As evident by its title, 28 years Later takes up such a time period from the virus that first unleashed itself across Danny Boyle‘s 2002 post-apocalyptic horror effort 28 Days Later. That film centered around the days that followed the actions of a group of animal rights activists who infiltrated a laboratory in Cambridge, where abnormally aggressive chimpanzees were housed. Freeing a chimpanzee, despite being warned by a scientist that it is infected with a highly contagious virus, the activist that did so was savagely attacked and eventually succumbed to the virus. Her attacks on the others soon spread the virus cross Great Britain, resulting in total societal collapse.
You know, classic zombie set-up.
Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland returning to the fray here lends a certain gravity to proceedings – director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and screenwriters Rowan Joffé, Enrique López Lavigne and Jesus Olmo were on duties for the sequel, 28 Weeks Later (2007) – as Years lays focus on the surviving humans, all who have carved out a fortified existence on a remote island where supplies of all facets are limited. Despite the obvious hardships and technological disconnection, they seem to live peaceful-enough lives, abiding by the rules that determine their survival.
The family which earns Garland’s specificity is that of Isla (Jodie Comer) and Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and their 12-year-old son, Spike (Alfie Williams). In something of a tradition for boys coming of age, Jamie takes Spike out to the mainland to explore the ruins of civilization and hopefully bag his first zombie kill in the process. Within minutes of meeting the family, we are already clued in that Jamie, macho but loving, has certain expectations of his household and that Spike, eager he may be to visit the mainland, is far more preoccupied with tending to Isla, who’s bedridden with an affliction that, initially, is a mystery; her disconnection from reality suggesting a multitude of ailments that Garland’s script is in no hurry to reveal to the audience.
Intercut with archival footage of British soldiers and film characters, as the Taylor Holmes reading of Rudyard Kipling’s “Boots” accompanies – a chilling slice of audio that worked so effectively across the film’s trailers – there’s an immediate sense of dread that laces Jamie and Spike’s visit to the mainland. Accessible by a stretch of land only visible during low tide, Garland and Boyle lean into the toxic cycle of “murder equals masculinity” that Jamie is perpetuating by introducing his son to the lore of their land, and it’s their visit that 28 Years Later initially focuses on. Whilst the journey to the mainland means the zombie hunting aspect results in its share of gore and carnage (it must be said that Boyle doesn’t hold back on the bloody practically of his effects), it also presents something of a problem with the world building as the village mentality we only momentarily witness suggests a deep undercurrent of insidious behaviour that many of the children seem all too willing to adhere to.
Perhaps ironically for a zombie-themed horror film that genre-specific audiences might be unprepared for, it’s the emotional aspect of 28 Years Later that proves the most impactful; well, that and the confronting full-frontal nudity shots of the hulking Chi-Lewis Parry, a 208cms tall retired MMA fighter-turned-actor, who stomps through the film as the unbridled Samson, the imposing leader of the infected on the mainland, whose stature and endowment is difficult to ignore. When Spike defies Jamie’s intentions and looks to how he can cure or, at least, learn what troubles Isla, the film shifts in tone and seems to have more of a hold on how to infuse the physical with the psychological. It’s constantly noted how Spike resembles his grandfather, and it’s through his journey with his mother that Garland more fully explores what embodiment of masculinity he’ll inhabit; whether that be his aforementioned grandfather or Jamie, or further ruminations that the story introduces, including Swedish soldier Erik (Edvin Ryding) and the elusive Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes).
With 28 Years Later intending to be the first of a new trilogy of films – the sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, set for a January 2026 release, has already been filmed – the somewhat unfinished nature of this story makes more sense in such a regard. Whilst it’s open enough that even if didn’t have a confirmed sequel we could gather certain beats, it’s comforting in retrospect to know there’s further story to tell as Garland’s ending feels a little too abrupt; the introduction of a certain character, whilst exciting and energetic in their demeanour, has a “Marvel teaser” like temperament to it all that it doesn’t flow with the largely sobering 115 minutes that have come prior. The shift in energy certainly sets up an individuality for The Bone Temple to take on (it’s also being directed by Nia DaCosta), but looking at 28 Years Later on its own accord, it’s a further ingredient of tonal confusion that the film has already wrestled.
Regardless of any of the potential it perhaps didn’t quite reach, there’s no taking away that 28 Years Later still earns emotional resonance as a coming-of-age tale, a meditation on masculinity and all its forms, and as a breath of fresh air in a horror subsect that can so often forget about the humanity in its horror.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
28 Years Later is now screening in theatres in Australia and the United States.
