PopHorror Let's Get Scared
In 2002, after his critically acclaimed success adapting novelist Irvine Welsh’s drug-addled characters in Trainspotting, but before the multiple Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire and the sci-fi thriller Sunshine, filmmaker Danny Boyle decided to team up with cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, writer Alex Garland, and producer Andrew Macdonald to passionately add to the zombie pantheon with 28 Days Later. The movie was a much-needed shock to the system if you will, offering a nightmarish narrative aware of the current social climate. In a post-apocalyptic London and beyond, Jim (played by renowned Irish actor Cillian Murphy) wakes up in a hospital to a world that faced an unprecedented reality while he was in a coma, the film is gritty, fast paced, and visceral that featured some particularly vicious foes: those infected by the Rage virus.
28 Days Later was a hit amongst horror fans, especially in America. In 2007, five years after the success of the original, 28 Weeks Later directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo – who was personally hired by Danny Boyle – was released to the hordes of horror fans clamoring for more and again earned praise. Talk of a third was consistently rumored but never confirmed with it inevitably falling into development hell for freaking ages. Finally, it was announced in January of 2024 that 28 Years Later was officially in production with Alex Garland, Danny Boyle, and Anthony Dod Mantle of the original returning. There was a collective cheer amongst moviegoers, because quite honestly, this appeals to a much wider audience than it did in 2002. The original team has gone on to win Academy Awards and earn numerous fans worldwide with their subsequent films such as Garland’s Ex Machina and Civil War with the same going on for Boyle and his Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. 28 Years Later is on par to make over $50 million in its opening weekend, again proving genre films have plenty of clout at the box office.
This latest installment (28 Years Later: The Bone Temple directed by Nia DaCosta is slated for next year) in the 28 days franchise evolves from urban zombie warfare to a group of survivors on a secluded British island that have banded together to create an assemblance of civilization. Decades have passed since the initial outbreak of the Rage virus which has made the mainland completely quarantined from the rest of the world. They have homes, food, responsibilities in their community and a new rite of passage – adolescents must trek to the mainland during low tide on a causeway and kill an ‘infected.’
Twelve-year-old Spike (played by newcomer Alfie Williams), on the behest of his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is to partake in this ritual earlier than most. The community encourages Spike and his father on the beginning of their journey with well wishes, repaired weapons, and food as his ailing and beloved mother (Jodie Comer) lays in her bed unaware. His first time ever setting foot on the mainland, Spike is overwhelmed with its vastness and potential for a grisly death as the excursion takes them face to face with new breeds of infected known as the bottom feeding Slow-Lows and the Alphas, which possess incredible strength, speed, and ferocity.
The editing and camera work of the two preceding films always appealed to me. I loved the chaos it created. Here, in 28 Years Later, we still have chaos, but it’s controlled despite some experimental measures. In an effort to keep costs down and create the ability to capture the action much easier, director Danny Boyle and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle agreed to utilize drones, iPhones with custom rigs and software, and even farm animal POV.
Eventually returning to the mainland from their perilous journey, father and son are met at home with a celebration in Spike’s honor, but after learning of the existence of a doctor (an eerily calm Ralph Fiennes) that could potentially help his mother in addition to his father’s infidelity, Spike chooses to go back despite the odds in hopes of saving her.
The fact that Boyle and Garland don’t exclusively work within horror is something to be noted here. 28 Years Later is much more than hungry zombies milling about. It toils in themes of isolation, tradition, past, present, future, family, hopes, and of course, fear. The filmmakers just happen to use zombie infection as a springboard to dive into uncomfortable waters. Regardless of Garland and Boyle not continuously treading in the swamps of horror storytelling, you can clearly see the team’s respect for it and willingness to continue the 28 Days theme with a seasoned soul’s perspective.
The backdrop for young Spike’s journey is the picturesque and isolated landscape of the Northumberland region in the UK with other locations in Scotland and Wales, which provide sensational timeless beauty in contrast to the grotesque undead beings that hunt the living and inhabit the land. This juxtaposition works along with the scenes spliced with historical images of battles past, people defending their land and way of life in tandem with the earworm editing of a voice repeating the words from a Rudyard Kipling poem, “Boots-boots-boots-boots-movin’ up an’ down again!”, creating an uncanny and mesmerizing effect. I fear 28 Years Later potentially being viewed as the “weakest” in the series thus far from gorehounds and self-professed genre gurus, but it definitely has bite. You just need to let it sink in.
28 Years Later opens in theaters on June 20th distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing.
Want to experience 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later before catching 28 Years Later? Watch 28 Days Later streaming on Pluto TV and Amazon Prime with 28 Weeks Later streaming on Tubi, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. If you own them on physical media, congratulations, they’re kind of a hot commodity! #longlivephysicalmedia
