MasterChugs Theater: '28 Weeks Later'

As you most likely would not notice until the byline at the bottom, Chugs Taylor is not posting this week. Why not? Let’s just say he had a bad experience with some Taco Bell. In any case, I, Bryan McBournie will be your guest columnist this week.

28 Weeks Later (which I am reviewing one week later) is the latest in a series of movies involving measurements of time (48 Hours, 28 Days, The 6th Day, etc.). It is also the sequel to the zombie movie 28 Days Later. I will admit I have a thing for zombie movies, so I might be a little partial. However, after the happy ending at the end of the last one, I had my doubts about Weeks.

The story picks up during the first 28 days. Zombies are running rampant across the English country side, all the while sipping tea. Don (Robert Carlyle, also in Formula 51) and his wife Alice (of movies only Chugs has seen, as with the rest of the cast) are holed up with an elderly couple and a couple rather unremarkable characters in a house and are about to sit down to dinner, when there’s a knock at the door. Long story short, Don is the only one who makes it out of the house alive and escapes in a boat.

Six months after the infection, the zombies are all long dead of starvation, but England is pretty raunchy. Don is the head of the building where the English civilians who made it out alive are being repatriated again in London. His kids are back, too. The U.S. Army is in charge of the rebuilding, so naturally, the virus comes back in a spectacular way (cleverly done, too) and suddenly we have all new zombies with accents. But this time, the soldiers get bitten, too, so some have American accents. You can tell which zombies are British, because they say "'Ello, govnah. Spare some braaaaaains?"

Suddenly, the soldiers are ordered to clean house. That means kill everyone, civilians, zombies, whatever. They are good at this. Unfortunately, it means American sniper Doyle (these people all really have only one name), Army doctor Scarlett and Don’s two kids have to fight their way through jolly old London, battling against zombies, the U.S. Army, firebombs, chemicals weapons and really intense stares. By the way, Don is now a zombie and seems to have a knack for showing up at inopportune moments.

Their only hope is to make it out of London and out of England. And I’m hedging my bets that the French got around to blocking off the Chunnel after the whole thing got started.

It’s because of the added dangers of the U.S. Army that this movie surpasses its predecessor. Instead of the military being your friend and seeking out the help from others, there is no help from anyone. There are people (or things) trying to kill the characters at every single turn. It just doesn’t let up. The only problem is the zombies aren’t nearly as scary as in Days, when they could outrun people and seemed to come out of nowhere. The real boogey men of this one are the soldiers.

Like the first one, there are many, many times in the film where it is deadly quiet. Leaving you with the feeling that something bad is about to happen. However, because they are so frequent, you never know when it’s going to make you jump.

Go out and see this in theaters. And plan on there being a sequel.