British horror sequel horrible
'28 Weeks Later' is eons from the smart European dystopia of '28 Days Later'
By Roger Moore
the orlando sentinel
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.10.2007
The horror sequel "28 Weeks Later" has the most arresting, gruesome and unnerving opening 11 minutes in moviegoing memory.
The follow-up to the "Britain Wiped Out by Rage-aholic Zombies" thriller "28 Days Later" briefly and economically introduces us to a small clutch of survivors, walled-up, "Night of the Living Dead"-style, in a remote farmhouse. Then bloody-eyed Brits pour in and slaughter everybody who isn't able to beat them off with a crowbar or outboard motor.
"Weeks" is a frenetic killing machine — telling in its grasp of human nature and utterly incapable of embracing the humanity it wants to show us. It's reduced the best horror franchise of the new millennium from a smart European dystopia to another Hollywood killing machine, efficient and heartless.
Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo beautifully sets us up for a grim tale of survivor's guilt as Robert Carlyle plays a character who must live with the knowledge that when the chips were down, he cut and ran, leaving his wife (Catherine McCormack) to a grisly death. Since their kids were away from the UK when the Rage Virus broke out, Dad may even have to explain his cowardice to them when the "re-population" begins "28 Weeks Later."
The sequel takes the story even closer to the bleak heart of the film's obvious inspiration — "The Omega Man." But the plot is absurd in the extreme, as chemical weapons are survived by holding a shirtsleeve over one's face, characters take every opportunity to go into dark places and demented Dad is still clever enough to track his kids hither and yon with a notion of ripping their flesh and making them just like him.
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