Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later” comes very near being one of many greatest zombie motion pictures ever made (sure, I do know the ghouls on show are usually not technically zombies however quite “contaminated,” however for all intents and functions, they’re zombies). Then the ending arrives. Don’t be concerned: I am not going to present away spoilers on this evaluation, but it surely’s nearly unimaginable to speak about “28 Years Later” with out stating that the ending lands with a bizarre thud.
As a result of studios cannot be content material to simply make one film anymore, “28 Years Later” is the primary of an entire new trilogy (the second movie, titled “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” is due out in January of 2026). Due to this method, “28 Years Later” merely cannot finish — it has to arrange the following story. And that is unlucky, as a result of the whole lot main as much as that sequel table-setting second is exceptional and efficient, leading to a scary, ugly, and surprisingly emotional expertise. Then an completely baffling, deliriously wacky coda arrives and leaves a nasty style in your mouth.
Are the ultimate minutes of the movie sufficient to sabotage the remaining? No, fortunately. However I certain want they weren’t there. I want Boyle and author Alex Garland had thought to go away well-enough alone and allow us to simply sit with an in any other case highly effective horror saga. I additionally can not help however marvel how this ending will play with viewers members who do not realize that is purported to the primary installment of a trilogy; I might inform that some people at my screening, clearly not clued into this, had been completely baffled.
28 Years Later improves on the system of the primary movie
Nonetheless, virtually the whole lot main as much as that second works, and works exceedingly effectively. “28 Years Later” is the third entry in a narrative that started all the best way again in 2002, the place Boyle and Garland teamed as much as make “28 Days Later,” a post-apocalyptic saga about Nice Britain being overrun by bloodthirsty lunatics contaminated with one thing dubbed the Rage virus. These attacked by different contaminated individuals discover themselves contaminated nearly instantly — their eyes flip purple, they spew blood from their mouths, they usually instantly begin attacking and killing anybody unfortunate sufficient to be of their basic neighborhood. “28 Days Later” was a down and soiled horror pic, shot on digital by Anthony Dod Mantle, with Cillian Murphy wandering round an eerily deserted London. “28 Days Later” was adopted by the sequel “28 Weeks Later.” Boyle did not return to direct that movie, and Garland solely contributed to rewrites.
Now, the unique workforce (together with Mantle) are again, they usually’ve solely improved on the system. Whereas “28 Years Later” would not have the identical grainy digital vibe as the unique, Boyle and Mantle get inventive, using all types of methods and visible sleight-of-hand to catch the viewer off guard. Boyle and editor Jon Harris will ceaselessly splice in inventory footage and pictures from different motion pictures in the midst of a scene, and there are moments of violence that invoke the “bullet time” impact used so memorably in “The Matrix,” the place the picture will freeze so the digital camera can rotate and present us bursts of blood from varied angles. It is jarring and distinctive, and it continually made me uneasy in the absolute best approach.
After a brutal prologue that wastes no time unleashing ugly imagery, “28 Years Later” cuts to the center of the matter. Because the title suggests, 28 years have handed because the virus was unleashed, and the outbreak has been contained by quarantining the UK and chopping it off from the remainder of the world (Garland’s script later hammers residence the purpose that the skin world has primarily moved on as if hordes of zombies aren’t nonetheless stalking about someplace).
28 Years Later is loaded with nearly insufferable stress
One island group has discovered to stay in concord, cut-off from the mainland. It helps that the island is just accessible through a causeway that disappears when the tide is available in. 12-year-old Spike (newcomer Alfie Williams, who’s fantastic right here, handing over a assured, practical efficiency) lives on the island together with his rough-and-tumble father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his struggling mom Isla (Jodie Comer), who’s inflicted with some form of mysterious sickness that ceaselessly leaves her bedridden.
The group has a customized by which younger individuals head to the mainland for a looking journey. They don’t seem to be looking recreation, although — they’re looking contaminated. Spike and Jamie head out, bows and arrows in hand, and the journey doesn’t go precisely based on plan. By way of this primary hour of the movie, Boyle expertly builds an nearly insufferable stress, punctuated by bursts of bloody violence. The contaminated have developed extra time, they usually’ve develop into feral, nude beasts swarming about, guided by hulking leaders often known as Alphas. In addition they appear to be extra clever than the earlier movies let on.
Throughout the looking expedition, Spike learns a few mysterious, doubtlessly insane physician (finally performed completely by Ralph Fiennes) residing in seclusion, and the boy will get it in his head that this medical man can treatment no matter is ailing his mom. From right here, a second journey begins, with Spike and Isla heading out to seek out the physician, risking life and limb within the course of. All advised, “28 Years Later” is a surprisingly easy affair: there is not any grander scheme at play right here, aside from Spike’s hope that he can save his mom.
Baffling ending apart, 28 Years Later is surprisingly emotional
This units up a disarmingly emotional arc that you do not actually see in motion pictures like this. Comer, among the finest actors round proper now, is not given sufficient to do right here, however there’s a tenderness between mom and son that takes the movie far. Do not be stunned if “28 Years Later” makes you cry. This mix of unflinching gore and actual, trustworthy emotion is so not like something I am used to seeing in a zombie film, and it elevates “28 Years Later” to heights I used to be not anticipating in any respect. Which is why the ultimate moments are so rattling irritating.
Once more: no spoilers, I swear. All I will say is that the tone of those last moments is totally at odds with the whole lot that got here earlier than, to the purpose the place it seems like we have stumbled into a totally totally different film. Maybe that is the purpose, because the upcoming sequel “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” is a totally totally different film, with a special director (“Candyman” reboot filmmaker Nia DaCosta is helming that one). Intentional or not, this scene is disheartening, to the purpose the place I want Boyle had caught it on later as a post-credit scene as an alternative of jamming it into the primary movie.
The ending is a large disappointment, however it could’t undo the whole lot that got here earlier than it. Boyle and his workforce have conjured up a type of sensory overload — the mix of violence, mixed-media, and a ceaselessly jarring soundtrack swirl along with feverish impact. “28 Years Later” is each scary and touching, and that is not simple to realize. It is spectacular, efficient, and memorable. However somebody ought to have advised Boyle to nix that finale.
/Movie Score: 8 out of 10
“28 Years Later” opens in theaters on June 20, 2025.
