28 days later (the first one) was a zombie flick that departed a little from the predictable “this is my boomstick” zombie nonsense we’ve all seen a thousand times.
28 weeks later took it even further, and actually limited the stupid zombie crap to a few minutes of screen time involving a
(spoilers ahead!)
helicopter blade and like 77 rage infected zombies.
The rest of the movie was remarkably non-stupid. No other horror flick has managed to capture that sense of perfect, utter despair.
Some things that helped:
The military responded realistically, carpet bombing and chemical spraying the whole goddamned city. Good for them. When the zombies attack, I hope that’s how my government responds.
The point of view varied. We cared about a dude who found out his kids were safe, first. Then we cared about the mom who didn’t die after all. Then we care about the kids. Then we care about the soldier, then the doctor, and finally, after the movie ended, I had an emotional hole in my heart where those people belonged. It wasn’t that they died, but HOW they died, and how senseless and futile their efforts were.
Action! Holy crap, rage zombies are so much scarier than the “shoot-em-in-the-head!” brain feeders that walk like a dude trying to find the refrigerator at 2 in the morning with the lights off. Slow, predictable zombies are NOT SCARY! Rage zombies actually made me consider sleeping with the light on.
So there’s my two cents. If you read through all the spoilers even though you haven’t seen the movie yet, go see it before its out of theaters.