--- title: "28 Weeks Later" year: 2007 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/28-weeks-later" fi1m_score: 72 critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 13 published: "2026-09-19T12:44:32.091952+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T12:44:32.619846+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # 28 Weeks Later (2007) Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo · 1h 39m · MPA R · Horror, Thriller, Science Fiction **Fi1m score: 72** · Critics 75 from 13 reviews *In a sentence:* The army has secured one corner of London and two children on a moped undo it before teatime > Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s sequel opens with the best ten minutes in either film and spends the rest of its time trying to live up to them. It comes closer than it has any right to, though the plot asks you to look away twice. ## Synopsis A farmhouse outside London, during the rage virus outbreak. Donald Harris (Robert Carlyle) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) are hiding with a handful of strangers, eating tinned food by candlelight, when a child knocks at the door and the infected follow him in. Don runs, and leaves Alice behind. Twenty-eight weeks on, the virus has burned itself out and a US-led force has fenced off a corner of London around the Canary Wharf towers to begin repopulation. Don is caretaker there, and his children Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) arrive from Spain. Scarlet (Rose Byrne), an army medical officer, and Sergeant Doyle (Jeremy Renner), a rooftop sniper, watch the new arrivals. The children want something from the house they grew up in, somewhere in the empty city beyond the wire. ## Review Danny Boyle’s [*28 Days Later*](https://film.one/film/28-days-later) ended with a jet overhead and the suggestion that rescue was on its way. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s sequel asks what rescue would look like, and answers with a fenced compound, a curfew and an American soldier on every roof. It is a good, hard, fast horror film with one of the best openings the genre has produced, and it stands or falls on whether you can forgive a plot that needs two stupid decisions. We could, mostly. The first ten minutes are the film. A boarded-up farmhouse, tinned food by candlelight, a knock at the door nobody wants to answer. Then the infected come through the walls and Donald Harris (Robert Carlyle) makes a decision about his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) that the rest of the film never mentions. Enrique Chediak shoots the escape hand-held and half-lit, Chris Gill cuts it so you see a face for a frame and no longer, and John Murphy’s guitar theme comes in low as Don rows away with the infected keeping pace along the bank. We were frightened in the ordinary way, and then, as the camera rose over the boat, we felt something rarer at a horror film: shame on a character’s behalf. Carlyle’s face does it. He is not looking back. Twenty-eight weeks on, the army has taken a piece of the Isle of Dogs and called it District One. The production design, by Mark Tildesley, puts the returnees in tower-block flats with fresh paint and army-issue blankets under the Canary Wharf towers; the rest of London is exactly as it was left, cars where they stopped, grass through the pavements, nobody. Jane Petrie dresses the soldiers in desert camouflage that looks wrong against Docklands brick, which is the idea. Idris Elba’s General Stone runs it from a screen; Jeremy Renner’s Sergeant Doyle watches it through a rifle sight. Harold Perrineau flies the helicopter. Rose Byrne’s Scarlet, the medical officer, is the one person asking what happens when the wire is tested. Then Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton), Don’s children, want something from the family house in the empty city, and they get out. The film has just spent ten minutes telling us the perimeter is watched by snipers with night scopes, and two children on a moped cross it in daylight. The screenplay, by Fresnadillo, Rowan Joffé, Enrique López Lavigne and Jesús Olmo, needs the children outside and does not care how they got there, and it does the same thing later when it needs two adults to change sides in one cut. Most critics have waved this through because the set pieces earn it. They do, just. What the army does when the wire fails we will not describe, except that the second half is about being hunted by two sides, and that Fresnadillo stages it in sequences as good as anything in the first film: a room lit only by muzzle flash, a helicopter used for a purpose helicopters are not meant for, a stretch in a tube station seen only through the green of a night sight that we have not forgotten. Gill cuts these so fast that we sometimes lost who was standing where, and once who was still alive, and we are not sure the confusion was always deliberate. In 2007, a film about an occupying army losing control of a city it promised to rebuild does not need a caption, and Fresnadillo does not add one. Where the film falls short of Boyle’s is in the people. *28 Days Later* had four survivors you got to know; this one has eight characters and time for about two, and Byrne and Renner, both good, are playing jobs rather than people. Carlyle is the exception. He has perhaps twenty lines after the opening and works mostly with a face that has decided not to feel anything, and when the feeling arrives anyway it is the best acting in the film. At 99 minutes it does not hang about. See it in the dark and forgive the moped. If you cannot forgive the moped, the first ten minutes are worth the evening. *Fi1m score 72, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like it, and the reviews agree on why: Fresnadillo keeps the grim tone and the frantic documentary-style camerawork of the original while working on a larger scale, and the deserted London locations do much of the frightening. The praise clusters on the set-pieces, the outbreak and chase sequences in particular, which several reviews call relentless and terrifying, and on the film’s willingness to read as an allegory of occupation, with the military presence making the crisis worse rather than better. The spread is fairly wide for a film this well liked. A minority finds the plotting careless: Time Out thinks the script relies on too many fudges and neglects the moral complexity of its key characters, and The Guardian, the one outright dissent, calls a credibility-breaking glitch around thirty minutes in fatal and finds the whole thing frequently boring after a strong opening. Even admirers concede it is less fresh and less heartfelt than its predecessor. ### Reviews we read (13) - **The Hollywood Reporter** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it a ferociously entertaining thriller with sympathetic characters, stunning set pieces and pulsating excitement. It ups the ante on the rage virus story with explosive box-office potential. