Publication Date: 07-05-2025

28 Weeks Later (2007) review

Dir. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★½

The absence of director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland on a sequel to 28 Days Later was always going to be felt. Boyle — who couldn’t direct the sequel due to the concurrent production of Sunshine — handpicked Intacto director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to helm the project, and Garland apparently gave notes to the multicultural melting pot of screenwriters, but alas, a lot is missing from this follow-up. Such is the case when (1) a film envisioned as a singular work becomes an international success and (2) the progenitors are MIA.

Indeed, the landscape of 28 Days Later was vast enough for a sequel, and Fresnadillo’s 28 Weeks Later picks up approximately seven months after the Rage virus was inadvertently unleashed onto London. This time around, our focus is Don (Robert Carlyle) and Alice (Catherine McCormack) and their children, Tammy and Andy, played by Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton, respectively, who could’ve used their government names to get a full-ride to Hogwarts. The family is initially separated, with the kids living in Spain while mom and dad are in hiding, until their bunker is infiltrated by a swath of infected humans. Don flees, assuming Alice is dead.

28 weeks later, NATO is sent by the United States to take control of Great Britain. A medic (Rose Byrne), a sniper (Jeremy Renner), and a helicopter pilot (Harold Perrineau) try to contain the ongoing epidemic and eventually come in contact with the family, converging the two forces in a race to avoid what seems to be their inevitable fate.

Boyle’s film was greatly heightened in both tension and unpredictability thanks to its low-grade, early-digital videography that made the picture appear as if it were a scuzzy piece of just-discovered documentary footage. It wasn’t feasible for Fresnadillo’s film to have the same look and feel; not with new technology begging to be used in conjunction with a doubled budget. The pervasive canted angles have been traded for a far sleeker presentation, and the script trades fewer character beats for chaotic action, especially in the second half.

Without divulging into spoilers, 28 Weeks Later retains its power on the viewer by getting us accustomed to protagonists only for them to become infected, succumb to rage, and then get bludgeoned to death all in less than 60 seconds. Such a plot-point makes it both a welcomed exercise and a challenge for writers used to threading a person through the entirety of a narrative. That is not a given in these films, and even if no one present matches the eccentric likability of Jim, Selena, Frank, or Hannah, there is an apprehension on our parts not to get too attached to anybody because we know what might come.

28 Weeks Later also has one of the best scenes of the franchise thus far and it involves a helicopter and a field full of infected humans. Connect the dots on what happens next. The scene is so good that it stands on its own as a work of blunt-force art. Alas, 28 Weeks Later lacks the atmosphere and suspense so crucial to its predecessor’s success.

My review of 28 Days Later
My review of 28 Years Later

Starring: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Catherine McCormack, Imogen Poots, Mackintosh Muggleton, and Idris Elba. Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.