cannot be considered fiction, as they were ostensibly intended to record reality as the authors had experienced it; that is, a factual account of their claimed experiences with divine revelation, rather than a product of their imaginations. Besides Revelation, none of these works are considered scripture by any religious group; and many Christian denominations no longer interpret Revelation as a literal depiction of future events.

Modern works

The first work of modern apocalyptic fiction may be Mary Shelley's 1826 novel The Last Man. The story of a man living in a future world destroyed by plague, it contains the recognisable elements of the subgenre. It is sometimes considered the first science fiction novel, though that distinction is more often given to Shelley's more famous earlier novel, Frankenstein.

The first atomic weapon in fiction appeared in Robert Cromie's "The Crack of Doom", published in 1895. The weapon is not used in that novel, but the significance of its appearance is notable. The genre rose to prominence following World War II, because for the first time it was believed that man had the capacity to destroy his civilisation.

The Cold War saw increased interest in the subgenres, as the threat of nuclear war became real. Since this measure of destruction was no longer imaginary, some of these new works, such as Nevil Shute's On the Beach and Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon, shun the imaginary science and technology that are the identifying traits of general science fiction. Others include more fantastic elements, such as mutants, alien invaders, or exotic future weapons.8m4/bhf/28 weeks later/07document.doc – May 07 – source from wikipedia/Guardian unlimited/

A seminal work in this subgenre was Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz. Many subsequent stories were clearly derivative of this novel. Ideas such as a recrudescent Church (Catholic or other), pseudo-medieval society, and the theme of the rediscovery of the knowledge of the pre-holocaust world were central to this book. Paul Brians published Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, a study that examines atomic war in fiction published in short stories, novels, and films between 1895 to 1984. Author Stephen King published The Stand, a popular novel which follows the post-apocalypse horror genre, as opposed to the science-fiction genre, in which the world is wiped out by the Captain Trips Virus, and two groups of survivors are at war with one another.

Cultural views on apocalyptic fiction

For the most part, Western literature and cinema on the apocalypse or in a post-apocalyptic setting tend to follow American mores, with the exception of British apocalyptic fiction. While American apocalyptic and postapocalyptic fiction tend to emphasise the fantastic, with the possibility of world-ending meteor collisions, mutants, and jury-rigged vehicles roaming a desolate countryside, British fiction is more pessimistic in tone.

Post-apocalyptic literature was not as widespread in communist countries as the government prohibited depictions of the nations falling apart. However, some depictions of similar-themed science fiction did make it past government censors, such as Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (which was later adapted as the movie Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky), made during Russia's Soviet era, which features the bombed-out landscape and survival-based motives of its characters and was inspired in part by the 1957 accident at the Mayak nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Recently, Wang Lixiong's Yellow Peril was banned in the People's Republic of China because of its depiction of the collapse of the Communist Party of China, but has been widely pirated and distributed in the country.

According to some theorists, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in its modern past has influenced Japanese popular culture to include many apocalyptic themes. Much of Japan's manga and anime is loaded with apocalyptic imagery. It has, however, also been claimed that disaster - and post-disaster scenarios have a longer tradition in Japanese culture, possibly related to the earthquakes that repeatedly have devastated Japanese cities, and possibly connected to Japanese political history, which includes strict adherence to authority until a sudden and dramatic change. See Meiji Restoration and the earlier ee ja nai ka phenomenon.

Criticism

The use of post-apocalyptic contexts in movies and the typical accompanying imagery, such as endless deserts or damaged cityscapes, clothing made of leather and animal skin, and marauding gangs of bandits, is now common and the subject of frequent parody.

The number of apocalyptic-themed B-movies in the 1980s and 1990s has been attributed to film producers on post-apocalyptic films working around their low production budgets by renting scrapyards, unused factories, and abandoned buildings, saving them the cost of constructing sets. As a result, many films that would have been rejected by major studios on 9m4/bhf/28 weeks later/07document.doc – May 07 – source from wikipedia/Guardian unlimited/

the basis of script or concept ended up being made, while other stories were adapted to a post-apocalyptic setting following the success of the Mad Max series.

JUAN CARLOS FRESNADILLO

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (born December 5, 1967, on Tenerife, Canary Islands) is an Academy Award-nominated Spanish film director, script writer and producer. He is best known for directing Intacto and 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later.

