28 Weeks Later

The “rage virus” of 2002’s 28 Days Later, which turns sufferers into vicious cannibals, has been suppressed, so survivors are gradually repopulating London under U.S. military supervision—then the careless actions of two thoughtless kids (the amazingly named Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton) set off a chain reaction that starts it all over again. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who co-wrote with three others, the film is certainly scary and nerve-wracking, but it’s also ham-fisted and monotonous; to call Fresnadillo et al. powerful filmmakers would be like calling the movie’s “infected” cannibals gourmet diners. The film ends with the kind of pessimistic coda that director Danny Boyle was talked out of using in the original. John Murphy’s music is fittingly one-note and unimaginative.