|
|
|
|
|
After the deadly rage virus spread throughout London in 28 Days Later, turning the majority of the population into blood-thirsty zombies, the few survivors barricaded themselves together, to ward off the infected. Don (Robert Carlyle) and his wife, Alice (Catherine McCormack), are two of the survivors, sheltered in an old house in the country with four others. When the house is attacked by a band of zombies, Don makes a run for it, leaving his wife behind to fight for herself.
After the outbreak, the US Army arrives in London to contain the virus and clean up the wreckage. And, 28 weeks later, they start letting people back in. Among those returning are Don’s kids, Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton), who were on a school trip in Spain during the outbreak. Don tells his kids that he saw his wife die—but they discover otherwise when they break out of the heavily-guarded, livable part of the city and return home, only to find their mother hiding there.
Alice is brought in for tests, and the doctors discover that she’s been infected. She’s carrying the virus, but it hasn’t affected her at all. One doctor, Scarlet (Rose Byrne), is determined to study Alice, in hopes that it’ll help find an antidote—but the military is determined to kill her before she spreads the virus. But Don is the first to reach her—and he becomes infected with the virus, and the horror begins again. Since Tammy and Andy could have the same natural immunity as their mother, Scarlet realizes how important it is to save them—because they could hold the cure to the deadly virus.
28 Weeks Later is, in a word, intense. It’s one of those movies that, from the very beginning, will have you digging your fingernails into your armrests (or into the hand of the person next to you, or whatever the case may be). In the time between attacks, the ominous camera angles will keep you on edge, just waiting for all hell to break loose. And once it does, everything moves at a frantic speed—with footage to match. It’s similar to the caffeinated-monkey footage in The Condemned—it’s shaky and fast-paced, and it keeps audiences from clearly seeing the action. This time, however, it’s mercifully so. While it’s bound to make viewers a little bit motion-sick, that’s nothing compared to the sickness they’d experience if they were to actually see the carnage. The few moments that the audience does endure are gruesome enough. And just the hints of slaughter and blood-vomiting are enough to make even the toughest of viewers close their eyes, if only for a second.
In the midst of the excessive gore—and despite the ridiculously transparent message—28 Weeks Later still manages to tell an interesting story…right up until the perplexingly anti-climactic conclusion. It goes without saying that you shouldn’t see it if you can’t handle a lot of blood. Or if you have a heart condition. But hard-core horror fans who can take a few nights of gruesome nightmares will find that 28 Weeks Later is, for the most part, a dizzying work of bloody art.
|
|
|
|
