28 Weeks Later - Utterly Miserable!

[youngsyr]

I know I'm very late to the party on this one, but it was on C4 during the week so I finally caught it, but what an unrelentingly miserable film!

Spoilers:









Dad leaves Mum and an unrelated kid to be killed by zombies as he's a coward
Dad is reunited with kids, tells them mum is dead
Dad struggles with having left mum to die
Mum actually survives, kids find out, blame Dad
Dad goes to see Mum is infected by her to become zombie
Zombie Dad graphically kills mum and then stalks child
US soldier helps children escape infected area with US medic woman
US soldier is burnt alive by US forces clensing area, kids and medic escape
US medic is killed by zombie dad
zombie dad infects son
zombie dad is killed by daughter
daughter and zombie son escape to France to infect a whole new country
Film ends

Could it get any more depressing?!

I definitely want my 2 hours back!!

[davepoth]

Watch "The Road". A bit like that but with TB and nowhere near as much excitement.

[russ_a]

We turned The Road off as it was so depressing!

[Northern Munkee]

youngsyr said:

I know I'm very late to the party on this one, but it was on C4 during the week so I finally caught it, but what an unrelentingly miserable film!

Spoilers:









Dad leaves Mum and an unrelated kid to be killed by zombies as he's a coward
Dad is reunited with kids, tells them mum is dead
Dad struggles with having left mum to die
Mum actually survives, kids find out, blame Dad
Dad goes to see Mum is infected by her to become zombie
Zombie Dad graphically kills mum and then stalks child
US soldier helps children escape infected area with US medic woman
US soldier is burnt alive by US forces clensing area, kids and medic escape
US medic is killed by zombie dad
zombie dad infects son
zombie dad is killed by daughter
daughter and zombie son escape to France to infect a whole new country
Film ends

Could it get any more depressing?!

I definitely want my 2 hours back!!

It's (not) a zombie movie, what were you expecting, a film about pregnant ladies entering the final trimester? If I didn't know better I'd suggest you were trolling.

you'd probably prefer 28 days later, now thats got a much happier ending.

[Tsippy]

While a depressing film, I thought that it could have been hell of a lot better.

[JustinP1]

russ_a said:

We turned The Road off as it was so depressing!

It is a great film, but it really really is depressing. In fact maybe the most depressing film ever seen.

The last 30 seconds is the happiest part, but even then it isn't that happy considering what happens in the minute before that...

[Rotary Madness]

russ_a said:

We turned The Road off as it was so depressing!

No, The Road was just fking stupid.

Spends the whole film teaching his son to look after himself, trust noone, be paranoid etc. and then he just fks off with the first group of people he bumps into.

[Pete Franklin]

You think the road is a depressing film? Try reading the book. It's another level- leaves you feeling completely dessimated. Brilliant read though

[Halb]

I agree, watched this in the cinema, walked out feeling crap...wonder how 28 Months Later will end?

Wanna talk aboot depressing, read The Walking Dead

[Eric Mc]

Pete Franklin said:

You think the road is a depressing film? Try reading the book. It's another level- leaves you feeling completely dessimated. Brilliant read though

Never studied Latin obviously

The word is "DECIMATED" coming from the word "Decem", which means "10" in Latin. If a Roman Legion transgressed orders or mutinied, 1 in 10 of the soldiers were taken out of the line and executed.

We use the word "decimated" incorrectly all the time. If something is decimated, it doesn't mean that it was almost wiped out. It actually means 1/10 of it was destroyed, which is not that bad, actually.

[durbster]

Funny, I found left the cinema absolutely buzzing after seeing 28 Weeks Later. Its relentless energy had me grinning from beginning to end

The opening 15 minutes are absolute class; the way the pace ramps up a million percent in the blink of an eye and the "what would you do" moments.

I'm not sure what you expected from a disaster film really. It was hardly going to be full of sunflowers and rainbows.

Edited by durbster on Friday 13th May 08:34

[youngsyr]

Northern Munkee said:

youngsyr said:

I know I'm very late to the party on this one, but it was on C4 during the week so I finally caught it, but what an unrelentingly miserable film!

Spoilers:


Dad leaves Mum and an unrelated kid to be killed by zombies as he's a coward
Dad is reunited with kids, tells them mum is dead
Dad struggles with having left mum to die
Mum actually survives, kids find out, blame Dad
Dad goes to see Mum is infected by her to become zombie
Zombie Dad graphically kills mum and then stalks child
US soldier helps children escape infected area with US medic woman
US soldier is burnt alive by US forces clensing area, kids and medic escape
US medic is killed by zombie dad
zombie dad infects son
zombie dad is killed by daughter
daughter and zombie son escape to France to infect a whole new country
Film ends

Could it get any more depressing?!

I definitely want my 2 hours back!!

It's (not) a zombie movie, what were you expecting, a film about pregnant ladies entering the final trimester? If I didn't know better I'd suggest you were trolling.

you'd probably prefer 28 days later, now thats got a much happier ending.