Biography

In 1985, Fresnadillo moved to Madrid. He started out in photography and cinema studies and then began his career in short films. In 1987, he set up a production company, which produced several short films and commercials. Fresnadillo went on to become a production assistant for Gustavo Fuertes' short film El juicio final (1991).

In 1996, he had his debut with the black-and-white short film Esposados (US title: Linked), for which he was also the executive producer. The black comedy tells the story of a couple who are constantly fighting over money; when they find themselves winning the Christmas lottery, however, they have such different ideas about what to do next that the husband tries to get rid of his wife. Esposados won 40 national and international awards. It was also nominated for an "Oscar" for Best Short Film in the same year, making Fresnadillo an overnight star in Spain.

In 2000, Fresnadillo was the presenter for the Goya Award in Best Short Film.

In 2002, Fresnadillo directed his debut full-length picture, the thriller Intacto. The film received several awards, most notably two 2002 Goya Awards (one of them for Fresnadillo in the category of Best New Director) and six further Goya nominations.

He then completed the 3-minute black-and-white picture Psicotaxi (2002), starring and portraying Alejandro Jodorowsky.

In 2006, he directed 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to Danny Boyle's 2002 film 28 Days Later (released in 2007).

Filmography

Director and Writer (unless otherwise noted)

28 Weeks Later (2007) Psicotaxi (2002) [solely director] Intacto [international English title: Intact] (2001)

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Esposados [US title: Linked] (1996)

Producer

Esposados [US title: Linked] (1996) El juicio final (1991) (assistant producer)

28 Weeks Later

(Cert 18)Peter Bradshaw

Friday May 11, 2007The Guardian

Four years ago, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland had a huge, bloodthirsty, flesh-ripping, eyeball-gouging hit on their hands with 28 Days Later: a post-apocalyptic vision of Britain reduced to anarchy with the leak of a dangerous virus called "rage", reducing one and all to ferocious zombies. It was entertaining genre stuff. Here is the disappointing sequel, on which Boyle and Garland serve as executive producers. They have entrusted it to the talented Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (who made the hit metaphysical thriller Intacto) and a whole kitchen-full of cooks in the writing department. I can only say that after a terrific beginning, the movie's credibility snaps like a frozen twig with one stupid plot-glitch around 30 minutes in and then, despite some spectacular moments, fails to disguise the fact that there isn't much mileage left in all those red-eyed folk running around growling and gibbering and chomping.

What a cracking start it is, though. Robert Carlyle and Catherine McCormack are Don and Alice, a terrified couple, glimpsed first at the initial movie's 28-day mark. As good fortune would have it, they had packed their two kids off to the safety of a foreign holiday before the great catastrophe began; now they're in fear of their own lives, hiding out with a middle-aged couple in an idyllic country cottage transformed into a classically horrible Straw Dogs location, on account of the maraudinganthro-vermin. Some shotguns might have helped here.

A terrible encounter and a terrible betrayal leave Carlyle consumed with anguish, and 28 weeks later he is awaiting his children in the un-brave new world of post-apocalypse Britain. The septic isle is now a fully-fledged US protectorate: the American army has expunged all infected carriers and it polices Britain as a quarantine-state with one reasonably safe zone: London's Isle of Dogs, whose sleek glass towers have been pressed into service as Ballardian refuge colonies for those traumatised souls who survived the plague. It is here that Don awaits the return of his teenage children from a French holding camp. They are Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) and Tammy (Imogen Poots), who promptly escape from the compound and brave the badlands of mouldering corpses and upended cars to find their family home in a deserted north London terrace, in search of some mementos of their beloved mother. It is here that they make a horrifying discovery.

In the hands of production designer Mark Tildesley and cinematographer Enrique Chediak, the movie looks wonderful, and London especially is captivating. Its deserted streets are rich and eerie and strange, like something from another planet. Even a straightforward shot of a commercial airliner coming in to land at London City airport, gleaming and flashing in the early morning sun, looks sensational. The Americans themselves are guarded and suspicious of their new-found contaminated subject peoples. Here the film speaks eloquently of America's post-

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7/7 suspicion and profound lack of sympathy for Britain and the dangerous spores and germs being incubated on our island.

