28 Weeks Later 2007 takes the terror of the zombie apocalypse to a new level, writes WILLIAM BOVE
TITLE: 28 Weeks Later
YEAR RELEASED: 2007
DIRECTOR: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
CAST: Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne and Robert Carlyle
Review of 28 Weeks Later 2007
The first film, 28 Days Later, set a bloody, horror-filled backdrop for the standard end-of-the-world movie.
But unlike so many others, it didn’t focus solely on the desolation of what was, nor on the barren wasteland of what is.
Instead, it conveyed the horror of a tortured landscape reshaped by doom. No! The first film subverted every expectation of the apocalypse by making the desolation personal, situational, and moment by moment.
It did something else, too: it paired despair with hope at every turn, only to rip that hope away or turn it into mince meat before offering it once more. Like the greatest poker players, the film played its hand close to the chest, revealing its aces at the end for the final win, giving us a happy ending.
But while we rested easy, something more monstrous and horrific than the first was bubbling up. If 28 Days Later provided the horrifying backdrop, then 28 Weeks Later embodies its brutal, twisted soul.
Released in 2007, 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to the original film, introduces a monster more terrifying than we’ve seen before. Who better to portray this brutal, twisted soul than Robert Carlyle? A man who, with just a glance, can embody the devil or portray the desperation of humanity, as he did in Ravenous. Much of the filming took place in London, particularly in Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs.
In 28 Weeks Later, Carlyle is no less ravenous. The film opens on a different world – a world NATO has rebuilt from the roots of what once was. There’s new hope now, with new organisation, and out of all the sadistic horror comes a new order.
This time around, the focus shifts to a new family. We no longer follow Jim, Selena, and Hannah. Their fate is left unknown, though we hope they lived long in their happy ending. Now, we follow a brother, Andy (played by Mackintosh Muggleton), his sister Tammy (played by Imogen Poots), their father Don (played by Robert Carlyle), and their mother Alice (played by Catherine McCormack). They are brought together in a government-run encampment, free from the threats of the rage virus and its fevered monsters.
Before reaching the safety of the facility, however, unrest brews. The family, along with a few others, hides in a cottage outside London. One day, a boy arrives at their door, pounding and begging to be let in. Don allows the boy inside, but the family soon realises that rage-infected monsters have followed him. Don pleads with his wife to leave the boy behind and flee, but Alice refuses, not wanting to leave the boy defenseless.
In a rash decision driven by fear and self-preservation, Don abandons his family, escaping down the river by boat. For some time, the family is separated until they are reunited at the encampment. Tammy and Andy sneak away to their old home, hoping to retrieve family mementoes. To their surprise, they find their mother Alice, alive but in a strange, semi-conscious state. Following the same path as Jim in the first film, Alice and the children are found by the military just before the infected can get to them.
They are taken back to the facility, where Alice is quarantined and tested. Although she is not infected, she is a carrier of the rage virus and remains separated from everyone else until the authorities decide what to do with her.
Driven by guilt, Don visits Alice in her quarantine room, seeking to unburden his conscience and make amends. The two reunite, sharing a kiss, but this fateful moment triggers Don’s transformation into one of the infected. Without hesitation, he kills his wife, and what follows is a terrifying bloodbath that escalates into a horror ride from bad to worse.
The facility descends into chaos as Don infects others, turning the safe zone into a kill box. The children must now survive their own father, who is no longer their father, as well as a growing army of the infected. As panic spreads, soldiers are ordered to kill anyone trying to escape, infected or not. One of the soldiers, Scarlet (played by Rose Byrne), a US medical officer, takes charge, helping the children escape. A sniper, Doyle (played by Jeremy Renner), defies orders to shoot civilians and joins Scarlet in rescuing the kids.
Just in time, they escape the facility as military bombers arrive to firebomb the entire area, purging it of all infected. Yet Don survives the destruction, continuing his bloody rampage to find his children and devour them with his rage-fueled madness.
The group dodges infected, military forces, and gas bombs as they try to escape. They are eventually rescued by Doyle’s pilot friend Flynn, who arrives in a helicopter. However, Flynn initially refuses to take the children and Scarlet, but Doyle insists. The group heads to Wembley Stadium, but their escape is thwarted when the military intervenes with gas bombs and flamethrowers. As the car stalls, Doyle sacrifices himself, pushing the car as he’s engulfed in flames.
Scarlet grabs the children and flees into the London Underground, a dark and isolated place where their hope is once again dashed. Don tracks them down, killing Scarlet and biting Andy. However, Andy remains unaffected by the infection, as he, like his mother, is a carrier. His sister Tammy shoots Don, ending their father’s horrific rampage.
Hope is not entirely lost. Flynn flies in to rescue Tammy and Andy, taking them to France. But 28 days later, a radio broadcast from Paris signals the worst: the infected have reached France, and the terror is far from over.
Fun fact: all infected actors in the film were required to have a movement-based artistic background. The final cast included ballet dancers, gymnasts, circus performers, and mimes.
What will happen to Tammy and Andy? Will France rise to new heights of horror to rival London’s chaos in 28 Days Later? We’ll surely find out in June 2025 with 28 Years Later.
Have you seen 28 Days Later 2007? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below!
