Fuel the Fear

Review Written By: Gaius Bolling

Release Date: May 11th, 2007

28 Days Later was one of those pre-hyped horror films that generated a lot of buzz before its release. I saw the film in the theaters during that hype, liked the film, but I think the hype machine left me with expectations that were extremely high. I appreciated the film much more after I bought it on DVD. The first film is a clever and creepy "zombie" film that also touches on the possibility of how we would survive if an entire city was wiped out by some kind of infection.

28 Weeks Later was a differenct story for me. I went in with low expectations thinking I would experience a quick cash in sequel but to my surprise this film was made with a great deal of integrity and respect for the original. It follows that whole theory that the second time around everything is a bit bigger and louder, but it offers us this without compromising the story. 28 Weeks Later is a welcomed chapter in the frightening look of what would happen if we lost control during an outbreak of a violent infection. Needless to say, from a horror film standpoint, it was one of the best to come out during the time of its release.

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.

This film had me hooked from the start. The opening scene did what no horror film has done in recent memory: it made me jump out of my seat. That first initial break in during the first 10 minutes was exceptionally well done and it really threw me head first into the story. Intense is probably the best way to describe this scene and the film is filled with many intense moments that should entertain the viewer.

Despite all the entertainment provided by the action, the films smaller moments probably are the highlights. The first film did a great job of creating the isolation and decaying nature of London after the infection outbreak. This atmosphere is wonderfully re-created here with several overhead helicopter shots of an empty London, looking incredibly creepy. Both films tapped into my fear of just being alone in a potential situation like this. The idea of this is no different from being one of few survivors if we had a nuclear fall out. I also dug the idea of repopulating Britain but under strict guidelines to ensure that the infected could not break out again. It made me think of what could happen we had to be in a similar situation. The idea of being under such a lockdown is even more terrifying than the infected that are represented in this film.

The acting is top notch from all involved. If I have one complaint is that I cared more about the characters in the first film but since the cast has been expanded a bit this time around, I can see why character development couldn't be properly explored. Actors like Robert Carlyle and Harold Parrineau for instance are criminally underused and we aren't given much insight into their personalities. They do a decent job, especially Carlyle but they aren't given enough to do. The children played by Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton are truly the only characters who garner our sympathy and they do a damn good job of it too. Not merely because they're children but because they do a great job of making their characters believeable and easy to relate to given the situaton. Jason Renner and Rose Byrne also provide adequate support with Byrne creating a female character that is strong and believable.

I want to talk a bit about the shakey cam because in most reviews I read, even those that liked it, many people have complained about the shakey cam. I'm not a fan of this device. I think quick edits take away from the action taking place on screen and it also makes it extremely hard to tell what's going on. The action scenes in Batman Begins are an example of this. I love that film but my only complaint was that the hand to hand combat scenes were so hard to get into because the quick edits made it difficult to tell what was going on. To my surprise, the shakey cam in this film, added to the visceral experience of the film. There are many moments where it is hard to tell what is going on when the infected strike but the screams of horror and the snarls of the infected was all I needed to hear in order to truly feel the horror of the experience. The quick edits actually made many of the scenes much more intense. The best example of this is during the code red scene when everyone is looked down and one of the infected breaks in and begain to infect everyone. The scene is mostly dark but the intensity of how quick it was taking place, made the scene all the more frightening. The slower action scenes work as well (especially the various sniper scenes towards the end and a very frightening night vision scene that had my theater shrieking a bit) but I did appreciate the quick cuts this time around. You win this round shakey cam!

28 Weeks Later was a decent sized hit when it was released in 2007 but I expected it to do a bit better considering the positive audience reaction. From what I read there is another sequel coming out soon and I hope to be pleasantly surprised by that film as well. These films have reinvented the zombie film and they have done so with style and substance.

Trivia:

Most of the filming of the US Army Camp took place during the weekend of 21st/22nd October 2006 in the courtyard outside the Citypoint Building, Ropemaker Street, London EC2. A large number of tents with US flags, cast in military dress and vehicles were in place. Additionally access to the sub-floor car park area appears to have been given to shoot an underground scene.
Robert Carlyle had turned down a part in 28 Days Later (2002).
All of the night scenes involving Andy, Tammy, Scarlet, Doyle and Sam's journey across London to escape the bombs were shot day-for-night using a new technique created specifically for the film by director of photography Enrique Chediak. The scenes were shot day-for-night for three reasons. Firstly, because the filmmakers weren't allowed to use Mackintosh Muggleton (Andy) at night time. Secondly, because there is supposed to be a total shut down of all power in London, hence every building must appear light-less. However, if one were to actually shoot at night time in London, this would be impossible to capture photo-realistically and would hence involve complex post-production work removing all of the lights. By shooting during the day time however, there are few lights on in most buildings anyway, and as such, when the day-for-night treatment is applied to the film stock, everything in the image darkens equally, thus giving the impression that all of the buildings are in total darkness. Thirdly, director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has always been a big fan of the 'ghostly' quality day-for-night shooting has, and he felt it would create the perfect sense of unease for the film.
According to director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, composer John Murphy had only two weeks to compose the entire score for the movie.
When Danny Boyle, Alex Garland and Andew Macdonald first began to consider a sequel to 28 Days Later (2002), their initial idea was to do 29 Days Later, possibly using the characters of Jim (Cillian Murphy), Selena (Naomi Harris) and Hannah (Megan Burns) from the first film. This idea was dropped in favor of doing a film set within the time-frame of 28 Days Later..., focusing on an SAS team sent into London to retrieve either the Prime Minister or the Queen. Finally, it was suggested to set the film some time after the events of the initial film, and to deal with the impact Rage has had on society in general.
The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff doubled for the interior of Wembley Stadium because, at the time of filming, the interior of the newly built Wembley was still under construction. Visual effects were used to turn the seats red and make the grass appear untended.
The farm that Don and Alice hide out in the start of the film is the same farm that appears in Children of Men (2006).
The boy who arrives at the cottage at the beginning of the film claims to be from Sandford. Sandford is the name of the 'fake' village that was used by British police to practice emergency preparedness drills. It's also the fictitious locale for the action comedy Hot Fuzz (2007).

The film made $9.8 million in its opening weekend, coming in second place at the box office, behind Spider-Man 3. The film has grossed $28,638,916 in the U.S. and $35,586,549 in other countries, bringing the worldwide total to $64,225,465.

About 1,327,461 DVD units were sold gathering a revenue of $24,222,064

Review: 28 Weeks Later (2007)