28 Years Later – Film Review
Reviewed by Harris Dang on the 19th of June 2025
Sony Pictures presents a film by Danny Boyle
Written by Alex Garland
Produced by Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald, Peter Rice, and Bernie Bellew
Starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, and Ralph Fiennes
Cinematography Anthony Dod Mantle
Edited by Jon Harris
Music by Young Fathers
Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 115 minutes
Release Date: the 19th of June 2025
28 Years Later follows up 28 Days Later (2002), where the Rage virus escaped from a medical research lab and brought the world to an apocalyptic meltdown. We now follow Spike (Alfie Williams), a young boy who lives with his father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and his mother, Isla (Jodie Comer). They live on a small, populated island that is connected to the mainland by a single peninsula. It is heavily fortified in case the infected ever attempt to invade the population.
Jamie is a scavenger who ventures out of the island in search of food and resources while Isla is an invalid due to an unknown affliction that causes her to suffer memory loss and mood swings. Jamie takes Spike outside the island for the first time as a continuation of his training to become a scavenger for survival just like him. On their journey, Spike discovers the beauty, wonder, and horror of the outside world that will change him forever.
28 Years Later is the long-awaited sequel to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later (2007) and marks the return of director Danny Boyle, writer Alex Garland, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, and prior lead actor Cillian Murphy as executive producer. The original film was rightfully credited for reinvigorating the zombie genre by featuring aggressively fast zombies. It also possessed a notable visual style that provided stark beauty within its grittiness. Its release was timely, showcasing a societal collapse that eerily mirrored September 11’s aftermath, despite its UK setting.
Since then, a lot has changed. Constant riffs on the original’s style, technological advances in filmmaking, Brexit, and COVID are elements coursing through 28 Years Later’s veins. It gives Boyle and Garland lots to mull over on a thematic and cinematic level. With the promise of a new trilogy, including a completed sequel by Nia DaCosta, is 28 Years Later worth the wait?
Much like the infected themselves, Boyle is rejuvenated with boundless energy and verve as he creates his most energetically vibrant film in years. With the introduction of new technological toys to play with, including drones, mobile phone cameras, and extensive camera rigs, Boyle, Dod Mantle and editor Jon Harris have conjured images that are starkly beautiful and exhilaratingly stylish. One memorable set-piece involves Spike and Jamie running from a formidable infected known as the Alpha (Chi Lewis-Parry). Due to the palpable visual style and Boyle’s daring choice in using Vorspiel by Richard Wagner, it becomes an amazingly suspenseful sequence.
Much like the Alpha sequence, the film’s settings, themes, character interactions, and imagery all convey a nightmarish vision by result of human folly and patriarchal hubris. It implicitly uses its political messages to enhance the narrative and there are enough world-building and loose story threads to show promise in its future sequels. This is despite a hilariously clumsy coda that awkwardly shifts the tone from what had preceded it.
As with the prior films, the premise never rehashes prior stories and the narrative bears similarities to Boyle’s film Millions (2004). It is as much a boy’s journey as it is a film involving zombies. The characters may be archetypes on paper when seen from a child’s perspective. The story opens with children watching Teletubbies before they are attacked by the infected. A fantasy is then introduced where we see a master/student relationship between Spike and Jamie, a loving mother/son relationship between Spike and Isla, and a wise orator when Ralph Fiennes’ character appears.
The supporting cast lend credibility, humanity, and minor amusing weirdness to their performances, particularly Fiennes as an outcast doctor. Taylor-Johnson may be a bit too stoic as Spike’s father but he convinces as an emotionally guarded man who has habits that distance his son. Comer is fantastic as Isla as she must portray the many nuances of her character with a remarkable dexterity like her unknown affliction, which makes the mother-son bond convincing. The real standout is newcomer Williams who handles his character arc of being a naïve child of the world to an emotionally hardened and battle-hardened teenager with subtlety and conviction.
Overall, 28 Years Later is aggressive and bloodcurdlingly good fun. It is also a worthy continuation that has the power to frighten and engage thanks to Danny Boyle and Alex Garland being at the height of their powers.
Summary: A worthy continuation that frightens and engages thanks to Danny Boyle and Alex Garland being at the height of their powers.
4.5
Strong
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