Dir: Danny Boyle | Wri: Alex Garland | UK Thriller 131′
So 28 Years Later – the follow-up to Danny Boyle’s 2002 classic 28 Days Later – has finally arrived – and what a cruel disappointment, with its weak script by Alex Garland. Apocalyptic Zombie movie meets folkloric horror with a heart is the best description. I found it morbd, misanthropic and messy. But then my favourite Boyle is still Shallow Grave.
You’d be forgiven for thinking the opening scene of this latest affair is actually a disturbing trailer for a horror version of Teletubbies, but 28 Years Later eventually gets going to establish a parallel universe where on one hand zombies infected with the ‘anger’ virus have colonised England, and on the other, their disease-free counterparts – a bow and arrow-toting community – have retreated to a ‘Holy’ island across a causeway from the mainland, accessible at low tide. The only way for these healthy individuals to exterminate the virus-bearing ghouls (who are covered in guts and gore) is with an arrow through the neck; should they chose to visit the green and pleasant land. And that’s what Spike does in order to take his sick mother Isla to find a good doctor.
Alfie Williams is the highlight as the kind-hearted, humanistic little boy Spike, a one dimensional Aaron Taylor Johnson plays his philandering father Jamie and his mother Isla, is Jodie Comer in a difficult role as a maudlin cancer sufferer, and she does her best.
There are some stunning set pieces picturing England at its most verdant and resplendent, interwoven with montage footage from Lawrence Olivier’s Henry V cutting to World War soldiers marching through fields to a rhythmic dystopian soundscape with a repetitive refrain of ‘Boots’ (not the chemist) along with a few surprises on the visual front where DoP Anthony Dod Mantle gets creative with his camerawork.
On a hopeful note there are some lighter sequences with positive vibes featuring the comforting visionary Dr Kelson – Ralph Fiennes all covered in blood red iodine to protect him from the virus – but despite bringing it all alive with his superlative chops, he infects the hope with a touch of doom and a ‘memento mori’ skull mountain, reminding us that everyone is going to die: Well maybe not just yet, but this is a film that certainly left me feeling rather depressed and despondent. If there’s a deeper message here it was lost in all the crour and carnage and the reminder that Britain is really sinking deeper into the mire. @MeredithTaylor
IN UK CINEMAS FROM 20 JUNE 2025 | Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 2026 will complete the trilogy