28 Weeks Later (2007)
★★★½ — 28 Weeks Later (2007)
That opening sequence. God, that opening sequence. Don, running. Fields flying past him. No score, just heaving breath and pounding feet and the absolute certainty that something horrific is closing in behind him. The theme from 28 Days Later creeps in and your stomach drops. If you can watch those opening minutes of 28 Weeks Later and not feel your pulse shoot up, I'd like to check you for a pulse of your own. It might just be one of the finest horror openings of the last two decades, full stop.
Right, so. 28 Weeks Later. It's not the first film. Let's get that on the table straight away, because the shadow of 28 Days Later looms large over everything here, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. That 2002 original had something genuinely electric about it, something raw and almost accidental-feeling in the best possible way. This sequel is a more polished, more expensive beast. And that's both its strength and its problem.
The setup is smart enough. London is being repopulated after the initial rage virus outbreak, overseen by a military operation that is, predictably, one bad decision away from catastrophe. The infection concept still holds up visually, by the way. These aren't your shambling, moaning undead, and if you call them zombies in my presence I will correct you with the quiet, insufferable confidence of someone who's had this exact argument too many times. They're infected. Rage-filled, sprinting, terrifying infected. And they still work. There's something about the speed and the fury of them that keeps the threat feeling visceral in a way that a lot of horror can't manage.
But here's the thing: between that extraordinary opening and a genuinely gripping final third, the film loses its footing a bit. There's a lengthy middle stretch of whispering in dark corridors, sneaking past sentries, waiting. It's not bad filmmaking exactly, it's just that the momentum the film builds so brilliantly in those first ten minutes bleeds out slowly over the next forty or so. The pace that made the original feel relentless goes a little slack, and you notice it.
The final act pulls things back together, though. The kids trying to get out of London while the military is taking the kind of sweeping, brutal action that militaries in horror films always take, morally murky and gut-wrenching in equal measure. It's gripping stuff. Proper nail-biter territory. You're sat there genuinely not knowing who, if anyone, is making it out, and whether the characters we've followed are already carrying the very thing everyone's trying to escape. That uncertainty is where the film earns its keep.
There's something emotional running through it too, which I appreciated. The horror here isn't just about survival; there's grief in it, guilt, the particular awfulness of what people do to each other when they're frightened. That gives it more weight than your average genre sequel. It's scary, yes, but it's also trying to say something, even if it doesn't always manage to say it as cleanly as it might.
Fans of bold, unsettling horror should also check out When Evil Lurks, which takes a completely different route to a similar feeling of dread and does something genuinely surprising with the infection-adjacent genre space.
Three and a half stars.
28 Weeks Later is post-apocalyptic horror done with real craft and genuine menace. It just isn't quite the fresh, shocking gut-punch its predecessor was. And perhaps that was always going to be the case. You can't un-see the runners for the first time. What you can do is make a film that's scary and emotional and grounded enough to feel like it matters, and this one, largely, manages that. Solid, sometimes thrilling, occasionally brilliant. Just never quite great.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2007 | Watched: 2025-05-16
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus · ITVX Premium
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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