28 Weeks Later 2007 Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Cast: Catherine McCormack, Robert Carlyle, Amanda Walker, Imogen Poots

Written by: Tony DeFrancisco October 15, 2007

In this entire review, I will not use the Z-word. Hold it to me, everyone.

“28 Days Later” was an introduction back to the… undead… genre. Most of those movies featured dead people walking, you know, “Night of the Living Dead”-days. But Danny Boyle brought us something fresh to the table. Watch a Romero movie. What caused the outbreak? We don’t know! Danny Boyle told us that monkeys caused people to become infected.

Now normally, you guys will be saying “MONKEYS?! WHAT THE HELL?” It makes perfect sense. Look at “28 Days Later.” The infected men, women, and children ran to capture their prey. Why do you think this is? The monkey. The monkey has to run to catch his prey, especially if they want to eat. “28 Days Later” did not only reintroduce us to these undead people, but they introduced us to a whole line of them into another movie which I am glad to say that puts the guns on the table and tells you to do it yourself.

Thus, “28 Weeks Later” was born and in the hands by an unknown Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. He only directed three movies before-hand and many people have said that this guy would fail since Danny Boyle was only a producer. But you guys were WRONG! “28 Weeks Later” is not only one of the best movies in its genre, it is one of the best in horror. I couldn’t choose which is better between “28 Days” or “Weeks,” because each film is so damn good.

But “28 Weeks Later” is not your average Hollywood sequel. It was not made for the greens, because by my count and BoxOfficeMojo’s, it only made twenty-eight million in the United States, and thirty-two million everwhere else. “28 Weeks Later” was made for a group of people – whoever liked “28 Days Later.” Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is obviously a fan of it, and he made it the best he could and keep it totally original, with new characters and setting it in London after it’s been quarantined.

“28 Weeks Later” takes place… umm… 28 weeks later after the first movie. After the outbreak has occurred, military officials from the United States barge in and take over, killing whoever is dead. After everything has been killed, the military has been instructed to bring people into the U.K. Among those people are Tammy and Andy Harris, the children of Donald and Alice Harris. Funny story about Donald and Alice… During the outbreak, Donald leaves Alice to die when the infected storm through the house they are staying at.

While Donald turns his back twenty-eight weeks later after those events, Tammy and Andy sneak across the other side of the town to go visit their old home. One of the kids walks into their parents’ old bedroom, and they find their mom, alive and well. The military find them, and the mom, and they travel back where Alice gets investigated. It turns out that Alice is also infected and can still infect people, but doesn’t have the same chromosomes as the rest of the infected. So Donald sticks his tongue in her mouth without knowing she is infected, and Tammy and Andy got themselves and the rest of the London into some serious sh*t.

The reason why “28 Weeks Later” is so good is that it doesn’t rely on the same formula as an undead movie. Yes, it is still people just trying to survive, but “28 Weeks Later” has an idea of what it wants to do. It wants to be original, not like the movies that include dead people. But do you notice WHY I’m not saying the z-word in my review? Simply because the people that run around in “28 Weeks Later” are not them. They are just people that are infected by a virus. Because they explained it to us, I choose not to call them zombies (okay, now I said it, but only that time).

Understand this. The reason that we call them the z-word is because we don’t know what caused them to become them. That’s why you guys call the Romero films classic, right? You don’t know if they are infected; you just know that those guys are dead and they walk around and whoever they bite, they automatically become like them. That being said, they are never said to be infected. We know that the dead are infected in “28 Weeks Later,” because they tell us in “28 Days.” Just don’t call the infected in “28 Weeks Later” the z-word, or I will attack the living sh*t out of you.

“28 Weeks Later” isn’t just a zombie movie. It doesn’t only scare, and it doesn’t only have scenes that we say “WOW” to. It works with your emotions too. I will never forget the first time I saw that trailer. That, along with “Children of Men” and “Across the Universe,” never made me so emotional. I began tearing up. I had a pit in my stomach that stayed there throughout the entire trailer. “Shrinking Universe” by Muse never sounded so good. It fit right in with the trailer. I got to see this film opening weekend and it was well worth it.

But I originally gave it three and a half out of four because of the shakey-cam. When you watch a movie with the shakey-cam on the big screen, you feel dizzy and nauseating. Within ten minutes of “28 Weeks Later,” the shakey-cam is used and it’s easy to get dizzy over it. But watching it on DVD gave me a totally new outlook of it. What the shakey-cam is used for is not to show it off, but we are seeing through the eyes of the infected. When they run, it’s so unsteady that they shake back and forth. It is almost like the infected is your drunken uncle.

While “28 Weeks Later” isn’t completely realistic, it doesn’t have to be to tell us that it’s a movie that you should be able to have fun with. Undead movies are so serious nowadays, which is one of the many reasons why I hated “Land of the Dead.” “28 Weeks Later” knows how to have fun, but it is only for the people who really like to have it. Hell, I may be a boring person, but I know how to have a fun time.

Footnote: Because I am a movie reviewer, have movie reviewer friends, and read other movie reviews written by friends that review movies, it is only in my best interest (and in yours) that you check out this damn review written by Dr. Royce Clemens. Don’t you dare say my review is good. Read his review. It’s the best thing since the Slurpee. http://www.fatally-yours.com/horror-reviews/28-weeks-later/