Camden New Journal - Movies: 28 Weeks Later

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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 10 May 2007

Watch out! The virus is catching

28 WEEKS LATER
Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Certificate 18

THE original 28 Days Later produced a malign virus “which when transmitted in a single drop of blood turned those affected into a permanent state of murderous rage”.
Directed by Danny Boyle, it became the cult horror classic of 2002, and made such an impact that a sequel was only a matter of time.
Now we’ve moved forward seven months on screen, and the “rage virus” has been eliminated – or has it? Silly question!
Enter family man Robert Carlyle, filled with guilt after leaving his wife (Catherine McCormack) to die at the hands of rampaging zombies, with the American army called in to reconstruct the nation.
Refugees start returning. London is getting back to normal. Then the wife turns up, staring-eyed and baring her teeth – and the virus is on the loose once more.
Cue panic in the streets, and enough tomato ketchup splashed around to drain your local chippy’s supply for a year.
Boyle is executive producer on this one, and persuades his old Trainspotting pal Carlyle to turn into a salivating red-eyed monster, dripping blood down his shirt and wreaking havoc on the locals.
The impact of this extraordinary shift of character is in its surprise, one of many that director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo throws at us throughout the movie
to produce maximum shocks as he keeps the film in overdrive with panache and pace.
Spookily effective shots of London streets filled with crashed cars, broken windows and the odd decomposing corpse – and nothing else moving – ensure this will be a certain hit at horror festivals for a long time to come.

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