Everything, in fact, is set fair for a tremendous film. But then all its hard-won authenticity and interest are blown when we are asked to believe that Don, a civilian caretaker in one of the requisitioned buildings, can use his swipecard to gain secret access to a heavily guarded military prisoner - and exchange bodily fluids with her. From then on, motivation and narrative-interest join hands on a high window-ledge and jump off. A beautiful military scientist (Rose Byrne) finds herself outside the compound with the two kids and a tough-guy American soldier (Jeremy Renner) decides to disobey orders and help them on a whim, having seen the heartbreakingly vulnerable kid through his crosshair sights - yeah, right.

It's such a fine line between the rage-filled neo-zombies looking scary and looking ridiculous. There are no gradations of lesser scariness, except for the one under looking ridiculous - looking boring. When people are infected, moreover, they turn instantly into slavering beasts, thus impatiently abolishing that dramatically invaluable interval, in which the infectee knows that there is no escape, and must either kill himself or beg others to do away with him. When the rage-monsters attack, their orgies of group violence and fear are shot with frenetic, almost stroboscopic flashiness, and at first this is effective. But then a question dawns: is it being cut like this so we don't get a cold, hard look at two dozen gurning extras on 40 quid a day with ketchup all over their faces?

Alfonso Cuarón managed to convey a superb vision of Britain in the futurist nightmare Children of Men by counter pointing the general situation with intimate, believable dramatic tensions within a small group of people. There is nothing like that here: only crowds of zombies and refugees charging tiresomely about the British landscape, covering huge distances on foot - and quite simply it is often very boring. I particularly felt that the considerable potential of Imogen Poots as Don's teenage daughter was not being effectively used.

The way is left open for more movies in a lucrative franchise: 52 Weeks Later, 104 Weeks Later, or maybe Nine 1/2 Weeks Later, the porn version with Kim Basinger, or Alan Weeks Later, in which the eyes of a well-loved sports commentator turn red and he gets the human-flesh-munchies. The idea could lumber on for some time to come.

28 Weeks Later

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If the zombies don't get you, the snipers will. And since this is not faraway LA, but familiar London, 28 Weeks Later will leave your heart pounding.

Philip FrenchSunday May 13, 2007

The Observer

28 Weeks Later(100 mins, 18)Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo; starring Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Catherine McCormack,

Mackintosh Muggleton, Imogen Poots

In Things to Come (1936), one of the great science-fiction movies, HG Wells conceived of a war breaking out in 1940 and continuing until the 1960s. By that time, most of the world would be reduced to a wasteland where thousands of contaminated, zombie-like people suffering from the 'wandering disease' stalk the land and are shot on sight by more fortunate survivors. He called his principal setting Everytown, which was, in fact, a studio set composed of familiar London landmarks brought together around Piccadilly Circus. 28 Weeks Later, a sequel to 28 Days Later, repeats this scenario, except that, as the title suggests, the time scale has telescoped and, unlike Wells's vision, there is no third act in which the world is rebuilt.

28 Weeks Later is the second full-length movie by Spanish director Juan Fresnadillo, whose accomplished feature debut, the brilliant allegorical thriller Intacto, I thought underrated. I think his new film superior to 28 Days Later, whose director Danny Boyle here functions as co-producer. In that film, a holocaust is triggered by animal-rights activists releasing apes from a Cambridge laboratory where scientists are experimenting with a deadly virus. In a matter of days, flesh-eating zombies have taken over the country, leaving a few survivors in London and a handful of soldiers outside Manchester.

This sequel begins in media res, assuming we know the earlier film, and there's a palpable sense of doom as three generations of Britons live on hoarded food in a boarded-up, candlelit house. Only when a door is opened do we realise there's bright sunshine in the green and pleasant countryside outside. Suddenly, a ferocious horde of crazed creatures attacks; they are as terrifying but much more agile than their counterparts in George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. A bravura five-minute sequence follows that includes rapidly edited close-ups of shock and gore and a tracking shot from a helicopter of Don (Robert Carlyle) running for his life. To add to the terror, he's deserting his wife.

After this shattering opening, we relax as a factual montage carries us through the various stages of the national catastrophe. Twenty-eight weeks later, the virus has run its course and everything is under control. The American army has arrived, turned Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs into a green zone, and is beginning the process of rehabilitation. When we hear the words 'rehabilitation' and 'green zone', we immediately think of Iraq and rightly assume it to be ironic. After all, we've come to see a horror flick, not a film in praise of the last superpower bringing new hope to a shattered nation. There are a few moments of hope when the cowardly Don is reunited with his children, who've been spared the horrors of the preceding six months

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by being sent to a refugee camp in Spain. Their father is now working for the Americans as manager of a dockland tower block. Then we're back to suspense, action and horror.

