Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” was a big horror film that made a boom when it appeared in the states, so a sequel was a no brainer. As with most genre efforts, with a sequel you have to go bigger, louder, and faster. While I miss “28 Days Later’s” more subtle, quiet, and somber meditation on the end of the world, and a rapid fire virus, “28 Weeks Later” has its strong points. It’s a solid follow up with some very good ideas in its corner, it just fails in some elements, especially in how it breaks the rules of its own villainous disease.
Tag Archives: Survival
Fifteen Years Ago, “28 Days Later” Altered Horror
It wasn’t until 2003 where I was truly introduced to Danny Boyle (I’d seen Shallow Grave in 1994, and admittedly greeted it with a very negative reaction. Hell I was eleven). I fondly recall going to the movies that spring and experience a teaser trailer to Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s “28 Days Later.” The trailer, like the film, was frantic and horrifying and it piqued my interest to where it was all I thought about for months. In the summer of 2003, I managed to see “28 Days Later” finally. It happened to be an even more interesting experience than I ever imagined because I’d seen it a week before I had to have mandatory open heart surgery. To say that I was in a rollercoaster of emotions while watching “28 Days Later” is an understatement of the highest degree.
Mandy (2018)
In the early 1980s, a man’s goes on a rampage to find his loved one’s killers after dealing with loss, grief and its many stages most definitely including anger. His love for her was all encompassing and nothing will come in the way of his revenge, not even demons.
Based on a story by Panos Cosmatos who co-wrote with Aaron Stewart-Ahn and directed, Mandy is a mayhem-y film that starts mellow and filled with love. It takes its time setting up the relationship and care between Red and Mandy before Mandy gets dispatched, making her someone the viewer can care about and can be attached to before she gets killed. This does also mean that it feels a bit long in the first part before Red gets through his grief and to his revenge. That being said, when the revenge begins, it goes full force, balls to the wall, insane. The film’s last third or so is blood-soaked violent goodness where every and all tools can become a murder weapon that makes a ton of damage.
Mandy (2018)
Panos Cosmatos’ “Mandy” will be a film that not everyone will click in to. What could be a typical revenge thriller about a man avenging his wife is transformed in to a brilliant and mesmerizing trip in to insanity and literal hell. We know so little about Nicolas Cage’s character, but once he’s lost everything in his life, he descends in to a madness and hellfire that’s both horrifying and awe inspiring. Every single frame of “Mandy” is a mind blowing moving painting, one filled with vast colors and shades. The world Red and Mandy share is so vast, but is set just for them and them alone.
Blood Fest (2018)
I admire the cut of “Blood Feast’s” jib. It aspires to be an all out horror comedy gore fest that celebrates horror movies, and in many respects, it succeeds. I even forgave it for ripping off “Cabin in the Woods.” It’s just even when you shut off your brain, “Blood Feast” is bogged down, and ultimately defeated, by its insanely far fetched climax, and abundance of plot holes. I suspect audiences will leave this movie trying to connect the gaps in logic, more than celebrating its odes to “Saw,” “Night of the Living Dead,” and the fun cameo by Zachary Levi. Seriously, what was up with that? “Blood Fest” has a good idea in its corner it just has no idea how to cleverly deal it out for the movie audience.
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018)
I’ve been a long suffering “Puppet Master” fan who has waited patiently for the movie series to go back to its original course and head in to the deeper look in to the puppet mythos. After many years of pseudo-sequels and really awful bargain basement follow ups, we get a reboot but one that’s not a reboot, apparently. S. Craig Zahler’s “Puppet Master” is a new direction for the series that is an alternate timeline series that will exist alongside the original movie series from Full Moon. So not only do we have a crappy original series that needs a course correction, but a brand new series that’s junk from the starting gates with a feeble attempt to be provocative and controversial.
The Meg (2018)
Off the coast a China, a research crew finds an unexplored part of the ocean and decides to explore it to see what may hide beyond the partial physical barrier. Once there, they find that probably should have left it alone. As they are rescued, something follows them to the open waters and causes havoc. Only one man seems to be the one able to contain the situation.