Fans worried about Danny Boyle’s absence from the director’s chair have nothing to fear. Along with a wicked visual eye, director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo devises some of the most brilliantly scary set-pieces in recent memory, executing the horror with a malicious gusto rarely seen in films today. Even a particular gory action sequence, which we saw earlier this year in Robert Rodriguez’s segment of Grindhouse, is far more jaw-dropping here. Most of all, this director knows how to catch you off guard. When a group of characters run into a new scenario, it’s impossible to predict who will come out on the other side.
Another one of the director’s traits is a welcomed focus on sound design. Ambient noises and eerie bowel-shaking bass lines substitute for the usual shrieking musical stingers and bring a genuine sense of dread from the first frame. Whether it’s a scene of quiet drama or excessive splatter, every moment in 28 Weeks Later keeps you on edge thanks to inventive direction, solid performances, and uncanny attention to detail.
Admittedly, there are a few things this sequel doesn’t do quite as well. The characters aren’t as nuanced as the protagonists in 28 Days Later, and the traditional gritty shaky-cam approach can be incoherent at times; but with a movie this ambitious, it hardly detracts from the overall enjoyment. In a time when the end seems extremely fucking nigh for our genre, 28 Weeks Later delivers a visceral roller-coaster ride that pulls no punches. Hopefully we’ll get something of this caliber when the inevitable 28 Months Later rolls around.
4 out of 5
Article comments
1 - Lisa McKay
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2 - DukeDeMondo
ooooh nice. Excellent review, Andrew. i must admit that i was none too excited at all about the prospect of a Boyle-less sequel (i'm sure there plenty of Boils to make up for it. God that was awful), but with every review i read, the spark of anticipation swells that bit further back the throat. I'm near chokin on a desire to see the bugger now. and oooh, LOVELY screenshot up thonner.