'28 Years Later' Review: Danny Boyle's Long Simmering Sequel Goes All Over the Place (In a Good Way)
The Alex Garland-penned return to zombieland is all sorts of gory and fascinating, just don't think about the narrative
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As I was walking out of my 28 Years Later screening a young guy (30 or under) asked if I liked the movie. This was the first of the features he admitted he’d ever seen and that struck me. When Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s 2002 horror feature debuted in theaters it surprised people, not just for its indie-esque filmmaking, no-name (at the time) actors, but for taking the then-typical dumb, shambling cannibals and making them fast. (The movie also warned up to never trust birds which is bearing fruit these days.) This is all to say that not only has the zombie genre changed over the last 23 years, but so has filmmaking. One only has to look at the slickness and stars in the 2007 sequel, 28 Weeks Later, to get just a smidgen of how vastly the franchise leaped.
But 28 Years Later is the long-awaited reteaming of original director Danny Boyle with original screenwriter Alex Garland. Was it worth the wait? It’s odd. And that’s not a bad thing. 28 Years Later plays on a lot of various themes amongst Boyle’s filmography from the sentimentality found in his feature Millions to the slick visuals and languid storytelling of The Beach. Garland’s script is completely unpredictable, and I’m not exaggerating that at all. But it is hard to believe there’s a structured sense of why things are happening in the movie. It’s impossible to imagine all these plot beats being thought in advance. 28 Years Later is a recipe I’d assume says: a dash zombie movie, a pinch of melancholy story of loss and existence, a hint of tone poem, and a soupçon of batshit insane.
Set 28 years after the events of the first feature, mainland England has been forced to fend for itself with the zombies effectively takin over. A small isolated island called Holy Island has been able to make do and have created some semblance of normalcy. Young Spike (Alfie Williams) is sent on a rite of passage trip to the mainland with his father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and learns about the world outside the fortress of his home. When Spike learns there’s a doctor out there who might be able to help his ailing mom Isla (Jodie Comer), Spike take her on a journey through the zombie-infested area to hopefully save her.
Much like 28 Days and Weeks, the opening 28 Years Later sets the tone for everything that is to come. Set in the Scottish Highlands, a group of children watch Teletubbies while trying to ignore the sounds of scuffling outside. Of course, it’s a matter of time before the red eyed, puking zombies we know and love arrive and if you can’t handle a kid massacre in the first few minutes the rest of the movie probably won’t work for you. This opening has zero bearing on anything until the literal last frame and it sets in motion what does, at times, play as a very haphazard story.
A title card lays out the plots of the previous two films in about three sentences so don’t expect to have questions answered about the geopolitics of letting England (?)/Europe (?) fall into ruin. As with Garland’s The Beach, the emphasis is on how a small, self-sustaining community thrives during this time. We meet Spike and his father who appear to have a tenuous relationship. Jamie wants to take his son out to kill zombies, never mind that his wife is waking up in searing pain while having memory gaps that make it very obvious what’s going on. The first half of the movie focuses on Jamie and Spike’s scouting trip and while the character dynamics might be slight, the action is never short of percussive.
Jamie tells Spike about Alphas, a race of naked zombies that are bigger, stronger and smarter than the average ones. (The equal opportunity nudity in this movie is excessive but tip of the hat to you, Mr. Boyle!) They also have a penchant for ripping people’s heads and spines out of their body. The level of violence is a lot here and when it happens it is unrelenting. But longtime Boyle cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle does such a beautiful job of making it haunting. Images of the Alphas as black figures on a hillside is one of the most terrifying images I’ve seen in a movie in a minute. It makes the moments where the movie relies on freeze-frames as things connect with heads jarring and off-putting.
During this first half there is a vibe akin to Garland’s outside efforts, Civil War and Warfare, that is hard to shake. One of the aforementioned freeze frames that play like a war photog taking snapshots. And as Jamie and Spike walk through the wooded areas of the mainland, picking off zombies, historical footage of soldiers or cinematic images of crusaders are spliced in as Rudyard Kipling’s “Boots” is recited. Is the intent to illustrate Spike being radicalized into a world of war? Who knows? The technique isn’t repeated once Spike and Isla go out on their own journey.
The true meat of the plot is in Spike’s desire to help cure his mom of the mysterious illness plaguing her. Williams’ performance is darling. He holds in the fear without forsaking any of the vulnerability, particularly in the playful moments opposite Comer. Comer, as well, also provides a requisite tenderness to the horrors surrounding everything. Isla can’t remember much of anything and Comer’s eyes contain all the fear about what we already know is bound to take place. Her and Williams have a far different dynamic, with him being the parent guiding her along, than he and Taylor-Johnson. Taylor-Johnson is front-loaded to the first half of the movie—Spike is told if anyone leaves the island no one is allowed to look for them—and falls into being a gregarious, flawed father, and little else.
28 Years comes into its own once Spike and Isla set out, with the movie expertly combining the heart pounding zombie insanity with a tenderhearted story of mothers and sons. The lush, verdant landscape is perfectly rendered amongst all the death and horror, with Spike’s traversing the worlds almost like a fairy tale character. He and Isla eventually meet up with Dr. Kelson (an orange-accented Ralph Fiennes) and from here the movie moves away from the zombies and into a melancholic examination of all the death and destruction that’s happened over the 28 years of this universe. It’s a thought-provoking moment, particularly watching in the wake of our quick rise to move on from COVID. As Kelson reiterates to Spike, it’s about remembering that death is inevitable and honoring those who have reached there end. Of course, this involves a lot of cremation and skulls but Fiennes is perfectly suited to eloquently discuss death while showing how easy it is to expose someone’s bare skull.
After this divergence into an elegiac state of mind it’s almost ridiculous to go back to the action of the zombies, but the movie does. It’s actually amazing how Boyle and Garland don’t seem to care that the movie is all over the place. This culminates in one of the most bonkers endings I’ve seen in awhile. If the ending doesn’t tie into 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the spin-off directed by Nia DaCosta set for next January, then it might go down as one of the weirdest movie close-outs in history. Also, shout out to Young Fathers whose music throughout is utterly gorgeous, particularly towards the end when it gives strong Clint Mansell vibes.
28 Years Later is still an entertaining ride, but it coasts on the goodwill of the franchise and a cultural love for zombies. That and vibes. Williams, Comer and Fiennes are stand-out. Boyle still knows how to tell a story well!
Grade: B-
28 Years Later hits theaters Friday.