2007 (UK / Spain)
Contains Spoilers.
OK, I understand.
I've been away a while and come back with what, another pseudo-zombie film with
infected non-dead humans masquerading as the recently deceased; another film
that really wants to be a zombie film but isn't quite brave enough to take the next
step and actually have the enemy die before coming back as bloodthirsty
ravenous killing machines. Well, yes and I'm actually pretty unapologetic for
it.
As in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later the infected are just that. There’s no biting, dying and
resurrection, here 20 seconds after the rage virus is transferred either
through blood or saliva that’s it, the victim is done for and is now looking
quite aggressively to repeat the process. But we've been here before and just
because the protagonists aren't dead doesn't in my opinion, necessitate the
films absence from a zombie blog. I'm not prejudice against the not-dead; they
may still be vulnerable like humans to starvation, injury and bullets (to
anywhere) but they’re still crazed bloodthirsty monsters, they swarm in packs,
they relentless and unremitting in their search victims and for all extents and
purposes they certainly look the part. 28 weeks later is as post-apocalyptic as
you can get and the fact they've done something a little different with
Romero’s shambling undead is to directors Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s credit.
Anyway, a brutal
opening sequence returns us to the UK and to an isolated rural farm house where
Donald (Robert Carlyle) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) are holed up
surviving as best they can after being taken in with several others by the older
owners of the property. We learn their children were out of the country when
the outbreak hit and also ten seconds after a young boy knocks on the door
seeking refuge, that the outbreak is far from over as their sanctuary is
stormed and all except ‘Don’ who is forced to abandon Alice to save his own
skin are brutally slaughtered..
Cue 28 weeks later.
The infection had burnt itself out, all the infected have died of hunger and a
US lead NATO force has taken control of the financial district of London and
has begun the process of rebuilding the UK. Flying in to the city to be reunited
with their father Don who managed to not only survive the siege of the farm but
made his way to a military patrol, 17 year old Tammy (Imogen Poots) and her
younger brother Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) raises concerns with chief medical
officer Scarlet (Rose Byrne) who is worried everyone is moving too fast when so
much about the Rage virus is still unknown.
Seeing the city
being slowly cleaned up the two little rascals take it on themselves to sneak
outside the military cordon and return to their old family home which happens
to be conveniently nearby. Here they find their mum who Don had left for dead
hiding out and having been spotted escaping the lot are picked up and taken
back to the enclave. During Alice’s appraisal Scarlet not only discovers that
Alice is a carrier for the still very much alive rage virus but she somehow has
a natural resistance.
Discovering his wife
is still alive Don who works a maintenance officer for the facility in the
single biggest Darwin-award moment I think I've yet to see in zombie film so
far, uses his all-access pass to gain access to her in quarantine and manages
to transfer the rage virus to himself.
We learnt in 28 Days
Later that the virus turned people into single minded animalistic killing
machines; driven by insatiable hunger for human flesh and divorced from the
person they used to be. Here the ideas are further explored. The virus is
called rage because that is what it does to the victim; it forces them into a
perpetual state of total unadulterated fury and we’re granted the full force of
this transformation as we witness Don within seconds turn from doting husband
and father into a homicidal rage consumed monster that turns on Alice
sadistically beating and mutilating her. It’s a Jekyll and Hyde moment played
brilliantly by Carlyle and it’s both shocking and fascinating.
As we’d expect
things don’t stop here and soon Don has managed to spread the virus until
things are totally out of control, people are being ripped apart left right and
centre and the military brass are have called code red meaning everyone is to
be exterminated and the base is lost. In this maelstrom Don, fuelled by the
guilt he perversely blames his wife and children for making him feel, sets out
to kill them too. It’s clever and it’s dark; he blames them for making him feel
guilty and for killing his wife and it totally consumes him; later when he
manages to confront them there’s no moment of redemption fleeting moment where
we still see his humanity behind the mask.
Now I'm not a
military expect but I've watched enough of these films to be left wondering yet
again, at how conveniently the virus is able to escape a safe secure
quarantine. Whilst I can almost overlook most of it as the film did suffer from
a limited budget, I was left with just a few too many questions for me to walk
away totally satisfied from the experience. For all the potential danger, Don
gets his way into and out of Alice’s quarantine just that bit too easily and
with all hell breaking loose around he also manages to make his way, for a
mindless rage fuelled killer, unscathed to all the right narrative junctions at
just the right times. I understand it drives the story and makes for a tense
complete experience but it’s just a little easy and lazy.
I really enjoyed
Carlos Fresnadillo’s take of the post-apocalyptic pseudo-zombie genre. The film
successfully plays homage to the first film and shares much of its look and
feel, whilst also bringing something fresh and original. Whilst I did find some
of the story decisions a little too convenient it mostly holds together as a
plausible authentic experience with solid cohesive narrative running from
beginning to end. The action and tension are extremely well presented and the
extensive choreography ensuring the hundreds of infected extras moved and
behaved in unison pays dividends with some of the most stylish and iconographic
zombie scenes captured on film. In many respects I preferred this to the
original where I was deeply disappointed with the second half. Here it never
feels there’s two distinct films; just one distinctive vision pushing to tell a
unique and bleak personal story. A brilliant post apocalyptic infected
non-zombie film for the zombie fan, but not without a few problems, 7/10.
Steven@WTD.
