Their collaboration on 28 Days Later was credited with revitalising the zombie-horror subgenre for the 21stcentury, but director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland soon parted ways after falling out over the religious and philosophical themes in their sci-fi venture, Sunshine. It’s taken over two decades for them to reconcile their creative differences, and they have reunited to revive their post-apocalyptic franchise with thriller 28 Years Later.
Retconning the 2007 predecessor which saw the ‘rage virus’ spread to Europe, this chapter keeps the story firmly rooted in Great Britain. With the mainland under strict quarantine, the plot mainly centres around 12-year-old boy Spike (Alfie Williams), his sick mother Isla (Jodie Comer), and scavenger father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) as they survive within a tightknit community on the tidal island of Lindisfarne.
The pioneering original picture experimented with a low-budget, grainy style that gave the piece an almost documentary-esque feel as an injured bike courier woke from a coma to find himself isolated within central London following an infectious outbreak. The latest instalment achieves the same dread and tension in the shaky-cam terror sequences and loses none of its madcap identity; it unravels like an unruly antidote to the blockbuster formula we’ve grown accustomed to in the summer months.
Splicing in folkloric war imagery with a beguiling score from progressive Scottish outfit Young Fathers, a coming-of-age narrative rises from the pool of Boyle’s mishmash of ideas like the causeway rising out of the blustery North Sea. As Spike takes Isla on a mission to find the enigmatic Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) to get help for her debilitating illness, he makes a discovery which will change his life forever. This leads to a bold swing of a final act, and an insanely off-piste encore that ties in with a disturbing prologue, where a symbol of pre-epidemic pop culture leaves a warped legacy in its wake.
Each time in the series (so far) we’re introduced to a cast of fresh faces, and Alfie Williams becomes the heart and soul of this outing. He has a winning mix of working class charm and vulnerability like he’s been pulled in from a Ken Loach tale, and he shares a moving bond with his screen mum, portrayed by the reliably excellent Jodie Comer with a convincing Geordie accent. Their mother-and-son relationship brings emotional impact to the guts and gore around them, with some supporting characters sketched in for now, but ready to be drawn in more detail with Nia DaCosta’s sequel already shot and scheduled for a 2026 release.
After lying dormant for the best part of two decades, 28 Years Later marks a brilliantly contagious comeback from the dynamic duo of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland. They’ve buried the hatchet to dig up the undead for what is pegged to be the first of a new trilogy, and as long as this pair are involved in the disease, let’s hope they don’t find a cure.
Cinema Perspective 