28 Weeks Later – Monkey Review

If only the zombies were this visible!

If you’d like to watch a movie about futuristic urban quarantine with some blurry zombies thrown in, then this movie is for you.


28 Weeks Later

3 Opposable Thumbs Up (out of 5)

We’ve all seen enough zombie films to know what qualifies as a good one, and the two overarching characteristics of a good zombie flick are good zombies and good cinematography. Let’s not even pretend that the script and acting have a big role in this genre.

So it was on these terms that I watched 28 Weeks Later, the latest zombie flick and sequel to the very good 28 Days Later.

As you’d imagine, it’s 28 weeks after the first outbreak of the ”Rage” virus, where the infected turn into frenzied, bloodthirsty killers. Of course, each time a person is bitten, he or she becomes one of the infected – which equals more zombies.

The American military has entered London to manage the quarantine. They insist that they have successfully eradicated the virus from London, and to prove it they have set up a safe living area that has “hot and cold running water and 24 hour electricity.” It is into this safe area that two children are moved, reuniting them with their father, who had earlier escaped a herd of the zombies.

It won’t be a spoiler for me to tell you that the virus rears its ugly head again. But I’ll leave secret the manner in which it resurfaces. All you need to know is: there are more zombies.

Let’s start with the good: this movie is generally well shot (except for one major issue, which I’ll get to in a moment). You get a distinct feel for a dystopian London, and you fully believe that the city has been wiped out by the virus. As in the first film, this movie once again makes use of great CG work to deliver us an empty London. There are no people on the streets, which adds to the eerie tone.

The acting is good enough to make us believe that this truly is a desperate situation. We don’t really have time to get too attached to any of the characters, but this is a zombie film, so who cares? And that’s also a positive commentary on the pacing which is fast and fun. Still, who ends up living and dying is a bit of a surprise, so that was nice.

The militaristic quarantine backdrop is excellent. I’ve never been in a military quarantine, but I’d imagine this is how it would be. And the quarantine conditions provide some terrifically tense parameters to the prospect of trying to escape the zombies.

But there is one major issue with this movie which causes me to knock down its rating: YOU CAN’T SEE THE ZOMBIES. How’s that for a zombie movie? Every time they show a zombie, the camera is shaking uncontrollably. Whether this is done to give us an idea for how frenetic the zombies are or because the makeup and special effects teams were working on a tight budget, it cripples the film. When the zombies are actually attacking, it’s simply impossible to tell what’s going on.

So if you’d like to watch a movie about futuristic urban quarantine with some blurry zombies thrown in, then this movie is for you. And believe me when I tell you that the above-mentioned strong points of this film almost make it worthwhile still. But ultimately it’s quite disappointing to know that 28 Weeks Later was a few clear zombie shots away from being a great movie.