Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 28 Weeks Later is one of finest horror movies of recent years, but not for most of the reasons you've heard. Its political commentary may be bracing, its action scenes at once exciting, scary and poetic, but what distinguishes 28 Weeks Later is what distinguishes all great horror movies - how it uses the primal urgency of its subject matter to get at what makes us human. How do I know? It's all in the eyes.
From the very beginning, 28 Weeks Later is concerned with the eyes of its characters. The frenetic assault of the opening sequence, like many modern horror films, relies on rapid camera movements and editing to scare the audience by making it unclear what the hell is really going on. But the most horrifying moment of this sequence comes not during the action of the initial zombie attack but what comes after, when the film calms down to show Donald's (Robert Carlyle) fear and guilt at abandoning his wife for dead.
When Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton), Donald's children, are tested by military doctors, it's the examination of their eyes that we see in close detail. A point is even made about Andy's different colored eyes - a genetic trait passed down by his mother.
In 28 Weeks Later, our eyes - or, more accurately, what our eyes represent - is what makes us unique. When humans in 28 Weeks Later are transformed into the undead, the first thing that changes is...
the...
eyes.
The loss of the eyes represent the loss of humanity - of what makes us really, truly alive.
And although the film is obviously very aware of the ugliness and evil of which mankind is capable - selfishness, ignorance, violence - it also feels very deeply about the opposite, about the good that we can do, even when there's nothing in it for us, even when it seems - or even is - hopeless. Fresnadillo's camera stares deep through our eyes into our souls and comes away ambivalent but loving. And his film pulses with the knowledge that it is our wide capacity for emotion, be it guilt...
or empathy...
or sadness...
or fear...or empathy...or sadness...
that makes us wonderful, complex, scary, human - and beautiful.
2 comments:
Very nice. When I try to make my peace with 28 WEEKS LATER's grim message, I suppose it's that the good we do and the sacrifices we make are always worth doing, even if the end result is fucked up beyond all recognition.
The first movie, 28 day later, was about hope. It was inspiring. Against all odds, when every thing was hopeless, some of us remained human. There was still place in the world for love, for family. In 28 weeks later, what killed the world is love. They get to the helicopter because of love, they get in France because of love, they contaminate the planet because of love. I find this message deeply depressing. I really hope there is more to it, to humanity. The challenges that await us are incredible. The planet will soon be to small. If we revert to our survival instincts, we are all gonna die, fighting for resources. We need to unite and find solutions beyond survival. I am sometimes scared we, humans, are not capable of this. I really hope I am wrong ...
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