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28 Weeks Later...
Fox Atomic / 20th Century Fox


7.0

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 206 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for strong violence and gore, language and some sexuality/nudity

Starring Catherine McCormack, Robert Carlyle, Amanda Walker, Shahid Ahmed, Garfield Morgan, Emily Beecham, Beans El-Balawi, and Chris Ryman

28 Weeks Later, the follow up to 28 Days Later, picks up six months after the rage virus has annihilated the Mainland Britain. The U.S. Army declares that the war against infection has been won, and that the reconstruction of the country can begin. As the first wave of refugees return, a family is reunited, but one of them unwittingly carries a terrible secret. The virus is not yet dead, and this time, it is more dangerous than ever. (Fox Atomic)

GENRE(S):	Foreign \| Horror \| Sci-fi \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Rowan Joffe Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Jesús Olmo
DIRECTED BY:	Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 9, 2007 Theatrical: May 11, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	99 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

A ferociously entertaining thriller with sympathetic characters, stunning set pieces and pulsating excitement.

100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

As viscerally compelling as smash-mouth filmmaking gets.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

28 Weeks Later is not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. It is brutal and almost exhaustingly terrifying, as any respectable zombie movie should be. It is also bracingly smart, both in its ideas and in its techniques.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

There's no better fun for movie lovers than a small, unheralded film that turns out to be terrific -- unless it's a small, unheralded sequel that trumps the original.

Variety Derek Elley

A full-bore zombie romp that more than delivers the genre goods.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Swift, vicious and grimly imaginative, the zombie film 28 Weeks Later exceeds its predecessor, "28 Days Later," in every way.

Boston Globe Erin Meister

The script is biting and timely.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Those rigorously moral and humanistic underpinnings give 28 Weeks Later a kind of power that 100 Saws and Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes could never achieve.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

28 Weeks Later has a stronger story line, equally fine performances, greater tension, enough gore to satisfy the most hard-core zombie fan, and a narrative pace that flings us from the opening scenes to the very last image.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Under Fresnadillo's assured direction, 28 Weeks Later blurs the line between genre entertainment and a photojournalist's shots of the next urban catastrophe.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

I give the slight edge to the first movie because I prefer Boyle's craft to Fresnadillo's, but the action is more intense here, and I greeted the thought of a third film -- virtually assured in the closing shots -- with a little yip of "Yes!" Likely you will, too.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Excels at creating a keen, creepy sense of a civilization stopped dead in its tracks -- vaporized, almost, except for those disemboweled bodies left still undisposed.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The ending is a set-up for yet another sequel: Can "28 Months Later" be very far away?

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

28 Weeks Later lacks the streamlined thrust of its predecessor but makes for compelling, adrenaline-fueled viewing just the same.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Blistering and nihilistic--a vision to reduce you to a puddle of despair.

Empire Kim Newman

Bigger action, more amazing deserted (and devastated) London sequences and biting contemporary relevance, if a touch less heart than the original.

Slate Grady Hendrix

The first hour of this lean, mean, 95-minute scream machine is so tasty that it redeems the predictable conclusion.

Village Voice Nathan Lee

The sequel trumps its predecessor for sustained doomsday gloom and suggests this might be the man to adapt Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel The Road.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

This sequel to the apocalyptic splatter flick "28 Days Later" . . . (2002) is still well equipped to rip your face off.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

t's an exciting, well-directed thriller that, while providing more than enough action and gore to satisfy genre fans, also offers the political commentary that has characterized zombie movies going back at least as far as "Night of the Living Dead."

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Holds the audience captive and unusually vulnerable to psycho- and viscero-terror.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Hold on for a hell of a ride.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

The biggest sin of 28 Weeks Later is that it's not in the same league as the near-perfect movie that came before it.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

A gruelingly tense, deftly plotted, and slyly intelligent piece of work. And also it's really really disgusting.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Relentlessly grim and grisly, 28 Weeks Later is not for the faint of heart. But its provocative post-apocalyptic theme makes for a smart and deeply unsettling film.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

28 Weeks Later is flawed -- the constant reappearance of one key character verges on the absurd -- but it knows where it's going, and it gets there in a chilling blaze of fire, blood and poisonous fog.

