'28 Years Later' review: Zombie sequel is warped and fantastic
movie review 28 YEARS LATER
Running time: 115 minutes. Rated R (strong bloody violence, grisly images, graphic nudity, language and brief sexuality). In theaters June 20.
It takes some skill to pump new life into the undead.
Every possible twist on the zombie movie has been tried in the past 20 years, from deadpan road trips with Woody Harrelson to a bloody British Christmas musical.
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I've just found one I'll be skipping called 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
Apart from the send-ups, though, there has not been a strong serious example in the genre for a long time.
But nobody does it better than the British post-apocalyptic '28' series — especially the original filmmakers of 2002's '28 Days Later,' director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland.
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They're back at it 23 years later with '28 Years Later' — an arresting, sneakily emotional and wildly weird third installment in the franchise.
Never has the near-annihilation of mankind felt so good.
Fans of the original might, at first, be taken aback by the madness. If you revisit 'Days' today, the influential forebear comes off as awfully quaint.
5 Alfie Williams stars as Spike, and Ralph Fiennes plays the doctor, in '28 Years Later.'
©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
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Instead of the eerie calm of a desolate Piccadilly Circus, 'Years' bids adieu to the big city for the spooky forest.
The main character isn't a corpse-like Cillian Murphy, as close to a real-life zombie as we have, but a sweet kid trying to save his mom.
And there's the movie's biggest talker: A depraved, disgusting ritual conducted by an orange-painted Ralph Fiennes had me questioning my own sanity when I teared up at it.
5 Zombies continue to ravage the UK.
©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
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I rip into the black hole of creativity that is endless reboots and sequels all the time. Can't stop, won't stop. Fantastic 'Years' is the happy exception.
Almost three decades after the 'Rage Virus' ravaged Britain, turning most citizens into snarling beasts, the UK has been quarantined from the wider world. Nobody in, nobody out.
Evoking 'A Quiet Place Part II,' an enclave of survivors live on a safe island town surrounded by rocky water — except during low tide when a narrow path to the mainland is revealed.
Little Spike (Alfie Williams) has just turned 12, and village tradition says he and his dad, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), must head to the danger zone to net him his first infected kill. You know, a bit of family fun.
5 On Spike's 12th birthday, his dad Jamie takes him zombie hunting.
©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
The bow-and-arrow excursion goes haywire, but Spike gets his feet wet, albeit with the blood of cannibalistic monsters.
When the boys get back to town, his mother Isla's (Jodie Comer) already poor health has worsened. So, Spike escapes with her to the wilderness to find a physician rumored to live out there (Fiennes, practically a talking tangerine).
A straightforward story, right? Over the river and through the woods to witch-doctor's house, we go — shooting and stabbing all along the terrifying way.
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5 Jodie Comer plays Alfie's mother Isla, who is suffering from a mystery illness.
©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
On the surface, yes, it is. What skews 'Years' so seductively and grotesquely — in a good way! — is Garland's sadistic flair that must be making his therapist a fortune and Boyle's punk-rock direction.
The pounding music and archival footage of violence in England through the ages that contrast with beautifully shot, pastoral nature make the infected much scarier. Breathtaking serenity gives way to spinal cords being ripped out by hand.
Boyle has a knack for what makes his homeland tick. The gruesome, forceful anarchy brought to mind British writer Edward Bond's severe plays of the 1960s, and also the novel and movie 'A Clockwork Orange.' There's some major Alex DeLarge in the last five minutes.
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5 Ralph Fiennes is the most warped part of '28 Years Later.'
©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
And the director has always worked very well with kids. He directed 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Millions.' He gets a determined and altogether riveting turn out of young Williams. His Spike is a heartbreaker as he tries to be a grown man for his father, but melts with mum as he's racing to save her life.
Steely Taylor-Johnson and intense Comer are both terrific.
The fact that Fiennes went right from playing a cardinal in Best Picture-nominated 'Conclave' to a nearly-naked hermit with a hobby that would raise Hannibal Lecter's brow makes me wish we could send the actor's brain out to be analyzed by scientists.
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Speaking of Fiennes' character's arts and crafts projects, a follow-up, '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,' is due out next January.
If it's anywhere near as good as this one, sign me up for four more 'Years.'
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Danny Boyle isn't interested in giving you a comfortable horror experience, and that's exactly why 28 Years Later hits so hard. The third entry in the rage virus saga is raw, relentless, and absolutely unhinged in the best ways. From its opening moments, this film announces itself with punk-rock energy and doesn't let up. It's not here to deliver a safe, by-the-numbers sequel. It's here to shove your face in the mud, rip your heart out, and somehow, make you feel something in the middle of the chaos. I loved this movie! Boyle, working again with writer Alex Garland, doesn't just return to the world of 28 Days Later , he reimagines it and gives audiences something unexpected and insane. The film centers on a remote island community still under quarantine almost three decades after the virus first broke out. A father (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) takes his 12-year-old son, Spike, on a dangerous rite of passage into the mainland, a place where rage-infected monsters roam, and survival is a brutal art form. Right away, you're immersed in a world where violence is routine, and childhood has no place. Spike's father pushes him into danger, and it proud when Spike makes his first kill. Their dynamic never feels manipulative; instead, it's a rugged portrait of a parent forging a warrior out of a child, no matter the cost. It's a wild coming-of-age film! It's seriously a coming-of-age story soaked in blood. Spike's first mission is as intense and traumatic as anything the franchise has shown us, but what's striking is how normalized it all is. Boyle doesn't flinch. The horror here isn't just the infected, it's watching a kid be molded into a survivor in a world that no longer allows innocence. Alfie Williams, who plays Spike, gives a performance that's honest and gripping. It's a quiet kind of emotional power that cuts through the carnage. Things shift gears when Spike returns from his first venture into the mainland. His mother is sick and he's terrified and desperate, so the boy sneaks her out of their community to find a rumored doctor deep in the mainland. What follows is a harsh but strangely beautiful survival journey. We're treated to stunning Northern English landscapes, quiet forests, rolling hills, decayed towns, all crawling with the danger of the infected, and they are just as terrifying as ever as they have evolved in different ways. One thing that makes 28 Years Later so fascinating is that it's more reflective than the previous entries, interested not just in jump scares or chase sequences, though it has pl;enty of those moments, but in the emotional scars left behind. Ralph Fiennes plays the mysterious doctor, a figure we assume will be deranged but turns out to be one of the film's most humane characters. His scenes with Spike offer something rare in this franchise… tenderness. But in a dark, twisted, and WTF way. Visually, the film is awesome. I love Boyle's energetic and unique film style that blends handheld chaos with painterly wide shots, giving the movie both immediacy and eerie beauty. The editing occasionally cuts in archival-like footage and surreal imagery, turning parts of the movie into something that feels like a fragmented memory of a civilization that's long gone. Add the gritty sound design and a moody score, and you've got a cinematic experience that feels alive and constantly on edge. Not everyone will be on board with where this movie goes. Some narrative choices are flat-out bizarre. The third act especially takes some wild swings that are sure to divide viewers. The ending of the film especially was so unexpected and insane, but I loved the film for that! I loved the ending! 28 Years Later doesn't care about playing it safe. It's a bold evolution of the franchise that asks more from its audience emotionally, intellectually, and viscerally. And if you're willing to go along for the ride, it rewards you with an amazing cinematic experience. Ultimately, this isn't just a great horror sequel, it's a standout in the genre. Boyle and Garland have crafted a film that's ferocious, unpredictable, and unexpectedly moving. It's a blood-soaked elegy for a world that's fallen apart, and a powerful reminder that even in the darkest times, a sliver of humanity can still shine through.
