Other movies in this series:
28 Days Later

The tyranist's thoughts
The quality of 28 Days Later was a surprise to me. The latest wave of British horror has been nothing but fantastic, but even knowing that, I wasn't really prepared for a zombie movie quite like that one. Converted, when I heard 28 Weeks Later was coming out, I was looking forward to it. When I saw the trailer, I couldn't wait.
It's been months since the infection first hit the island and not only has the entire thing been contained, but the zombies are all wiped out. Residents are being allowed back in, but only into a carefully controlled section of London. Well, as you can imagine, it all goes pear shaped and soon we have the zombie mayhem that we were looking for when we entered the theatre.
Robert Carlyle sort of stars in this and you can tell. I refuse to say more about it, but you'll understand when you see it. The other characters are well-played, including the 12 year old, who may actually have been played by a 12 year old. The script is well put together and moves forward very well. There are a couple technical issues with it, but nothing that can't be overlooked for the sake of a bit of action. Where in the first one, they were very careful to make the zombies look like infected humans, they didn't try so hard here and there are a couple cases where the zombies are walking around with enough damage that they can't possibly not be the living dead.
The only really distracting thing about the movie was the editing on some of the zombie attack scenes. It was painful to watch. The gore, while excessive, was much easier to look at than the flash edited sequences that left my head hurting and quite a bit of doubt as to what actually happened.
I enjoyed the pace of the movie, though, and the way they ratcheted up the tension. There's some spectacular suspense mixed in with some brutal violence. I can't say this was better than the first movie, but it was enjoyable and a worthy follow-up movie.
Posted: May 14, 2007

Rish Outfield's reviews
So, an unspecified amount of time has passed since the rage virus wiped out a lot of London (that was a joke, kids), and it's all been taken care of.
Or is it?
I really liked the original, and went to the sequel with fairly high expectations, even though I knew Danny Boyle didn't direct this one. I loved the premise, and the setting was a really interesting one. I really don't have a lot of complaints about the film--the acting was fine, the direction was adequate, the scares were plentiful, and the ending, while I wasn't thrilled with it, was brave and unique. But I didn't love 28 Weeks Later. I can't really express what was wrong with it, if anything, but it wasn't a film I'll watch again and again. Or recommend to as many people as I did the first one.
One zombie in particular seems to survive all sorts of impossible scenarios, just because . . . well, I guess so we'll have a specific face to focus on, or because there's an emotional attachment to that one. But it didn't work, because I kept wondering how it managed to evade the fires and bullets and explosions and know exactly where our main characters were going to be. I just don't get it.
Like I said, I'm not able to nail down serious problems with the script or characters or scenario or filmmaking. The film is quite good, and is definitely worth seeing. It's also not a whole lot of fun, and then, neither was its predecessor.
And maybe zombie flicks--and horror films in general--shouldn't be fun. I don't know.
But Dawn of the Dead was fun, from the first time I saw it to today. Does that make me crazy?
Posted: September 14, 2007

Total Skulls: 30

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?