Newsweek David Ansen

Where the original gave you something to chew on, the sequel is more interested in chewing on you.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who was essentially handpicked by now-executive producer Danny Boyle, gives us a more depressing look at humanity while retaining several of his predecessor’s moves. This isn’t always a good thing, since Fresnadillo can’t seem to get his fill of low-light hyper-edited fight scenes or frenetic hand-held shots of people running, but when used right it adds to the sense of claustrophobia and impending doom.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The mayhem is presented sparingly enough to be suspenseful, some of the sequences are genuinely terrifying and, compared with Hollywood's last zombie movie, the Robert Rodriguez half of "Grindhouse," it's a masterpiece.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

While 28 Weeks Later ultimately falls shy of classic status (it's no Panic in Year Zero!), there are several hard-to-shake scenes -- nightmare visions, really -- that reveal the infected populace to be far less dangerous to the fabric of a civilized society than, perhaps, the very notion of civilization itself.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Only occasionally does Fresnadillo rise above the mundane, but, to his credit, the exceptions are worth savouring.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Doesn't match the impact of its predecessor, which both revived and reimagined the zombie-film genre.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Deals with emotional concerns for half an hour. Then it turns into a mindless bloodfest, where it's impossible to care which characters end on the zombie gore-gasbord.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

"28 Days Later," while not terribly original, was suspenseful and involving. 28 Weeks Later is neither. The characters aren't as sympathetic or interesting.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 206 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Joshua H gave it a9:
Great film, Shows enough gore to make a horror movie yet creates enough suspense for a compelling thriller that you can't take your eyes off.The director masterfully builds suspense and excitement. Everything was well done from the camera work to the music cues.Good dialogue and great special effects. loved it.

Randy M gave it a9:
28 Weeks Later is dark. Beyond dark. It's a movie lover's masochistic nightmare. But it's shocking, intelligent, and will leave you utterly exhausted by the time your finished watching it. The movie gives you almost no time to relax and cleverly instills a sense of panic throughout. Brilliantly concieved and more than worthy to sit among the few top-tier horror films.

Jacob B gave it a5:
Well if you were to ask me I would say that this movie was no where near as good as the first one there were a couple things I did not like in this movie for say how stupid the military was and how stupid most characters were I think the sniper was the only one there who even had a brain but it did have some awesome action scenes that's the only reason I would watch this movie.

Arjan D. gave it a2:
28 Days Later was, in my opinion, a breathtaking movie, so I expected 28 Weeks later to be of the same quality. I was very disappointed to see the movie fall apart soon after the (second) outbreak of the infection. Most of the actors were sacrificed so fast after each other you didn't have time to feel sorry for them. Besides, the atmospere and suspense of 28 Days later weren't matched by far. I think this is the case because a bid-budget sequel to a low-budget movie simply doesn't work. All in all, I think 28 Weeks later isn't worthy of being the sequel to 28 Days later.

Nick M. gave it a10:
This movie will probably go down as a classic horror film. It is one of the scariest movies to date, and it had a classic moment a minute. It's biggest praise is its opening scene, one of the best in any movie ever.

Judy N gave it a2:
Fairly awful. After watching this I didn't understand all the praise that this movie received about it being suspenseful and intriguing. The two points that this movie gained was due to the first few minutes of the movie in the farmhouse, but then becomes predictable and riddled with sentimentality and cheesiness. It felt like I was checking off a list of cheesy factors that needed to be fulfilled, what with idiotic rebellious children and somehow instead of being killed off, they must be protected. The ridiculous reason the infection began to spread, along with many skips in the plotline. Instead of the riveting story in the first movie that questions the basis of people's humanity in the face of a crisis, this one is basically a compilation of unrealistic human idiocy that's beyond hopeless.

Jan gave it a3:
I loved the first movie (28 days later), but this one just doesn't make sense. The plot holes are too big, the ambiance is good at the start, but later you will just be watching to events that follow to each other and make little sense. Maybe because of the big expectations I had, but when I finished watching this movie, I was was really unsatisfied.

28 Weeks Later... Fox Atomic / 20th Century Fox

28 Weeks Later...
Fox Atomic / 20th Century Fox