Danny Boyle’s 28 DAYS LATER was a remarkable achievement, a gripping, terrifying thriller that kept its human characters firmly at its center and offered a smart and unsettling commentary on the human condition. It is in my opinion a landmark of the horror genre that easily ranks alongside EXORCIST and DAWN OF THE DEAD in both its status as a film and its take on the genre– rather than a scare-fest, it told a human drama using the conventions of the horror genre, in this case sourcing the zombie sub-genre. Its focus was not action and splatter but characters and their relationships, and offered a look at the dark side of the human condition in all its unflinchingly primal elements. When I learned a sequel was being made to this I had the reaction that I expect I would have had if I had been around when EXORCIST II was first released. Thankfully, 28 WEEKS LATER is a respectable follow-up to Boyle’s film, though unsurprisingly weaker.
The plot to the film is basic: it is six months after the initial outbreak, Britain is a quarantined zone that is just starting to be re-built and somehow another outbreak of the Rage virus takes place. 28 WEEKS LATER has the same terrific acting and solid directing and writing that the original was graced with, but it is flawed in many ways that hold it back from achieving its potential. The film is more action-oriented, with a plethora of chase scenes, shoot-outs and even some carpet-bombing. While the original film was a human drama interspersed occasionally with tense confrontations with the infected, here the film becomes a series of chases, occasionally interrupted. Having said that, however, the characters are strong and real, and Robert Carlyle is absolutely superb in a role that is criminally underused. The first half of the film gives us the impression that it may venture into exploring the dark regions of the human condition and the primal survival instincts we all struggle with, and offered some very compelling human characters with very compelling struggles, but alas, this quickly dissipates into scenes of fleeing crowds and growling monsters. The film is also much closer to the tradition zombie genre. The original film looks tame by comparison, for the sequel is filled with blood and gore, and features plenty of of throat-tearings, eviscerations and swarming, and images of creatures lurching about with missing limbs.
While 28 DAYS LATER was a human drama built on the horror genre, 28 WEEKS LATER is perhaps more of a straightforward thriller, albeit one of the best-crafted sort. It will terrify and disturb you, and it will keep you glued to the screen to find out what happens to the characters. Its chase scenes are tense and superbly directed–particularly the prologue–and it still manages some interesting drama. While the film seemed poised to be so much more than a more standard zombie thriller, this is definitely one of the better ones to come along in a very long while. With the dreadfully lame RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION out this film serves as a reminder of how to make zombie thrillers.
The Video:
Foregoing the blurry mini-DV cinematography of the original, 28 WEEKS LATER is shot on a variety of formats that makes it difficult to gauge what is due to source quality and what is due to video transfer. Much of the attack scenes are shot in 16mm to give an intentionally grainy, rougher look that is effective and captured well on the video transfer. Much of the compound scenes are on 35mm and look much slicker, though I did notice a few instance in the action scenes of very mild compression artifacting. Generally the video quality is good but nothing too remarkable.
The Audio:
Again, generally good but nothing especially remarkable. Sometimes I thought a detected a bit of muddiness but this I think is more of a mixing thing rather than the audio transfer, and may be an intentional aesthetic.
The Extras:
28 WEEKS LATER comes presented on a single disk and thus is not a special edition. It does, however, pack quite a bit of features into its space. There is a standard making-of that offers some nice behind-the-scenes footage, but it is unfortunately short. Other featurettes highlight the action scenes, and perhaps the best one is a very amusing look at the extras and performers who portrayed the infected. While the behind-the-scenes footage is quite good, the interviews appear to be the press-kit style, though they manage to still get in some good info. Deleted scenes and a directors commentary round out the disk, in addition to trailers and what appears to be flash-animation adaptations of a comic book spin-off. Overall, while these are not exactly features to knock your socks off, they still give us a solid look at the making of the film and make the release more worthwhile.
Overall, this is a decent DVD release. The film itself is excellent, there are no issue with audio or video, and a humble assortment of extras make this a very recommended viewing.