First, Don's teenage daughter and her young brother escape from the green zone to revisit their old home in a deserted London. There, they find their mother, who turns out to be a virus-carrier. Then there's a panic when the green zone and the surrounding area become a battleground. After a switch to condition red, the order is given to abandon selective targeting. In a scene of slaughter followed by aerial attacks sending fireballs through the canyons of docklands, the populace realises that if the zombies don't get you, the snipers will. In an attempt to save the children, both for themselves and because their blood may possibly provide the source of a vaccine, a concerned military doctor (Rose Byrne) leads them across London on foot and by car. My heart was pounding every foot of the way.

One of the film's great strengths is the way it uses familiar London sights and sites, old and new, ranging from St Paul's, a blackened Nelson's Column and Tower Bridge to the Gherkin, the Millennium Bridge and the new Wembley Stadium. The familiarity enhances the horror as well as being a change from seeing the destruction of New York and Los Angeles in American apocalyptic blockbusters. Everything moves at such a breathless and lapel-grabbing pace that one doesn't think of certain implausibilities or wonder why there are no British troops or political leaders around. Although the general tone might be considered anti-American, the principal sympathetic figures, apart from the fugitive children, are all in the American army - the woman doctor, a black helicopter pilot and a disgusted sniper who turns to helping his designated victims. But the movie is ruthless and not only in the way it spares no one from plague and bullet. The chilling theme is that the road to hell on earth is paved with good intentions, starting with the well-meaning scientists and the animal activists who light the fuse, and continuing with those inspired by compassion and moral decency.

28 Weeks Later

A Film Review by James Berardinelli

HORROR/THRILLERUnited Kingdom, 2007U.S. Release Date: 5/11/07 (wide)Running Length: 1:39MPAA Classification: R (Violence, gore, profanity, brief sexuality)Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

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Cast: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Catherine McCormack, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Imogen Poots, Mackintosh MuggletonDirector: Juan Carlos FresnadilloScreenplay: Rowan Joffe and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo & Jesus OlmoCinematography: Enrique ChediakMusic: John MurphyU.S. Distributor: 20th Century Fox Another week, another disappointing summer sequel. So it goes…

In actuality, the screenplay for 28 Weeks Later isn't all that bad. Sure, it's repetitious and much of it has been regurgitated from 2003's 28 Days Later, but it contains some interesting elements and offers enough gore that horror fans might have been able to enjoy it… if, that is, it wasn't for the stylistic approach employed by director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Apparently, Fresnadillo believes that the proper way to film any action scene is to shake the camera violently and pan it wildly back and forth, thereby making it virtually impossible to figure out what's going on (and pushing viewers with motion sickness to the brink of voiding their stomachs). As if that wasn't bad enough, in the editing room, Fresnadillo ensured that no single shot lasted longer than about a second. Also, the climactic struggle takes place in darkness, making it that much more difficult to decode the action. I didn't realize a character had died until, a little later, it was apparent that person was no longer around.

I wish this problem was restricted to 28 Weeks Later. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly more common. It's a good way to cover mistakes and encourages laziness. What does it matter if a fight is well choreographed if the audience can't get a clear picture? (My complaint for the recently released The Condemned was similar.) In 28 Weeks Later, it's a source of frustration because I was interested in what was happening but the filmmaker's approach robbed me of the ability to appreciate any scene where there was a fight, chase, or other form of action.

28 Weeks Later is a direct sequel to Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, although none of the characters from the first film have returned. Instead, we follow a new group of individuals from their first harrowing encounters with the infected during the initial terrorizing of Britain to their attempts to repopulate London six months later. Don (Robert Carlyle) and Alice (Catherine McCormack) have two children, Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton). The kids are in Spain during the outbreak, while Don and Alice are in hiding. When their hideout is discovered by a group of infected, the cowardly Don runs off, assuming that Alice has been killed. 28 weeks later, the kids come home, but it isn't long before it becomes apparent the crisis isn't over. Members of the U.S. military, including the lead medic (Rose Byrne), a sharpshooter (Jeremy Renner), and a helicopter pilot (Harold Perrineau), try to contain the new epidemic but it spreads too fast and too violently, triggering the ultimate solution: Code Red.

