Anarchy in the UK (from Spain).

Rating: 7/10 (17 June 2007)

It's really nice to see that Britain could offer the world some good horror movies again, and not only social dramas (for festivals) or comedies (for the popular audience) like they passively do since the end of the Hammer company. I don't know why or even exactly when they stopped doing this kind of movie but I was really happy to watch "Creep", "Severance", "Dog Soldiers" or "Shawn of the dead" (a comedy, really ?). I have the feeling that those movies tried to rebuild a link to popular horror movie that England lost years ago. It's useless to recall to everyone that the master of suspense himself was born in London and that the best thriller of all time : "Peeping Tom" was done by Michael Powell in 1960 in England.
Since its very beginning, Danny Boyle seems really attached to this kind of popular culture, trying to expose it in a completely British environment. It's what he accomplishes with the Zombie/Survival movie with "28 days later", putting together two American movies : "The World, the flesh and the devil" (a late 50 horror classic, witch begins exactly like Boyle's movie, only in New-York City) and Romero's Zombie trilogy (with much more faster Zombies indeed) in a pure British environment. I was a little suspicious when I learn that a sequel will be done without him directing, but as soon as the movie started, my doubts were gone : after a most impressive first scene (that reminds us the talent of Robert Carlyle with a very strong emotional impact), the movie overcomes the first one from an horrific point of view and also manage to deal with Britain most contemporary problems, even if the new director : Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is Spanish.
It's useless to search for any plot link with the previous movie : the only common point between the two movies is that they both happened in a dead Britain, infested by the Rage virus. 28 weeks after the contamination, London seems safe again, and some people are allowed to come back in their city, fully protected by the US army. The first part brilliantly use the security system as a part of the editing, showing us a life were intimacy is banned for security reasons. When CCTV (security cameras you'll find in London buses, shops, streetsÂ…) now almost covers the all town, this metaphor seems to me a acid comments on contemporary Britain. And I'm not even talking about the fact that it's the US army who controls the all city. Horror movies has always been a good field for political point of view, and I think that Fresnadillo uses this field to express a comment about Britain through his survival movie.
But don't worry, the movie is also fine when it comes to blood and gore (a little confused in its editing maybe, but the chaotic style adds fear to the horror of the situation), and it's no surprise that the town doesn't stay calm for long, and that the Rage isn't very far in this pessimistic movie. I was at the end very pleased to see an intelligent and entertaining gore movie, particularly an English one, made by a Spanish director (Spain also produced some excellent horror movies this past few years).