Earlier this night, we went out to see the new film 28 Weeks Later directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Today was opening weekend, and we got there late, but we actually managed to get seats with a whole row of people from Heights. I’m going to first dish out my rating and then talk a bit about why I liked this movie. The rating 28 Weeks Later gets is: 4 stars out of 5.

Plot

I don’t want to ruin anything, but it’s a zombie flick, so what can I ruin? The story takes place after 28 Days Later, the first of the probable trilogy. I will state that I’ve only seen like 10 minutes of the first movie, but don’t worry about not seeing the second one because you haven’t seen the first one. It feels pretty encapsulated, and you won’t miss out on much without seeing the first one. So about the plot. Well, we follow a survivor named Don played by Robert Carlyle from The Full Monty (in which he gave an amazing performance). England has been completely devastated by the “Rage Virus.” Now all the zombies are dead, and the U.S. has come in to save the day. Except something real bad happens. I’ll let you guess. Here’s a hint: lots of torn flesh.

Cinematography

This film owes a lot to two men on the production team: Enrique Chediak, the cinematographer and Chris Gill, the film editor. These two men took a typical zombie based movie and made it something spectacular worth discussing. I think these two parts of the film are so under-appreciated, mostly since the public has no idea how much work goes into both jobs. After just completing our own film (which is in no way on the same level of magnitude or hardcore thrills), I can say how much effort really goes into film editing and cinematography. As I watched 28 Weeks Later, I couldn’t help noticing how well it was shot. Like a lot of movies these days, it has abandoned the industry standard of completely steady cameras and dolly-based movement. See, typically all shots will either be shot on tripods using very smooth fluid panning or be positioned on a very smooth track to allow physical camera movement that is perfectly level. Although these are very professional, these techniques can’t serve every movie. Some movies, just won’t work being tripod based. And 28 Weeks Later is one of these movies.

You might notice this sort of technique easily. You might also completely not notice it. That’s the point. Watch the film and watch the corners. See how the camera is constantly in a state of movement. The frame is not still. It’s as if the camera man is shaking the camera. The point of this is to often give the sense of the audience being right there. And this is exactly what 28 Weeks Later does. Along with fantastic editing, the camera is always on the move shaking slightly or bouncing around as we, the audience, run from the zombies or with the zombies. A lot of movies where characters are running or walking will use a SteadyCam, which is a device that uses weights and other technologies to keep the camera absolutely fluid as the camera is walked around by a camera man. This looks great, but not when you want to be flooded with zombies who are pillaging every living body around them.

I was watching some behind the scenes footage to this movie, and I saw the camera guys basically rapidly shoving the camera around. As zombies rushed in, they pushed and pulled the camera into their faces as if you were right there getting trodden over by hundreds of flesh eating people. The whole film, in this respect, was absolutely incredible. I have to give editing and cinematography a 5 out of 5 for their significant addition to the film as a whole.

Music

As you might gather I’m a big fan of the behind the scenes and the lesser appreciated parts of the film, but one thing that hits you always is the music. The soundtrack they’ve picked for this compliments the film perfectly. It’s that sort of fast paced rhythms that go perfectly with zombies chewing a man’s head off. It’s hard to talk about this other than to tell you to just go see the movie and listen to it (which you should definitely be doing tomorrow).

Complaints

I didn’t really have too many complaints. The movie could have been a little tighter on the script, and a few little things bothered me here and there. Corbin Bohne, a friend of mine who saw the movie with me, felt this way about the movie:

(Slight Spoiler Alert) It was just ridiculous to me the things that would never occur in reality, such as an infected patient not being under 24/7 watch or the back door of the quaruntine room used for citizens during the code red not being barricaded or watched over, simply so the director could advance the plot.

Overall

The movie is absolutely thrilling, fantastically well done, and sufficiently acted. Although some of the scenes might be a little slow moving, you just never know when a zombie is coming around the corner. They do a good job of throwing you off of suspecting attacks. I’m not even going to mention what happens at the end, but I absolutely loved the ending. It just fits the point of the movie perfectly, and is so unusual in the industry today. It reminded me a lot of the ending to Children of Men in how it was edited. Overall, I have to give two thumbs up and a must-see rating. Go and watch this movie now. You will enjoy the fright, the gore, the music, and the film as a whole.