Dawn of the raging not-dead

This may look like an everyday scene from a street in North London but it is in fact taken from the new movie 28 Weeks Later. I've just got back from its first public screening (the closing film of the Sci-Fi-London festival). It was a noisy, bloody, fun ride.

28 Weeks Later is of course the sequel to Danny Boyle's low budget Brit horror hit 28 Days Later. The first film dealt with the terrifyingly fast spread of the 'Rage' virus in the UK. Anyone infected by the Rage would swiftly seek out and violently attack the uninfected. The virus would be passed on to the victim's blood and they in turn would instantly start to Rage.

The new film picks up the story six months later. The population has been decimated. All of the infected have died through starvation and thus the virus has been wiped out too. The US Army is given the job by NATO to help reconstruct the country, starting by repatriating survivors and refugees in the Isle of Dogs, London. People are happy to be back but has the battle against the infection been truly won?

Well it would have be a short film if it had! Robert Carlyle puts in a good performance as a survivor of the first outbreak. When the Rage strikes again, his two kids have to evade the bloodthirsty hordes through the empty streets of the capital. When the Military fails to contain the situation they decide to use lethal force against everyone to stop the virus spreading further.

I enjoyed 28 Weeks later much more than it's predecessor. It has the same shaky camera/fast editing Digital Video style but it is much bigger in scope. There's more violent mayhem, the action sequences are bigger and the acting is better. The well chosen London locales are suitably creepy and the tension and thrills are maintained right until the end. It's good bloody fun for anyone not of a nervous disposition.