Alec’s favourite day finally arrived. Sebastian, Alice & Jamie came over today for a festival of zombie movies.

We started with 28 Days Later, then, after some Chinese from Chatswood BBQ Kitchen, we watched 28 Weeks Later at the movies.

While I really enjoyed 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later lacked the main feature of the first film – sympathetic central characters to drive the story along. Without these characters it’s hard to get too involved in a story and care about how it ends.

The first film also focused on the evolution of its main characters, making it as much of a human drama as a scary movie. 28 Days Later reminded me of Lord of the Flies in that it commented on the thin veneer of civilisation that keeps our society in check. Take it away and we all revert to animals.

Holding on to your humanity in the face of monstrosity was a central theme in 28 Days Later, but not so much in 28 Weeks Later, which seemed to be more about gratuitous violence and death. With the lack of substantial lead characters who saw the movie all the way through, it also lacked the complexity of the original film.

On a less intellectual level, there were also no cute guys in 28 Weeks Later. Bring back Cillian Murphy and the naked shower scenes!

It was still a great day – and Jamie even made a new friend. Cecil the snake. A bargain from Coles, only $8!