28 Weeks Later (R, 2007)

In a major escalation of the first movie's theme, the American military has been brought in to clean up and re-settle Britain, where almost everyone died from a rabies-like contagion that turned people into maniacal (but mortal) zombie psychopaths. If you remember how Her Majesty's soldiers reacted to the "rage virus" plague in the first film -- they were fascistic survivalist types prone to rape -- you won't be surprised that this movie doesn't exactly support the troops either. In fact, it seems to be at least partially a Gulf War/Vietnam metaphor about overconfident U.S. occupiers committing atrocities when they can't tell the civilians from the hostile enemy. After showing husband and father Don (Robert Carlyle) treacherously abandoning his wife during a zombie attack to save himself in the worst days of the epidemic, the movie revisits the ghostly, abandoned London of the first film. The infected have all starved to death, and the U.S. Army is enforcing a high-tech quarantine, resettling the British capital with refugees who waited out the crisis safely across the English Channel. One of the Americans' key local people turns out to be Don, who reunites with his son and daughter -- and lies to them about what really happened to their mother. Don's duplicity sets in motion a chain of events that ends in another outbreak of the rage virus, this time in the heart of this quarantine stronghold.If there's any hope for a cure, it lies with Don's children -- whose blood may have an antidote. A few Americans disobey orders to try to keep the kids alive in the face of deadly American snipers, poison gas, and incendiaries.

As in the first film, the message seems to be that while victims of the rage virus have no choice about turning into mindless zombies, the uninfected army commanders and soldiers should be more compassionate and human, since they still know right from wrong. Trouble is, it's becoming increasingly evident that in this world, no matter what you do, it only means one thing: more zombies, more murder, and more gore.

Studio: Fox Atomic
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Cast: Catherine McCormack, Jeremy Renner, Robert Carlyle
Genre: Horror
Run time: 103 minutes
Theatrical release: May 10, 2007
DVD release: October 9, 2007
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: strong violence and gore, language and some sexuality/nudity.