The new horror show “28 Weeks Later” is a zombie movie that really pushes your adrenaline buttons thanks to masterful acting turns, stylish cinematography and an infectious soundtrack that gets under your skin.

“28 Weeks Later” picks up after the catastrophic events of its 2002 predecessor “28 Days Later” in which a virus lets loose anarchy in the United Kingdom.

Infection of the “rage” virus occurs usually after contact with bodily fluid and causes people to lose their minds and infect others in a violent manner. Imagine thousands of bloodthirsty vampire zombies with blank, inhuman eyes and bloody mouths chasing after you.

The film opens in the basement of a cottage in the English countryside, where we see the familiar faces of the excellent Robert Carlyle (“Trainspotting”) and the beautiful Catherine McCormack (“Braveheart”) as young parents who have escaped the infected hordes terrorizing England.

The scene in which the zombies attack the cottage is completely terrifying because the filmmakers allow us intimate character moments before the horrific payoff with Don, Alice, their elderly protectors and two other survivors sharing supper. These thoughtful character-driven scenes flow throughout the course of the picture, which makes the thrilling action sequences all the more suspenseful and realistic.

Don is reunited with his two children in London, which becomes a repopulation center for survivors. The U.S. military oversees the repopulation center with snipers over rooftops, armed patrols on every street corner and helicopters flying overhead.

The film’s titular 28 weeks refers to the time it takes for the virus to ravage the populace of Great Britain. In the new film, the country has been quarantined and put under the care of the U.S.-led NATO force as a means for order and repopulation. The post-apocalyptic/“Big Brother” overtones in the new movie reminded me of Alfonso Cuaron’s “Children of Men.”

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In both “Children” and “28 Weeks,” notions of civil liberties, freedom and privacy are compromised by the needs of a fearful “might makes right” authority structure.

It’s apparent that today’s sci-fi filmmakers (Cuaron and “28 Weeks Later” director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo) are exploring current socio-political themes in the same way filmmakers used space aliens and giant monsters as a metaphor for the “red menace” in the 1950s.

When a military commander in the film says “We’ve lost control,” or when the rooftop snipers guarding the repopulation sector begin shooting all the escaped civilians because infection is impossible to determine, one may draw parallels to the real world.

The film uses the same kind of gritty color desaturation and increased graininess in its cinematography as “Saving Private Ryan” did, but here, the effect is much more dreary and depressing.

The camera angles, editing and flow of the shots, like those of the original “28 Days Later” pull off the perfect balance of “cinema verite” realism and stylish visual panache. Added with the film’s heart-pounding rock score and earsplitting sound design, the results are riveting.

Even with the nice cinematography, special effects and sound design, what really makes this picture click is the acting and character development.

Carlyle is an actor who knows how to play likable (”The Full Monty”) and despicable (“The World is Not Enough”). The most compelling moment for me was early in the film as the cottage is besieged by the infected and Don must make a choice between risking his own skin to save his wife, or hightailing it out of the cottage to safety. There are those of us who would unquestionably die for our loved ones given a dire situation, and that’s all good and noble. But somehow, Don’s selfish approach is much more cinematically compelling.

Carlyle’s ability to convey those haunted feelings of guilt, regret and shame is amazing and heartbreaking and the tragedy of the film is outright Shakespearean.

If you like your zombie movies filled with smart psychological/political subtext, and arresting visual flourish, don’t miss this one.

(Three and a half stars out of four.)

Neil Nisperos can be reached at 737-1059 or nnisperos@lompocrecord.com.