28 Weeks Later

'28 Weeks Later' has one of the most harrowing opening sequences I have ever seen. I really can't say much without giving too much away - suffice to say that when you see it you'll feel emotionally battered for the next half hour of the film. It is one of those sequences that lives with you for days, troubling you with reflections on human nature, so horrific are its events and the actions of those involved.

Worth seeing for that scene alone. Trust me.

The plot of '28 Weeks Later' picks up the story of '28 Days Later' , 28 weeks from the initial 'zombie' outbreak. Britain is a ghost of a country, and the U.S. military has secured a section of London in which live survivors of the outbreak. Early on in the film the military decide to let relatives of the survivors from overseas back into Britain with the ambition of beginning a process of re-population.

The story touches upon social and political commentary, specifically on the attitude and methods of the U.S. military in its peace-keeping and non-aggressive roles, and in that sense is very much a film for our times. But it essentially '28 Weeks Later' intends to do one thing, and that is to scare you.

And it does so masterfully.

Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo does not give the viewer any time to recover from the shock of the film's opening scene. Instead he exploits the viewer's vulnerability, relentlessly horrifying us with the sequence of events that unfold. The first hour contains some terrifying set pieces - the sight of the 'rage' infection sweeping through a confined and panicking crowd; and the sequence in which a team of snipers try to identify and take out the 'Infected' from a crowd of fleeing survivors. Both scenes capture all too vividly the horror of being swept along blindly in a terrified crowd, becoming just another stumbling figure with little control over your destiny.

But it isn't all just set pieces. The repercussions of that opening sequence turn out to be the narrative and emotional drive of the film, and the two child protagonists, played excellently by Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton, are sympathetic and compelling, bringing a welcome and needed warmth to an otherwise cold and aggressive film.

The film is also littered with well-realised, bleak depictions of a deserted London. The abandoned pizza delivery restaurant, with skeletal delivery bikers; the empty playgrounds; the numerous aerial shots.... all of them chilling and verging on the poetic.

It is unfortunate that the film loses momentum in the last half hour, a half hour which is also weakened by some rather improbable plot twists, but that doesn't detract from the fact that '28 Weeks Later' is an intelligent, stylish and most of all genuinely frightening film that in many ways I enjoyed more than its predecessor. Highly recommended.

Oh, and that opening sequence....