Dans Papers - May 25, 2007

The gentle, past generations that sang of London Bridges falling down could never have imagined the London portrayed in 28 Weeks Later - besieged by a plague that causes humans to become zombies with most undignified appetites. However, they've survived Thatcherism and even Stock Brokers. Also, the Chunnel has been in operation for years and are yet to be done in by the garlic fumes piped in from France.

The newest threat 28 Weeks Later is the gory-allegory sequel to Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, a solid hit following his impressive Trainspotting and Shallow Grave. Boyle now serves as Executive Producer and turned over directing and writing to a Spanish team. Directing is Juan Carlos Fresnadillo of Intacto. Writer Alex Garland draws many comparisons to Iraq and its lunacy and barely disguises them.

As the film's title tells us, the sequel picks up where the first shocker left off and, aarghh, the living dead are muted to body snatchers. Fresnadillo and his co-writers and crew are enthusiastic and skillful at raising the schlock grindhouse genre to the lobby of Art Houses (but, keep in mind there are popcorn machines there too). Be aware, we are talking about a flesh-eating zombie movie, no matter how finely sliced. The term Zombie is eschewed by the film's publicity people, but there are scads of dead people walkin' around and chewing humans and their remains in sharp digital focus. Another reason to deny the Zombie designation is the bombing of Quentin Tarantino's Zombie movie just weeks ago. It's better to associate 28 Weeks Later with George Orwell's "1984" than with George Romero's 1968 Night of the Living Dead - the film with the $2.98 budget that started it all. It remains as one of the most satiric of social mores.

Two endings were shot for the first film and the least bleak was shown here in the U.S. This conclusion provided the moviemakers with a small peg to hang the premise of the sequel's being - London's a barren wasteland with few survivors. There are "safe zones" occupied by an American- led NATO force. Small numbers of uninfected citizens are allowed to return to London to the Green Zone commanded by General Stone (Idris Elba). They make sure the scourge virus of the zombies is kept out. In the film's prologue, the central protagonist Don (Robert Carlyle of Trainspotting) abandons his wife, Alice (Catherine McCormack) when attacked by zombies. He selfishly assumed the monsters would - ugh! Fortunately, their children Tammy and Andy were on a school trip in Spain. Don is reunited with the children when he returns to the Green Zone - I wonder if he ran into presidential candidate John McCain? Don tells his children everything but the truth about their mother's absence. It's not long before Andy and Tammy break out of the compound and take off on foot. Then, with a pizza delivery motorbike, they scour the city searching for their old house with hopes of finding their mother. Fresnadillo's aerial cameras cover the empty streets, reprising the chilling scenes of Doyle's abandoned cityscapes in the first movie. But, being a horror movie at heart and liver and intestines, the pace becomes frantic as the dead go after the living, with knife and fork. The returned Brits also have to fear the U.S. Security Force who'd sooner shoot or firebomb them than find out who's alive and who's been taking dining lessons from Hannibal the Cannibal Lecter.

I think I do no harm to your surprise shock quotient if I tell you that mommy dearest, Catherine, is found and, gulp, she's one of them. For one thing, there are many of those shocks and they are not necessarily surprising. Fresnadillo's scariness is not built in a step-by-constructed-step to a pulse quickening, apprehensive, fearful shock. Instead, they are disconnected, spasmodic jolts made by glaring cuts produced in the editing room, goosed-up with deafening sound effects and snazzy music. The director has outsourced his work.

For me, the most frightening and memorable moments are Doyle's London bereft of life, totally devoid of activity. The post-apocalyptic city is simply a tomb with no one left to mourn its demise. This is the most fearful aspect of a creep fest movie because, as that guy says about the New York Lottery, "Hey. It could happen."

Guy Jean de Fraumeni is the producer/writer/director of award winning European and American feature films. He has been a judge at Major Film and TV award competitions, including the Oscars, the Emmy's and various film festivals. Sarah Halsey assists him.