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'28 Years later' was trending on social media a few days ago, and it made me wonder... was 28 Weeks Later as great as I remember?
What a piss-poor poster. And whenever a sequel poster includes a quote from a critic saying 'Better than the original!' its always bullshit.
Except for this sequel, it very clearly is superior to the original.
The cast has a number big names back when they were small names - Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Idris Elba, Harold Perrineau, and an actor well known amongst UK audiences, Robert Carlyle.
You get the impression this was actually a big-budget zombie film, but according to wikipedia its budget is a mere $15 million. This is a fine example of a British movie production that made every dollar count, for what a Disney+ episode costs to make for a series no one watches.
Of course its very gory, not shying away from the graphic violence well known for the sub-genre. But at the same time its not purposely grotesque like 'Day of the Dead' which seemed to have its own level of 'Gore-Porn.'
It has a tight 95 minute runtime. After the brutal & claustrophobic 5-minute opening, there's 40 minutes of 'set up' like how the first hour of Jurassic Park is introducing and developing the characters & worldbuilding before the park's systems are shut down and the dinosaurs are let loose. After that its 45 minutes of near-constant intensity barely giving the audience a chance to catch their breath all the way until the 'holy shit' ending and credits.
Many action/horror sequels are compared to Aliens (1986) and also comparing the originals to Alien (1979), but I can't think of a better Alien/Aliens comparison than 28 Days/Weeks Later. 28 Weeks Later is superbly paced & edited with original scenarios in a horror sub-genre that many entries seem to copy & paste situations from earlier movies that did it better the first time.
I'm typically the type who gives two criticisms for every one compliment for movies I consider 'great.' But this is one of the very very few movies in which I have zero major complaints, only minor nit-picks.
Final Thoughts - I watched 28 Weeks Later around 3 times from 2007-2014, and back then I considered it to be the best zombie movie ever.
10 years later I wondered if it had aged well, or my enthusiasm may be because my tastes hadn't refined.... or perhaps I may be more jaded now and I may be convinced my formerly 'excellent' movies may just be 'great' or just 'good.'
Thankfully, this is just as good today as the first time I watched it 17 years later.
If you haven't watched 28 Weeks Later, watch it, and thank me later. If you saw it once or twice a long time ago its very much worth re-watching. Its streaming on Hulu & rentable on AppleTV.
Or you can probably find used BluRay copy for cheap.
Full Trailer -
By the way... both the original & sequel were massively profitable, both at the boxoffice and DVD/BluRay sales, but it seemed like there was never going to be another sequel put in production... until a few days ago.
"Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, the director and writer of the 2002 movie, are reuniting for 28 Years Later, a new zombie thriller that is expected to hit studios, streamers and other potential buyers later this week, according to multiple sources. WME, which reps Boyle and Garland, will take out the package and handle the sale.
The package isn’t just a simple modern sequel installment; the movie already had a follow-up with 28 Weeks Later, released in 2007. The duo were only involved with as executive producers on that film. Now, the hope is to launch a new trilogy."
Very much looking forward to hearing more about it. Also curious why they're skipping '28 MONTHS Later' and just going for '28 Years Later.'
What a piss-poor poster. And whenever a sequel poster includes a quote from a critic saying 'Better than the original!' its always bullshit.
Except for this sequel, it very clearly is superior to the original.
The cast has a number big names back when they were small names - Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Idris Elba, Harold Perrineau, and an actor well known amongst UK audiences, Robert Carlyle.
You get the impression this was actually a big-budget zombie film, but according to wikipedia its budget is a mere $15 million. This is a fine example of a British movie production that made every dollar count, for what a Disney+ episode costs to make for a series no one watches.
Of course its very gory, not shying away from the graphic violence well known for the sub-genre. But at the same time its not purposely grotesque like 'Day of the Dead' which seemed to have its own level of 'Gore-Porn.'
It has a tight 95 minute runtime. After the brutal & claustrophobic 5-minute opening, there's 40 minutes of 'set up' like how the first hour of Jurassic Park is introducing and developing the characters & worldbuilding before the park's systems are shut down and the dinosaurs are let loose. After that its 45 minutes of near-constant intensity barely giving the audience a chance to catch their breath all the way until the 'holy shit' ending and credits.
Many action/horror sequels are compared to Aliens (1986) and also comparing the originals to Alien (1979), but I can't think of a better Alien/Aliens comparison than 28 Days/Weeks Later. 28 Weeks Later is superbly paced & edited with original scenarios in a horror sub-genre that many entries seem to copy & paste situations from earlier movies that did it better the first time.
I'm typically the type who gives two criticisms for every one compliment for movies I consider 'great.' But this is one of the very very few movies in which I have zero major complaints, only minor nit-picks.
Final Thoughts - I watched 28 Weeks Later around 3 times from 2007-2014, and back then I considered it to be the best zombie movie ever.
10 years later I wondered if it had aged well, or my enthusiasm may be because my tastes hadn't refined.... or perhaps I may be more jaded now and I may be convinced my formerly 'excellent' movies may just be 'great' or just 'good.'
Thankfully, this is just as good today as the first time I watched it 17 years later.
If you haven't watched 28 Weeks Later, watch it, and thank me later. If you saw it once or twice a long time ago its very much worth re-watching. Its streaming on Hulu & rentable on AppleTV.
Or you can probably find used BluRay copy for cheap.
Full Trailer -
By the way... both the original & sequel were massively profitable, both at the boxoffice and DVD/BluRay sales, but it seemed like there was never going to be another sequel put in production... until a few days ago.
"Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, the director and writer of the 2002 movie, are reuniting for 28 Years Later, a new zombie thriller that is expected to hit studios, streamers and other potential buyers later this week, according to multiple sources. WME, which reps Boyle and Garland, will take out the package and handle the sale.
The package isn’t just a simple modern sequel installment; the movie already had a follow-up with 28 Weeks Later, released in 2007. The duo were only involved with as executive producers on that film. Now, the hope is to launch a new trilogy."
Very much looking forward to hearing more about it. Also curious why they're skipping '28 MONTHS Later' and just going for '28 Years Later.'
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