28 Weeks Later (18)

Dir: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2007, UK, 99mins
Cast: Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Catherine McCormack, Mackintosh Muggleton, Imogen Poots, ROBERT CARLYLE

With DANNY BOYLE busy on Sunshine (2007), directorial duties for this 28 Days Later (2002) sequel are handled by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who focuses the film on the attempt to rebuild society after the devastating effects of the Rage virus have run their course. Britain has undergone a period of quarantine and is now under US control as the first wave of citizens return to live in a small secure zone in London’s Isle of Dogs. Among them are young Tammy (Poots) and Andy (Muggleton), returning from a fortuitously-timed holiday that saw them out of the country when the virus first hit. There to greet them is their father (CARLYLE), who has become caretaker of one of the secure facilities and – unbeknownst to the children – left their mother to die in order to save himself. Running concurrently to this story of a family reunited is an examination of the US forces’ attempt to maintain order and security throughout the quarantine zone – an act of Canute-style hubris that seems doomed to failure from the outset. The majority of the American personnel are faceless automatons of authority, save Byrne and Renner as the senior health officer and expert sniper respectively.

There’s much to admire about this film, particularly in its audio-visual aspect. As with the first film, some of the most effective sequences make familiar locations seem strange and alien by the simple fact that they are utterly deserted. There’s something beautiful, terrifying about the sight of London stripped of its population, and those resident will particularly enjoy the creative use of location. The cinematography is stylish and intense, particularly in the sequences of the Rage virus taking hold. The gore levels appear to have been increased significantly from the first film, with several scenes likely to cause even the most hardened horror fans to squirm slightly. Rather than seeming gratuitous, the added violence successfully conveys just how far from civilised humanity the rage virus takes its victims.

Unfortunately, the film falls down is in its handling of the uninfected humans. The reliance on the children to drive the plot forward is groan inducing, as it allows the scriptwriters to justify idiotic plot decisions on the pretext of innocent naivety. This is not to say that the adult characters have much more common sense or depth of personality, as the one truly interesting relationship – that of CARLYLE and his presumed-dead wife (McCormack) – is dealt with in a manner that seems like nothing more than a perfunctory excuse to get Carlyle infected and snarling as quickly as possible. Much of the second half of the film deals with the attempted escape of the children and their protectors, but so much more could have been made of the issues of survivor guilt and how one defines humanity. While there’s no doubting the filmmakers of this sequel have stayed reasonably true to the first film while expanding on its principles, the truth is that bigger doesn’t always mean better.

Tom Alexander