Something Special

Rating: 9/10 (14 May 2007)

28 Days Later was a fantastic zombie film, and a fantastic horror film in general. The previews make 28 Weeks Later seem like an unfortunate action film based on its predecessor, but in truth it is something far better, profound and, simply, something beyond what one expects.
It may seem strange to say that a zombie movie is "honest" or "affecting," but this film can easily be described as both. The dread and unease it pervades transcends even the horror genre, approaching something much more primal. The brutal treatment of human life is artistic in an almost Passolinian way (as hard to imagine as this is) and, in fact, I think it carries the series into the realm of artistic statement.
Every character is believable in a way that is uncommon to horror, making the movie almost seem to spring from the school of realism that Flaubert, Zola and Balzac are famous for, simply put in the context of horror (as potentially asinine as that sounds). Robert Carlyle's character strikes me as profoundly interesting and thoroughly complex, due to very subtle and quick techniques used when portraying him.
To say that this film exceeded my expectations going in is a gross understatement and, in fact this is truly something special in the horror genre, and for contemporary film as a whole.
I only hesitate to give it 10 stars because it is so fresh in my mind and I want it to steep a little more, despite my strong desire to simply say: "10 stars! 10 stars!"