28 Years Later (2 stars out of 4)
2002’s “28 Days Later” was a landmark for the zombie movie genre, even if you could argue—as many did—that it wasn’t really a zombie movie. Instead of plodding, brain-lusting undead, director Danny Boyle’s flesh-eating hordes were more akin to rabies patients on blood-vomiting steroids, but the simple fact that they sprinted rather than staggered was a game-changer.
23 years later—and 18 years after 2007’s less celebrated sequel “28 Weeks Later”—Boyle and original screenwriter Alex Garland return to the franchise that helped to inspire a craze that birthed zombified riffs on everything from rom coms to Nazi horror movies to Jane Austen. The result feels a little late to the party, as the genre’s high point increasingly feels like a distant memory.
Following a brief prologue that shows the original outbreak through the eyes of a religious zealot and his young son Jimmy (Rocco Haynes), “28 Years Later” fast-forwards to find the whole of Great Britain quarantined in an effort to contain the Rage Virus. Just off the coast of Scotland, a group of survivors has put together a fledgling island community that’s still within the quarantine boundaries, though a shallow causeway gives them access to the mainland during low tide and protection from the “infected” at high tide.
Here is where we meet Spike (Alfie Williams) a 12-year-old island resident on the verge of manhood. His father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is eager to take him on his first hunting mission to the mainland, but back home his mother Isla (Jodie Comer) is suffering from some mysterious disease.
His first hunt is hardly a success, but Spike is troubled when his father plays up their adventure to the other islanders, and he’s even more troubled when he catches his father cheating with another woman on the island. Worst of all, Dad is evasive when during the mission Spike sees evidence of a man who was a traditional doctor before the outbreak, and might be able to help his mother.
It’s easy to see where things are going. Within no time, Spike takes off on mission of his own, with mother in tow. Thus, “28 Years Later” follows their dangerous journey to see if the ex-doctor can save his mother, hopefully before they are killed by the roving packs of infected who scavenge in the open wilderness.
“28 Years” feels like an accurate if bleak update on its predecessors, and is effective at world-building and creating constant tension in an otherwise beautiful landscape. The infected are not created equal; some are obese, docile scavengers, but the ones to really fear are the Alphas, who pair intimidating speed with resistance to the arrows islanders fire into their chests.
Those 28 years have also created a world that is extremely raw. The surviving infected are barely more than savages, mud-caked and naked, with only some fast cuts and shaky camerawork to keep the film from feeling like a documentary on a nudist colony. And even if the infected aren’t traditional zombies, “28 Years” is more than happy to up the ante on the traditional zombie gore, including one alpha’s signature move of decapitating his prey with spine still attached.
The result will be an unpleasant watch to all but the most dedicated viewers. For this critic (typically a zombie movie fan), “28 Years” felt like “too much” too often, particularly during a bizarre scene that explores whether the infected are still capable of giving birth.
But there are also issues that have less to do with personal taste, such as some illogical story leaps towards the third act of the film, and a preposterous tone change during a late scene that feels like it was pulled out of a completely different movie (and may have been meant to feel as much, since the end of the film feels a lot more interested in setting up future installments).
Altogether, between matters of personal taste and more objective criticisms, “28 Years Later” is a disappointment.
“28 Years Later” is rated R for generous amounts of violence and extreme gore, as well as frequent flashes of graphic (non-sexual) nudity and scattered profanity.