28 Years Later

The 2002 post-apocalyptic horror film, 28 Days Later, may be seen as an acquired taste by some, but no one can deny the impact it had in reviving the zombie movie and drawing attention back to a sub-genre that was ironically dying out. While its 2007 disconnected sequel, 28 Weeks Later, was not well received, the fact that this small-budgeted, claustrophobic survival story from England could make a name for itself amongst a sea of options is nothing to sneeze at. While there were plans for another revival, the project faced multiple delays due to a conflict surrounding the franchise ownership rights, stalling it into a development hell that wouldn’t be properly resolved until 2024 when the rights were sold to Sony Pictures, finally allowing this illustrious third film, 28 Years Later, to rise from its grave.

Set appropriately 28 years after the outbreak, the Rage Virus has been eradicated in continental Europe, but the British Isles still remain in an indefinite lockdown as some infected have managed to survive. In the self-contained island of Lindisfarne, a community of survivors live mostly quaint lives due to their solitude, with the only danger being when those who come of age are taken out to the mainland to hunt infected, with a teenage boy named Spike (played by Alfie Williams) heading out on his expedition with his father, Jamie (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) while his mother, Isla (played by Jodie Comer) is bedridden with an undiagnosed illness. While Spike manages to get a few kills in spite of a tight run-in with a vicious mutated variant known as an Alpha, he notices a fire burning in a supposedly inhospitable area. After learning from a family associate that the fire came from Dr. Ian Kelson (played by Ralph Fiennes), a former doctor who supposedly went crazy, Spike decides to track him down in order to find out what is afflicting his mother, who is only growing more and more delirious. Slipping out undetected, the two try and track down Dr. Kelson while having to avoid the infected as well as the deadly Alpha, who is hell bent on killing any living thing that crosses its path.

Even with the nearly two-decade long gap between releases, the hype around this sequel was quite potent, with the initial teaser trending #1 on YouTube and receiving over 10 million views in just two days, so there was solid reasoning to have faith in this flick. While 28 Years Later is pretty unconventional, plays around with typical plot expectations, ends on a pretty awkward note, and doesn’t really add much to an already repetitive horror archetype, there’s enough grounded performances, stylish cinematography, and engaging subtle atmosphere for audiences to sink their teeth into.

While it’s hard to call 28 Days Later or 28 Weeks Later great movies, there’s clearly something about them that attracts people, with it likely being their very unpolished look, low key energy that can be abruptly cut short by the world’s frenzied threat, and their unique take on the zombie formula, turning what are usually hobbling decomposers into violent sprinters that rip and tear rather than bite. Regardless of actual quality, they did stand out for their time, so seeing how it would evolve would be fascinating, especially after the world faced its own global pandemic with COVID-19. The film did have the benefit of retaining a lot of people from the previous two films, with the two most important being director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, both of whom went on to have prolific careers yet always wanted to return to the series one day. Even after gaining experience making more traditional features, both still managed to recapture the familiarly cluttered and frantic yet oddly engrossing atmosphere of the previous movies, and the improvements definitely help spruce things up.

This is easily the most tolerable of the three films to watch, as while there’s still shoddy editing, occasionally awkward camerawork, and a plot that isn’t that fresh, it feels the most professionally made and commercially viable whilst still having its distinct identity. It’s paced well, the actors are all engaging, some of the visuals look stunning, it isn’t easy to predict where it’s going, there aren’t many lame jump scares, and any viewer can jump in totally blind without needing background knowledge aside from the basics. With that said, the structure of the story is a little strange, which is felt the most by the ending. While the first two acts are pretty well set up, the third feels like it comes out of nowhere, drags its characters through a pretty random scene involving giant death memorials, and abruptly ends without any climax or even dramatic fulfilment. The whole film kind of operates this way, with components being introduced that are never really given meaningful or effective payoffs, and considering they plan to make a trilogy out of this revival (with this film acting as the new starting point),  this empty feeling could be a result of the filmmakers holding things back for future instalments, which is a little frustrating.

