ANCER MAHAGEMENT

WITH A NEW TRILOGY IN SIGHT, WE SPEAK TO THE DIRECTOR OF 28 WEEKS LATER THE ORIGINAL CHILLING SEQUEL TO DANNY BOYLE'S SEMINAL SURVIVAL HORROR

- OLIVER PFEIFFER

OVER TWO DECADES ON, IT'S hard to describe, to anyone who wasn't around at the time, the impact Danny Boyle's 2002 contagion horror 28 Days Later had upon its release - a film so inventively terrifying that it single-handedly revived the zombie horror genre that had laid dormant for decades.

Five years afterwards, an atmospheric sequel re-entered that horrific post-apocalyptic world with new blood and a fresh take on the enraged Infected. 28 Weeks Later saw Spanish filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo appointed as director - personally selected by Boyle on the strength of 2001 thriller Intacto, his feature debut.

"I must confess that I was very doubtful when I received this flattering invitation from Danny Boyle. Because, whilst I thought 28 Days Later was excellent, it wasn't the kind of film that I wanted to make," Fresnadillo tells SFX. "I love classic horror movies, but I wasn't a big fan of making them. If you want to direct a horror film, you must be immersed in its nightmare scenario, and the way that I work, I really like to go deeper and dig into the story and the characters, which affects me a lot."

MOMMIE BLEAKEST

Fortunately, despite his reservations, including being left disengaged by Rowan Joffé's original script, Fresnadillo was won over by the opportunity to put his unique stamp on the story, alongside co-writer Jesús Olmo and producer Enrique Lopez Lavigne.