TWENTY-eight weeks after the initial virus broke out and ravaged the entire population, turning them into slobbering, blood-thirsty zombies, Britain has returned to normal...

TWENTY-eight weeks after the initial virus broke out and ravaged the entire population, turning them into slobbering, blood-thirsty zombies, Britain has returned to normal.

Well, as normal as you can be when the population has been wiped out - the undead having slowly died of starvation in the follow-up to the cult hit film, 28 Days Later.

The repatriation of Brit refugees abroad is under way by US forces and all is going well with a swanky corner of Canary Wharf taken over by the returning citizens until one particular family is reunited.

Dad Don (Robert Carlyle) is busy trying to hide the fact that he left his wife, Alice (Catherine McCormack), to die in a savage zombie attack from his two kids, Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton).

However, when Alice is found safe and sound and very much alive in their old London home, all hell breaks loose - not just for the family, but for the rest of what's left of the capital.

Mum is not as healthy as she seems and the virus soon makes a violent return.

Danny Boyle hands over the directing reins to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who had a small arthouse hit a couple of years ago with Intacto.

He does an admirable job of sustaining tension while slickly portraying gore and bloodshed without being too explicit, favouring the MTV music video style of flashing screens and arty effects.

The cast is completely different from the original and while it may have been nice to have seen more of Carlyle, and newcomers Poots and Muggleton are amiable enough, London is the true star - its eerily empty streets echoing with quiet beauty.

An effective modern horror which builds on the success of the first film and, who knows, maybe it will be 28 Years Later next.

ANN LEE.