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/28-weeks-157946/) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (B+): Fresnadillo directs with assured intensity that blurs genre entertainment and real catastrophe, maintaining the original's scrappy feel while escalating chaos and tension through relentless infected and societal breakdown. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/28-weeks-later-1798202611) - **Empire**, Kim Newman (80/100, inferred): The sequel extends the story in intelligent, suspenseful ways with bigger action and more amazing deserted London sequences, though it is not quite as fresh or heartfelt as the original. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/28-weeks-later-review/) - **Radio Times**, Alan Jones (4/5): Fresnadillo's sequel retains the grim tone and sense of dread but on a more epic scale, with frantic documentary-style camerawork placing viewers at the heart of the horror. It expertly orchestrates galvanising gory action with clear parallels to Iraq in the spectacle of occupying forces exacerbating the crisis. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-sedms4/28-weeks-later/) - **Screen Daily** (80/100, inferred): Superior genre fare directed and performed with gusto, it is atmospheric and creepy with excellent use of London locations and bloodcurdling chase sequences that keep the tempo high. It is an exhilarating ride despite occasional shifts in tone and improbabilities. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/28-weeks-later/4032266.article) - **Slant Magazine**, Jeremiah Kipp (80/100, inferred): The film delivers unrelenting apocalyptic doom and nihilism, critiquing the War on Terror through self-destructive authority and decimated characters while adopting a larger epic scope than its predecessor. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/28-weeks-later/) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (80/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as brutal and almost exhaustingly terrifying yet also bracingly smart in its ideas and techniques, with a signature blend of grisly horror, emotional impact, and biting satire that comes close to George Romero's work. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/arts/11iht-flik12.1.5665305.html) - **Total Film** (75/100, inferred): A frantic follow-up that delivers jolts, gore and just enough character to care about, with intense action sequences and eerie empty London landmarks standing out. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/28-weeks-later-review/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Carina Chocano (70/100, inferred): The review portrays the film as the grisly anatomy of a quagmire laden with references to large-scale fiascos, grimmer and grislier than its predecessor, with an allegorical message that chaos breeds chaos and force amplifies it, while remaining compelling and adrenaline-fueled viewing. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-may-11-et-weeks11-story.html) - **Time Out**, Ben Walters (3/5): The film offers impressively mounted set-pieces that build real tension, but the plot relies on too many fudges and neglects the moral complexity of key characters. It maintains the first film's eerie score and skittery camerawork while putting London locations to cannily distressing use. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/28-weeks-later) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film disappointing after a terrific beginning, with a stupid plot glitch around 30 minutes in that undermines credibility, and despite some spectacular moments it fails to disguise that there isn't much mileage left in the zombie concept, often becoming boring. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/may/11/horror.actionandadventure) - **Digital Spy**, Ben Rawson-Jones (85/100, inferred): The film is a superb, terrifying and allegorical sequel that devours the notion horror sequels are inferior, delivering visceral thrills and moral complexities. It stands out for its relentless, gruesome outbreak sequences and an emotionally gripping, uncomfortable exploration of survival dilemmas. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a46322/28-weeks-later/) - **Eye for Film**, Anton Bitel (85/100, inferred): The critic finds the sequel makes for scorching horror with a perfect blend of well-drawn characters, political allegory, grand guignol, flesh-crawling tension and very fast-moving zombies. It leaves no margin for optimism in its bleak portrayal of a world order where normal values become irrelevant under extreme circumstances. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/28-weeks-later-film-review-by-anton-bitel) ## Details - **Director:** Juan Carlos Fresnadillo - **Director:** Juan Carlos Fresnadillo - **Screenplay:** Rowan Joffé, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Jesús Olmo, Enrique López Lavigne - **Cinematography:** Enrique Chediak - **Editor:** Chris Gill - **Music:** John Murphy - **Production design:** Mark Tildesley - **Costume design:** Jane Petrie - **Producer:** Allon Reich, Enrique López Lavigne, Andrew Macdonald - **Cast:** Robert Carlyle as Donald Harris; Rose Byrne as Scarlet; Jeremy Renner as Sergeant Doyle; Harold Perrineau as Flynn; Catherine McCormack as Alice; Mackintosh Muggleton as Andy Harris; Imogen Poots as Tammy Harris; Idris Elba as General Stone - **Runtime:** 1h 39m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 11 May 2007 - **Genres:** Horror, Thriller, Science Fiction - **Budget:** $15 million - **Box office:** $72 million ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: streaming - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $4.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *28 Days Later* (2002), Fi1m 77: The original: smaller, sadder, and the empty London is even emptier. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/28-days-later.md) - *[REC]* (2007): A Barcelona stairwell, one camera, and infection that moves faster than the film crew. - *Children of Men* (2006), Fi1m 85: Britain as a locked-down camp, shot with the same grey Thames light. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/children-of-men.md) - *Train to Busan* (2016), Fi1m 84: Korean infected on a moving train, with more heart than most of the genre. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/train-to-busan.md) - *Dawn of the Dead* (1978), Fi1m 86: Romero’s shopping-centre siege, where the army’s plan also lasts about an afternoon. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/dawn-of-the-dead.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/28-weeks-later