Having delivered 2002’s seminal zombie flick ‘28 days later’, Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland return to the franchise for this long-awaited 3rd film.
Set in a now quarantined Britain, the story takes place nearly three decades after the Rage Virus outbreak and follows a community of settlers who have established themselves on Holy Island, off the coast of Northumberland.
Broken into two distinct halves, the first sees Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Jamie take his 12 year old son Spike over to the mainland on a rites of passage excursion to kill the infected. It’s this half of the film that delivers what most people would be expecting from a 28 days later sequel. The horror is ferocious and the tension is nerve shredding as the pair encounter different types of infected who have evolved in the years since the outbreak, including the imposing Alpha’s who now lead their zombie brethren.
The second half takes on an altogether more melancholy tone as Spike attempts to track down Ray Fiennes Doctor Kelson, in the hope he can heal his ailing mother Isla, played superbly by Jodie Comer. It’s an emphatically unpredictable shift for a zombie sequel to take, but one which delivers some profoundly moving moments.
The main fault with the original film was the standard of child acting, but there are no such problems here, with Alfie Williams, who is essentially the films lead, wonderfully portraying Spike in what is his first major role.
The ease with which the young actor conveys such a range of emotions highlights him as a big talent and one to watch for the future.
Garland and Boyle dial back the virus’s spread to Europe (seen at the end of 2007’s 28 Weeks later) and focus solely on the British isles, enabling them to integrate political parallels. There’s an obvious brexit allegory with the Holy Island community, who have become isolationist and reverted to more traditional male and female roles, while their idealistic view of how things were, is clouded in nostalgia. A tonally jarring coda featuring Jack O’Connell, threatens but fails to overshadow the good work that came before, and proves the filmmakers are not playing it safe with this new trilogy, teasing an even more ambitious sequel next year (The Bone Temple, again written by Garland, but directed by Nia DaCosta, was filmed back-to-back with this one and will be released in January.)
On this evidence we’re in very safe hands. 28 Years later is arguably the best of the franchise so far. Thrilling, provocative and tinged with sadness, its everything you’d want from this type of genre movie, but never dare to expect.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Paul Steward
06/07/25
X @grittster
🦋 @grittster