The first and better half of the movie is primarily devoted to setup and character development. This is where we are given a chance to get to know the new protagonists and given insight into the plan to return London to a living, breathing city from the ghost town it has been for the past half-year. As the movie approaches the one-hour mark, however, it turns into an extended chase, with people shooting, screaming, and being torn apart by the infected as they run around in dark corridors and tunnels and the viewer desperately tries to piece together what's going on. Admittedly, there are limitations to what can be done in a zombie movie, but a whiff 15m4/bhf/28 weeks later/07document.doc – May 07 – source from wikipedia/Guardian unlimited/

of originality or coherence would have been appreciated. (I have a sense that the movie might play better on a television than a big screen.)

Action scenes aside, the look of the film is faithful to that of its predecessor. London appears grimy and washed-out: a dead, decaying city that at times would seem to be a comfortable fit into the world developed by Alfonso Cuaron in The Children of Men. The overhead and long-distance shots of empty streets and abandoned buildings are creepy, but no more so here than in 28 Days Later. This film will not be used by British travel agencies to promote vacations to London.

28 Days Later, while not terribly original, was suspenseful and involving. 28 Weeks Later is neither. The characters aren't as sympathetic or interesting. The kids are generic and the script doesn't care much about the adults. Robert Carlyle, Catherine McCormack, and Rose Byrne are criminally underused. Compare them to Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, and Brendan Gleeson from the first film, all of whom inhabited better developed and more sympathetic personalities. Tension in horror movies results from viewers caring about what happens to characters. The audience's connection to the protagonists of 28 Days Later made it a compelling experience. The lack of such a connection in 28 Weeks Later reduces this to a number of sequences characterized by shock moments, frenetic (and often chaotic) action, and stylized gore - all without suspense.

It's too bad, because the fundamental idea of extending the storyline introduced in 28 Days Later is an intriguing one. The problem is that the people entrusted with the responsibility of bringing this to the screen made decisions that resulted in a deeply flawed product. My advice to Fresnadillo: next time you make a movie, allow viewers to see what's happening in real time rather than have to interpolate based on the results. Technique and style are more at fault than any other issue in undermining the effectiveness of this zombie thriller.

Reviewer's Rating   User Rating

28 Weeks Later (2007)Reviewed by Paul Arendt Updated 11 May 2007

Contains strong bloody violence and gore

The dreaded Turbo Zombies are back in this entertaining sequel to Danny Boyle's undead shocker 28 Days Later. Picking up the story (you guessed it) 28 weeks later, the movie is set largely around Canary Wharf, where US soldiers have begun the process of allowing British survivors back into a decimated London. The original cast are nowhere to be seen, replaced by a transatlantic ensemble that includes Rose Byrne, Robert Carlyle, and a mob of howling, red-eyed 'infected' types.

Don (Carlyle) and his two children are among the first survivors to be reunited in the safe zone. Don, a cowardly fellow, abandoned his wife (Catherine McCormack) in the zombie holocaust, so he's more than a little concerned when she turns up, looking a little bloodshot around the eyes. 16m4/bhf/28 weeks later/07document.doc – May 07 – source from wikipedia/Guardian unlimited/

It soon becomes clear that she is carrying a dormant form of the deadly "Rage" virus, and before you know it, Docklands is under siege from hordes of sprinty brain munchers.

Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo does a decent job of copying the template established by Boyle - London has a grimy, digital-video feel that's enhanced by delirious editing and a mind-boggling excess of gore - if you ever wondered who would win a fight between a zombie army and a helicopter, this is the film for you.

"A PACY SATURDAY NIGHT SHOCKER"

While it's a fun addition to the genre, 28 Weeks Later feels a tad redundant - it doesn't do anything that the original didn't do better, and it lacks that film's understated lyricism. As a pacy Saturday night shocker, though, it can't really be faulted, and the final twist is genuinely hilarious.

28 Weeks Later is released in UK cinemas on Friday 11th May 2007.

End Credits

Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

Writer: Rowan Joffe

Stars: Rose Byrne, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Renner,Harold Perrineau, Catherine McCormack

Genre: Horror

Length: 99 minutes

Cinema: 11 May 2007

Country: UK

28 WEEKS LATER - CAST

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17m4/bhf/28 weeks later/07document.doc – May 07 – source from wikipedia/Guardian unlimited/

18m4/bhf/28 weeks later/07document.doc – May 07 – source from wikipedia/Guardian unlimited/