28 Days Later (Blu-ray) + 28 Weeks Later
(Blu-ray + DVD-Video)
Picture: B/B+/B- Sound: B+/B+/B- Extras: C+/B-/B- Films: C+/B
It took
several decades, but the U.K. finally came up with its legitimate, non-comic
answer to the George Romero Zombie series with Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2003) impressing some
fans very thoroughly as zombies arrive unexpectedly in Britain. One such fan wrote this review for us when
the DVD arrived:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/456/28+Days+Later
Though I
was not as impressed, it was still an intelligent, respectable showing as far
as serious Horror/Zombie cinema that worked was, though I did not think it
broke much new ground. Cillian Murphy is
always interesting to watch and is one of the reasons the film worked. The supporting cast helped too, but they
could only do so much with Alex Garland’s script. It was not as effective as the likes of Raw Meat (aka Death Line), the 1972 classic about a cannibal in the London
subways with Donald Pleasance, plus the use of digital video became annoying
and took away from the suspense. Still,
it was a hit and that seemed like enough.
The silly
Resident Evil films arrived and
spoofs like Shawn Of The Dead joined
their U.S. equal Return Of The Living
Dead in the cannon of Zombie cinema of note, so when I heard we were
getting a sequel called 28 Weeks Later
(2007) years after the first film was a hit, I wondered what they would do and
if they would know what to do, if anything.
To my very pleasant surprise, co-writer/director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
and company understood, loved the genre, were willing to take risks, make
character development a top priority and go for it scene after scene. The result is a sequel superior to the
original, bringing the intensity of the subject matter into palpable, current
frame that makes for one of the most intense films of its kind to date.
With a
sort of nod to the Charlton Heston/Boris Sagal Omega Man (1971) with the setting being a modern city where modern
is about to become history, this is a smart, intense, imaginative Horror/Action
film that works with the kind of trip you would expect from James Cameron’s Aliens and yet, leans more towards
Horror, all to its advantage.
This
time, our new lead (Robert Carlyle) is in hiding with the few neighbors that
have not been infected. Peaceful, but
fearful in the English countryside, we know the peace is doomed and as things
are slowly implied to be worse than they ever were in the first film, we know
something is about to happen. From
there, the films constructs a very credible story with plenty of credible
scenarios of what happens next when a crisis the government will turn out to
know about and not know how to handle kicks in.
I was
very surprised and impressed throughout at the humor, consistency and
intelligence of Weeks, the best film
of its kind in many years. I also find
it a bit ironic that it arrives only months before the latest official film
version (three if not counting Romero’s ultimate knockoff, the first Night Of The Living Dead in 1968) of
Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, very
much a basis for the first film. Of
coursed, the novel dealt with vampires and all the versions since have added
new twists to the monsters en masse, but the reason why 28 Weeks Later will hold up to other films in its genre is simply
because it does so much so well. The
makers truly scary films and know that suspense, not just gore and fancy
effects, must be included for the film to work and hold up. Like the recent remake of The Hills Have Eyes, serious Horror
fans (and especially filmmakers) need to take note.
Both
films are in 1080p, 1.85 X 1 AVC digital High Definition presentations on their
respective Blu-rays (@ 38 MBPS for the first, 37 MBPS for the sequel) and both
mix various film and video formats throughout.
This holds back Days more
than it should, but it still looks better here than it did on its DVD from a
few years ago. Weeks looks decent in its anamorphically enhanced DVD-Video
version, but the Blu-ray is the best of the lot of two films in two formats,
coming across sharper, clearer and richer than the other three, making for a
solid picture performance despite purposeful distortion and stylization. Anthony Doo Mantel, D.F.F., may have set the
style for the first film, but Enrique Chediak really knows how to run with it
with tighter editing and more prominent use of film. The first film used low def video, 8mm and
35mm film, while the sequel used more low def, some HD, 16mm and 35mm.
As for
sound, the first film was Dolby Digital al the way from the theater to DVD, but
the Blu-ray adds and in English, only offers a DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that
is most welcome and despite showing the limits of the audio, performs
nicely. The sequel was issued in DTS,
Dolby & SDDS in theaters, but the DVD only has Dolby 5.1 and though it is
not bad, the encoding limits a great soundmaster whose greatness is obvious in
the DTS HD MA version. Better than the
original, we could not play the full MA lossless signal as of this posting, but
if it is even better than what we could hear, the sound may rate higher.
The
extras are the same on the first film Blu-ray as they were on the old DVD,
while the sequel DVD and Blu-ray share the same extras though the Blu-ray
better interactivity. Extras include the
original theatrical trailer, audio commentary by the director with co-producer
Enrique Lopez-Lavigne, deleted scenes of note with optional commentary by the
same, animated chapters from 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, a
making of featurette, The Infected
featurette and Getting Into The Action
featurette. What a pleasure to have so
many great extras to go with such a good film.
At my
35mm premiere screening of Weeks,
every seat in the house was full, people were turned away and there were an
unusual number of older people there. I
found this puzzling and so did my friends, plus some other we knew who were not
happy others they knew did not make it.
Then we started watching the film and started to realize that the
unusual number of elderly did not realize it was a Horror film. As a matter of fact, some of them seem to
have thought they were there for a Sandra Bullock film despite the passes have
not picture of her, her name did not appear on the passes and the toxic motif
did not give them a clue about the film.
As a
result, when the first bloody, gruesome, massive attack kicked in, a bunch of
them suddenly got up and left, much to the amusement of the audience. The punk rock fans even applauded and
laughed. I felt bad, but it was a
mistake. Fortunately, the film is not
and whether you have seen 28 Days Later
or not, I cannot recommend 28 Weeks
Later enough. It might even be a
minor classic.
- Nicholas Sheffo