I couldn't care less if a film doesn't have a happy ending, what annoys me is that I sat through 2 hours of one miserable situation after another, with a focus on the how the characters experience them, until finally the film ended. I watch films to enjoy them, this one I didn't enjoy at all.

Any one of the situations in my post above would put a downer on a film, but this film was just one depressing situation after another until it finally ended.

[nonplussed]

Eric Mc said:

Pete Franklin said:

You think the road is a depressing film? Try reading the book. It's another level- leaves you feeling completely dessimated. Brilliant read though

Never studied Latin obviously

The word is "DECIMATED" coming from the word "Decem", which means "10" in Latin. If a Roman Legion transgressed orders or mutinied, 1 in 10 of the soldiers were taken out of the line and executed.

We use the word "decimated" incorrectly all the time. If something is decimated, it doesn't mean that it was almost wiped out. It actually means 1/10 of it was destroyed, which is not that bad, actually.

Errare humanum est.

[Eric Mc]

Absolutely.

[durbster]

Eric Mc said:

Never studied Latin obviously

The word is "DECIMATED" coming from the word "Decem", which means "10" in Latin. If a Roman Legion transgressed orders or mutinied, 1 in 10 of the soldiers were taken out of the line and executed.

We use the word "decimated" incorrectly all the time. If something is decimated, it doesn't mean that it was almost wiped out. It actually means 1/10 of it was destroyed, which is not that bad, actually.

Erm... language evolves. It's something of an oxymoron to say a word is, "used incorrectly all the time", as a word's meaning is largely based on recognition. If it's commonly used to mean a wider destruction then that meaning eventually overtakes the original useage.

[chris watton]

I quite enjoyed it - most 'Zombie' movies end like this - even the ending in the hugely entertaining remake of Dawn of the Dead is quite depressing (if you watch through the end credits)
If you want depressing, as others have said, there's the Road and 'that ending' from the Mist.

Edited by chris watton on Friday 13th May 08:46

[youngsyr]

durbster said:

Funny, I found left the cinema absolutely buzzing after seeing 28 Weeks Later. Its relentless energy had me grinning from beginning to end

The opening 15 minutes are absolute class; the way the pace ramps up a million percent in the blink of an eye and the "what would you do" moments.

I'm not sure what you expected from a disaster film really. It was hardly going to be full of sunflowers and rainbows.

Edited by durbster on Friday 13th May 08:34

Again, I didn't expect sunflowers and rainbows, but I don't watch films to undertake a test of how much distress (physical, emotional and other) that I can endure.

For example: the close ups of the kids' faces as they watch their saviour (US Special Ops guy) being burned to death by his own side whilst trying to help them escape. That's fine in a limited amount, but when pretty much every other scene is just as depressing, it stops being enjoyable.

[davido140]

I typically dont expect a happy ending from zombie films, and I'm a big fan.

Ending should typically be

everyone dead or "infected"
or
one or two survivors make it to the isolated island but that vast majority of the group die on the way, but probably get to the safe-haven only to find it overrun as well.

Alien films on the other hand should always be a Hollywood ending, where the plucky resistance fight off the attacking aliens after all hope seems to have faded. The main reason skyline was rubbish was the naff ending.

[Eric Mc]

durbster said:

Eric Mc said:

Never studied Latin obviously

The word is "DECIMATED" coming from the word "Decem", which means "10" in Latin. If a Roman Legion transgressed orders or mutinied, 1 in 10 of the soldiers were taken out of the line and executed.

We use the word "decimated" incorrectly all the time. If something is decimated, it doesn't mean that it was almost wiped out. It actually means 1/10 of it was destroyed, which is not that bad, actually.

Erm... language evolves. It's something of an oxymoron to say a word is, "used incorrectly all the time", as a word's meaning is largely based on recognition. If it's commonly used to mean a wider destruction then that meaning eventually overtakes the original useage.

Yiz are all higorant then.

[Eric Mc]

davido140 said:

I typically dont expect a happy ending from zombie films, and I'm a big fan.

Ending should typically be

everyone dead or "infected"
or
one or two survivors make it to the isolated island but that vast majority of the group die on the way, but probably get to the safe-haven only to find it overrun as well.

Alien films on the other hand should always be a Hollywood ending, where the plucky resistance fight off the attacking aliens after all hope seems to have faded. The main reason skyline was rubbish was the naff ending.

I wonder do these uber-depressive storylines reflect a general sense of depression and lost optimism in Western Culture.

I don't tend to watch TV or films like this but I am quite a fan of Stephen Baxter's Sci-Fi writing. People often refer to him as the new Arthur C Clarke as his fiction is very much nuts and bolts sci-fi in the Clarkian tradition. However, the major difference is that Clarke was an essential optimist about the future of humanity and Baxter comes across as a bit of a doom laden pessimist.

Have we lost the plot in the west?