28 Weeks Later
dir. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
2007



"Mom! Dad! Don't touch it! It's evil"
- Kevin, Time Bandits

"They are us. They are the same animal, behaving less perfectly."
- Dr. Logan, Day of the Dead

"It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes."
- Agent Rogers, Repo Man


One of the most horrifying moments in 28 Days Later comes late in the second act when the surviving humans of the rage virus epidemic (which all but wiped out the population of England in less than one lunar cycle) realize that the virus had not destroyed all humanity, but just the United Kingdom.

The horror comes with the realization that the rest of the planet will just as soon write off the UK as sneeze. "What would you do with a diseased little island?" laments an unifected soldier.

What, indeed. With a virus that could potentially destroy any populated area in less than a few weeks nicely contained and with few (if any) survivors to rescue, who in their right mind would ever set foot on this rocky little promontory ever again?

28 Weeks Later, enter the Americans. Well-meaning and ill-prepared, the American army begins a repatriation effort in London. Survivors and escapees from the original infection are slowly returned to their homes after a period of quarantine. Well, not quite...they are returned to a green zone on the Isle of Dogs while the military tidies up the rest of the city.

So, 15,000 restless refugees warehoused only a few kilometers away from a reservoir of the deadliest virus known to man and overseen by a skeleton crew of overworked foreigners? What, as the kids ask today, could possibly go wrong?

I don't imagine I need to spell it out: exposure, infection, epidemic, extreme military response.

Once the virus is free, the latter half of the film is an escape, a la Children of Men, with our main characters being two American soldiers, two children and a scientist who knows that the children represent a potential cure for rage.

The essential irony of all good zombie movies is that it is the other humans, not the dead or infected, that represent the greatest threat. George Romero is the master of this. There's simply no reason why society would collapse the way it does in the original Dawn of the Dead. The zombies are slow, stupid and uncoordinated. All people have to do is shoot them in the head and go about their business.

The existential horror of the zombie problem is summed up by the military commander in the first 28 movie: "what I've seen for the last four weeks is people killing people, which is the same thing I saw in the four weeks before that and the four weeks before that going back for my whole life."

This idea, by the way, was well-handled in Shaun of the Dead, which envisioned the living dead integrating into society as something like dangerous, high-functioning pets. This is the most realistic (in the sense of how we would all respond) scenario I've seen in one of these movies. For most of our history, humans have been surrounded by dangerous predators.

In 28 Days Later, the layering of the zombie problem is interesting and multi-faceted. Zombie infection is brought to the world (accidentally) by our hero, who along with his comrades releases an infected animal from captivity. As we follow him through the film, we cannot shake the reality that all the horror we see is his fault.

When our hero and his compatriots run across a sadistic military commander and his platoon (who is interested only in procuring females for his men like latter-day Sabine Women), we cannot help but wonder how many of us owe our existence to the rape of some ancient ancestor.

Zombie infections, in other words, don't bring out the best in people.

Similar themes are explored in 28 Weeks Later, but all too often they are abandoned in favor of a convenient zombie chase or firey explosion. In the end, none of the characters seems to bear much responsibility or manifest much horror. Added to which, the sequel brings little new (short of the hope of a cure) to the 28 Time Periods Later universe.

But, the lack of story advancement is more than made up for by the simply masterful directing and editing. Fresnadillo manages to remain true to the ever-askew vision of Danny Boyle while bringing his own (much more action oriented) sensibilities to bear.

Every shot in the original 28 Days Later was striking: multi-layered compositions, both in depth and height, high-angle predatory tracking shots and a wonderful, Magritte-like juxtaposition of light and dark and bleak and vibrant color made the original film one that you could literally just watch (sans sound) and enjoy.

Likewise, the sequel rips with tension and action. In Fresnadillo's hands, Boyle's camera moves like a bird in flight.

A third film (28 Months Later) is eagerly anticipated.

Two and a half stars, Infected Jason says, come here a minute...I want to whisper something to you.