28 Years Later (2025) Columbia/Horror RT: 115 minutes Rated R (strong bloody violence, grisly images, graphic nudity, language, brief sexuality) Director: Danny Boyle Screenplay: Alex Garland Music: Young Fathers Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle Release date: June 20, 2025 (US) Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, Edvin Ryding, Edvin Ryding, Christopher Fulford, Amy Cameron, Stella Gonet, Jack O’Connell.
Rating: ***
FOREWORD: If it feels like there’s more story to tell with 28 Years Later, you’re right. A sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is scheduled to be released next January.
28 Years Later, the long-awaited three-quel to 28 Days Later (2002) and 28 Weeks Later (2007), is finally here after a long wait (nearly 20 years!). Was it worth it? I say YES! The guys who gave us the first movie, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, are back at the helm. They deliver a genuinely thrilling, gnarly, world-building “zombie” movie that gleefully subverts the genre by not remaking the original. Instead, it tells a different kind of story, one that combines zombie action with a boy’s coming-of-age in a decimated world.
In the film’s opening sequence, a group of terrified children watch an episode of Teletubbies while the initial Rage Virus outbreak of ’02 finally finds its way to their house. A boy named Jimmy is the only one who gets away from the infected. He makes his way to his father’s church. His dad, the vicar, believes it’s God’s final judgment. He gives his son a crucifix necklace and tells him to get out of there before being overtaken by the crazed attackers. It doesn’t have anything to do with the main plot, but it does come up again at the end so don’t dismiss it.
28 years later, the UK remains under quarantine. It’s the only country still affected by the virus; it’s been wiped out in other parts of the world. A small community of uninfected survivors lives in a village on an island connected to the mainland by a causeway. They only venture there to scavenge and hunt zombies. The latter is a rite of passage for the boys of the village. 12YO Spike (Williams, A New Breed of Criminal) is taken there by his father Jamie (Johnson, Bullet Train) to make his first kill. They run into some trouble with an “Alpha”, the most powerful of the infected ones, but eventually make their way home, but not before spotting a mysterious fire in the distance.
After arriving home, Spike learns the origin of the fire is a man named Ian Kelson (Fiennes, Conclave), a doctor who everybody’s afraid of. The boy sees him as a good thing. His mother Isla (Comer, Killing Eve) is seriously ill. There are no doctors in the village. Spike decides to take his mom to see the doctor in hopes that he can cure her. It’ll be a perilous journey with no guarantees, but he’s willing to take the risk.
The zombie kills in 28 Years Later are fast and fierce and come with plenty of splatter. The arrows, father and son’s weapon of choice, fly fast and hit hard. The kills committed by the zombies are nicely bloody. Heads are literally ripped off. In the 28 years since the virus first hit, the zombies have changed. There are different types like the slow, fat ones that crawl on the ground and the running kind with a lot of aggression. The only problem is that the attack scenes are still wildly overedited. It would be nice to get a better look at the action and carnage.
Boyle, with the help of cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, does something different in 28 Years Later. He intercuts some scenes with archival footage from British war films. It’s effective in that it shows war in different forms. One of the freakiest things in the movie is something we heard in the trailer. As Jamie and Spike trek across the mainland, the Rudyard Kipling poem “Boots”, as recited by Taylor Holmes in a 1915 reading, is heard in voiceover. The poem is about soldiers marching during the Second Boer War. Its repetitive nature is a perfect fit for the tone of the film.
The acting in 28 Years Later is very good. Williams, in his first big role, shows great promise. He doesn’t overplay the naïve, innocent kid card. He shows a toughness mixed with vulnerability that would elude most child actors. Johnson is also good as the father who isn’t exactly a role model. Spike discovers a secret he’s keeping and it pretty much destroys their relationship. Comer has some great scenes as the ailing mother, a kind woman who fluctuates between hallucinations and moments of lucidity. Edvin Ryding (A Life’s Worth) does a fine job as a Swedish soldier Spike and his mother encounter during their journey. Fiennes commands every scene he’s in, not playing up the screwy stuff too much.
I have to say the final scene is totally bizarre and out of left field, but I LOVE IT! It sets up the next movie which I truly hopes comes out when they say it will. As I understand it, they shot it back-to-back with 28 Years Later. We’ll have to see.
As for 28 Years Later, it’s a damn good horror movie. It’s freaky, fascinating and fun. It takes itself seriously enough without getting too bogged down with statements about the current state of affairs in the world. If I want that, I’ll turn on the news.
