28 Years Later (2025)
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Alfie Williams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes
Primary genre: Post-apocalyptic
Secondary genre: Coming of age
Third genre: Horror
British horror enjoyed a renaissance in early 2000s away from the gory and telegraphic schematics of its American counterpart. “28 Days Later” took the (pun intended) dying genre of flesh eating corpses and gave it a remarkably creative spin. The infected with the Rage virus - a saliva and blood borne monstrosity that transforms people into red-eyed yelling lunatics after they spill their guts on the floor, were faster, meaner and relentless. This highly effective genre entry was followed up by a less effective sequel; if “28 Days Later” was “Alien” (1979), then “28 Weeks Later” (2007) was its “Aliens” (1986): bigger, nastier but not necessarily scarier.
“Every skull is a set of thoughts. These sockets saw and these jaws spoke and swallowed. This is a monument to them. A temple.”
Its open ending was left unexplored until the same creative team decided to revisit the Rage virus’ lifecycle 28 years later. Months it seems, were not available for the inevitable consequent title. The marketing campaign had been phenomenal. In an era of promotional saturation, the trailer captivated audiences with its “Boots” (1903) poem recited by American actor Taylor Holmes in 1915 complementing the creepy and visceral visuals in a post-apocalyptic Britain.
Perhaps the most recent cinematic fluke of the last 10 years, “28 Years Later” suffers from an overabundance of ideas, seismic tonal shifts, editing inconsistencies, plot holes and baffling character decisions. Boyle and Garland introduce several elements which are let down by an underwhelming execution causing viewer’s heads to explore. The original perfected its setup due to the virus’ purpose (which is to spread as opposed to feast upon fellow humans). The threequel though elects to disregard its predecessors’ finale raising eyebrows as to how the rest of the world would continue to move on while Britain has been left alone (an obvious metaphor for Brexit).
Split into two halves, the first starts strong bringing an interesting coming-of-age aspect to a post-apocalyptic landscape which will resonate with many. The plot is character driven bringing forward an emotional quality that seems promising through the eyes of Spike, a 12-year-old who has spend his whole life in a remote and infection-free island. It’s the second half that undoes all the goodwill established before pointlessly trying to convince us to ignore several gaping plot holes and convenience settings for tone-changing melodrama and an abrupt and underwhelming conclusion. There are talks of patrol boats from other nations yet no one would take a boat and bugger off. It’s not you can hide such an infection (i.e., it takes its time for someone to turn). Such lingering questions betray the film’s intention to lure new audience members into this desolate world and expanding zombie mythology.
While most flicks of this type avoided this issue by having the infected transform into various types from the get go, in “28 Years Later”, we are supposed to believe that zombies evolved too. These new infected, however, lack their ferocity and viciousness - a unique characteristic for this cinematic monster, and watching naked, dirty people running around under epileptic fits is a cause for laughter. This type of primevil, cave like individuals never get the examination they deserve which the movie claims to provide becoming generic chasers instead who appear and are defeated when the plot demands it. As for the much stronger zombie types (i.e., Alphas), they even make less sense in their Jason Vorhees silent presentation.
So is is all bad? The cast and performances are good - Alfie Williams is the MVP here , the locations make a compelling case for UK’s underrated beauty and the cinematography gives the eerie sense of the lurking infected. But the freeze frame kills, the intercut with British epic cinema(!), the lack of suspense and primal horror, a train sequence that will leave you scratching your head and massive tonal shifts, make it hard to care. Until “The Bone Temple” (2026) then.
28 wasted opportunities
+Beautiful cinematography
+Gorgeous landscapes
+Good cast - Williams, Comer
+Solid first act
-Jarring tonal shifts
-Laughable finale
-Not scary
-Plot holes
-Baffling decisions