Kara, being the trooper she is, endured her fifth zombie movie at my hands last week.(1) We went to go see 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to what I think is one of the best zombie movies ever made-28 Days Later. In the original film the “rage virus” is contracted by animal rights activists who break into an animal testing facility to “free the monkeys,” but end up getting their deadly disease instead. We meet Jim, a young man who wakes up in a hospital all alone only to find out that London is a deserted wasteland. The rest is the story of Jim and a few other survivors in London and their attempt to find rescue and escape the zombies. 28 Days Later broke a few zombie-movie formulas and the result was a true horror movie rather than a campy fun zombie flick. The “infected” in 28 Days Later had a virus that turned them into wild violent creatures not the drowsy stumbling walking dead in most films. These zombies sprint! In the end it was other human beings that may have posed the gravest threat in 28 Days Later, the same can be said for 28 Weeks Later.

In the sequel we return to London, long since quarantined. NATO has taken the lead in the “reconstruction” effort after all human/zombie life on the British Isle had been killed or starved to death. We begin the film sometime around when we left the first one, but now with a different set of people. What follows is one of the best zombie-chase-scenes ever (few, though they may be). Without going into too much detail and ruining the movie for you, I’ll say that the “originality” of 28 Days Later doesn’t live on in 28 Weeks Later. Not very much new ground is broken in this sequel but it still is among the top zombie flicks I’ve seen. The social commentary is thick and fans of Romero’s critique of materialistic mall culture in Dawn of the Dead will appreciate the questions about military occupation, blindly following orders and the wisdom of giving people filled with fear guns and unilateral power. Much like the first, this installment pits both zombie and humans against our band of protagonists and it is often the humans who seem to be the greater threat.

(1) 1. Evil Dead 2. Evil Dead 2 3. Dead Alive 4. 28 Days Later 5. 28 Weeks Later