28 Years Later

28 YEARS LATER 🩸

The legacy of a story should remain in the hands of its creator and 28 YEARS LATER is living proof of that.

After crafting a film that redefined the zombie genre in 28 Days Later (2002) and then handing the baton over to filmmakers who put together a forgettable sequel (28 Weeks Later—2007), director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) and writer Alex Garland (Ex Machina) are reuniting to build on their original vision of the rage virus infected world they created over two decades ago—in ways you wouldn’t even begin to imagine.

The story has progressed 28 years after the original movie with the opening sequence communicating that Europe has eradicated the virus, but the United Kingdom continues to be quarantined due to their inability to contain the rage infected humans.

We are then introduced to a small family on a remote, quarantined island that will be making a trip onto the mainland to commemorate their son Spike’s (Alfie Williams) twelfth birthday with his first kill. His father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) tries to teach him the ropes as they navigate the mainland when suddenly an imposing mutated infected known as the Alpha catches their scent—reversing the roles, as the hunters now become the hunted. That hunt brings to light a hidden history through the curious evolution and mutation of these rage virus infected zombies.

As someone who loved the first 28 Days Later, but was bored throughout majority of the sequel, I’m blown away at what they were able to accomplish with 28 YEARS LATER.

What could’ve easily been another thrills and kills zombie movie progresses into something that builds on what was, while also morphing into a story that modernizes the evolution of the human race.

There was an idea floating around in the first movie that tried to rationalize everything going on, the reason humans were infected was because they were earths plague and now it was time for that plague to be eradicated. We pillage and strip land for resources until theirs nothing left leaving Mother Nature with scraps, and forcing animals to evolve to new habitats as we continuously destroy theirs. It might not have been as a direct of a statement as that, but it was the sentiment that stood out to me.

What that movie then becomes is a deconstruction of civilization, whereas in this we see the resilience of the human species adapt to their infection and evolve into something else entirely. It’s playing out a lot like the history of Neanderthal and Homo sapiens who shared similar traits, but only one stood the test of time.

This combative state these intertwined species are in acts out humans being their own worst enemy that parallels the beginning of this story (they created the virus).  All of those themes weave in and out of this families emotional journey that I felt hit the right notes, but was nowhere as exciting as the bigger picture currently being pieced together. A part of that picture is the way it acknowledges the past which makes 2002 feel like an ancient relic with the way the historical lens is reflectivity placed in this film. Everything is cyclical and I believe we’ll see the culmination of that in the 2026 sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.

I will say the ending of this film definitely threw me for a loop. It felt so out of place in comparison to everything that had happened in this film (and the previous two), but for whatever reason I’m eager to see how it all plays out. It had a 1979 Warriors vibe to it that I can’t not be excited by even if it didn’t make any sense to what this world has shown us to date.

Also, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodie Comer of course get first billing, but fourteen year old Alfie Williams is what makes this whole movie work. He was phenomenal.

28 YEARS LATER supersedes and surpasses anything the stand alone sequel did and jam packs the world with new layers of lore that will have audiences eagerly awaiting the upcoming continuation of the series. 

Enjoy!

7.9/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 1hr55mins

Where:  In Theatres June 20th

28 Years Later Review (2025) The Richmond Reviewer - June 24th, 2025.

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