28 Weeks Later

Click poster to view trailer

28 Weeks Later isn't messing around when it comes to providing an over-the-top horrific nightmare scenario, and although I liked it a lot, I just have to say my main problem with it, was the sound level. Hey, I know I listen to deathmetal, but that doesn't mean I appreciate my ears being blasted by insanely loud sounds/screaming/clawing in a movie theater to the point it makes you wince from it, swear to god if I'd known certain sequences were going to be that loud, I'd brought earplugs. Not to mention it bugs the hell outta me that some directors find it necessary to scare their audiences not from carefully modulated or built up suspense (although the film was not without those aspects, as well) and/or scenes of intense freakish (and quiet) terror, but from scaring the beejezuz out of you from the sheer sudden noise factor; its like a copout.

That said, the movie was still effectively scary in the sense a good horror movie about a viral zombie-esque outbreak should be, there's little room for doubt on that point. 28 WEEKS LATER certainly cranks up the nightmare factor, the gore, the blood, the brains, the screaming clawing frenzied shoving mob of super crack-addicted zombies breakdancing on your face and dribbling bloody drool onto your eyes and such. And of course it stars Robert Carlysle, one of my favorite character actors (Trainspotting, Ravenous, etc), and he brings the old Carlysle intensity to his role (and then some).

The movie's weaker points come from, I don't know, that whole shaky-cam thing that Danny Boyle kinda kickstarted with the first movie in this franchise (and make no mistake about it, we're all set for a 28 MONTHS LATER, don't act so surprised), and I have to admit this director (the spanish director of the movie INTACTO, which I've heard much about but haven't seen) took the Romero-inspired premise to new heights of horrific action (including one scene so outlandishly gory & over-the-top, that you applaud it while at the same time cringing from its inherent unbelievablity -- i.e, the plausibility factor completely implodes during it), but the movie also suffers from a certain sterility akin to the kind you get from filming in video, although I think a part of that is the point, stylistically, so it's got this mixed results thing going. During certain sequences, one gets the distinct feeling the director is flexing his muscles in the same manner a heavymetal band delivers a smokin' killer riff, there is much bravado in the directorial style, which I, as a heavymetal fan myself, totally dug, ya dig?

All in all however, the director pulled it off with some extra characterizations, such as the one military sniper who refuses to follow orders when they're given clearance to "shoot everybody on the ground, no exceptions", he was one of the film's strong points (he kinda resembled Elliott Smith to me) and he lent the story a bit more gravitas.

All in all, the movie 28 WEEKS LATER is a carefully constructed tone-poem of disease, despair, and disaster in a post-terrorist world that tries, and mostly succeeds, to depict a nihilistic humanity whose selfishness and weakness (as opposed to sacrifice and courage in the face of adversity) have largely brought us to the point of virtual implosion. The director paid a keen eye to the family unit, and symbolically comments on the overall human condition by representing what occurs to this one family. All I can say is, it ain't pretty, and that, I would add, is an understatement.

28 WEEKS LATER is a revved-up, post-zombie flick for the new generation. It's loud, lean, and mean, and doesn't mess around. It goes straight for the audience's jugular, and if you aren't excited by that prospect, you might want to stay away from this one. On the other hand, if you're looking for some new heights (and depths) to frenzied, incoherent nightmares concerning biological terrorism and its fallout, by all means, fork up the feature price for this one and prepare for a harrowing time at the movies. Just don't forget your earplugs.