The characters from the previous two films ranged from generic and bland to actively irritating, so you can only really go up from there, but it’s hard to make unique characters in a genre that can feel very repetitive. Both prior movies, despite having tiny budgets, did have the benefit of housing either soon-to-be or at-the-time major talent like Brendan Gleeson, Naomi Harris, Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne, Idris Elba, Imogen Poots, and Cillian Murphy (who returns as an executive producer for this film), and it’s nice to see that 28 Years Later continues this trend by starring people like Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes, all of whom are good fits with this style, tone and premise, even if how they’re used is a little awkward.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson can be a bit of a bland actor, and considering he abruptly vanishes after the first act, his part probably could’ve been played by anyone, but he doesn’t do a bad job either. Jodie Comer does a good job convincingly portraying someone who’s mentally adrift, but her resolution feels randomly bleak and not really satisfactory, and Ralph Fiennes, despite not being in the film that much, is the most interesting and compelling character, which just shows his strength as a performer. Being the newcomer paired against seasoned talent, it’d be easy for Alfie Williams to feel a step behind, yet he doesn’t feel like he’s struggling in the slightest. Even though his character and his writing are pretty simple, he does the best with what he’s given and is one of the only characters who actually gets an interesting ending, so it’d be cool to see where he goes from here (both in and outside of this franchise). With the exception of Edvin Ryding as a random Swedish soldier, most of the actors feel very believable and are strong enough to work with otherwise basic roles and carry the audience through this narrative.

The film’s overall aesthetic is more traditionally apocalyptic due to taking place several years after the initial outbreak, which means that not only does its production design by Carson McColl and costume design by Gareth Pugh feel more atypical for the genre, but even the zombies look more standard as they’ve withered to the point where they look like any other form of the undead, so the franchise has slightly lost some of its identity. This isn’t the case with all of them however, as the Alphas are physically imposing, have a neanderthal quality to their appearance and aggressive behaviour, and their unflattering nudeness along with their one gruesome method of execution, makes them a solid evolution of this rage-fuelled infection. Sadly, one of the most defining aspects of this franchise is the very hectic, close-quarters, unrefined camera work that went so far into trying to effectively portray the rapid nature of these creatures, that it was nearly impossible to make anything out. Even if it became synonymous with the series and there were a few nice establishing shots of cities to even things out, it was a horribly implemented ingredient, but this third film manages to find a nice middle ground.

There are still plenty of tight shots that are weirdly angled, feature harsh overexposure, and are edited to the extreme, but there are also some very nice ariel drone shots of the landscape as well as a few shots that are really striking and cinematic, and this variety means the crummier camera positioning now doesn’t feel as distracting. Almost all of the movie was filmed on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, which did make production run smoother as it required little equipment, and while it’s hard to pinpoint the exact benefits of using a phone, it doesn’t feel like it dragged anything down either. The wide aspect ratio really helps emphasize the vast open landscapes (which become more frightening when a threat is sprinting after you in said openness), the extremely detailed and squelchy sound design by Maximillian Behrens only increases the disgust felt towards these feral creatures, and the increased number of frames and being shot in 4K makes things almost uncomfortably smooth which adds an uncanny element to an already strange looking and feeling film.

28 Years Later probably didn’t need to exist nor did 28 Days Later need to be a franchise (most people aren’t even that fond of 28 Weeks Later), but against all odds, this resurrected property somehow managed to hold onto a bit of its soul. Even though these films might not be for everybody, and the film does have its own problems like its sketchy look, simple characters and a very unsatisfactory ending (although closing things off with a gang of Jimmy Savile-themed cronies killing zombies to a death metal cover of The Teletubbies theme is certainly hard to forget), its unconventionality is what made people like this series in the first place, and with good pacing, solid performances, and enough eye-candy amongst its cramped imagery, it feels like it deserved the chance to come back to life.