28 YEARS LATER Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Danny Boyle
Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, Alfie Williams, Edvin Ryding, Amy Cameron, Jack O’Connell, Stella Gonet.
This is the belated third film in the post-apocalyptic zombie series created by writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle in 2002 with 28 Days Later. 28 Weeks Later, the second film in the series, followed in 2007 albeit without the involvement of Boyle. Now, two decades later, Boyle and Garland reunite for this third film, which takes the series in a slightly different direction.
When 28 Years Later opens, we learn that the monkey virus that has turned the human population of Britain into rampaging zombies has largely been contained as the UK has been quarantined. The navies of European nations circle offshore to prevent any further outbreaks.
A group of survivors live on Holy Island Mission, an isolated sanctuary near the Scottish Highlands that has become their home and fortress. The only way to reach the mainland is via a causeway that is submerged by the high tide. This affords the isolated community some means of protection from the infected who still roam the mainland. But they still need to scavenge for food and supplies in order to survive.
Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, recently seen in Nosferatu and Kraven The Hunter, etc) takes his twelve-year-old son Spike (Newcomer Alfie Williams) across to the mainland on a hunting trip as some sort of rite of passage. They are armed with bows and arrows. They leave behind his bedridden wife and Spike’s mother Isla (Jodie Comer, from Prima Facie, etc), who is sick and suffering from some mysterious illness. While evading the hordes of virus infected people, who seem to be more intelligent and stronger and evolved, they spy a distant fire which leads them to learn of the presence of an eccentric doctor who apparently burns the bodies of the dead.
Upon returning to the island, Spike becomes more concerned about his mother’s worsening health and decides to take her to the mainland in the hope that the mysterious doctor can help heal her. Doctor Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) is covered in blood and iodine which apparently protects him from the virus. He builds a cairn, comprising entirely of skulls, as a memorial to the dead.
28 Years Later is not so much an out and out horror story as it is a coming-of-age story about the love between a mother and her son as well as a story of hope and faith and a meditation on the inevitability of death. There is still enough blood and gore and some jump scares that will satisfy horror aficionados though. And the soundscape is also unnerving.
Boyle has adopted an almost experimental approach to the material here. His regular cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle has done a good job with the striking visuals considering that the film was shot entirely on an i-Phone 15 Pro Max. He uses handheld cameras and drone shots to good effect to create a sense of urgency. The production design from Carson McColl and Gareth Pugh creates the rustic, technology free environment of the island setting, which creates a vivid contrast with the earlier films that were mainly set in an urban environment.
In this post-COVID era, 28 Years Later effectively taps into our fears of another such pandemic outbreak. The film also includes that haunting reading of Rudyard Kipling’s poem Boots (which appeared in the trailer), which adds an eerie and unsettling tone at the outset.
Newcomer Williams delivers a solid performance, while Comer copes well with her underwritten role. Fiennes brings a touch of gravitas to proceedings with his performance as the kindly Latin-sprouting doctor.
28 Years Later was shot back-to-back with its sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which is due to be released at the start of 2026.
★★★
