‘28 Years Later’ Review: Bloody Brilliant and Weirdly Heartfelt

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland don’t make sequels unless they have something new to say. And with 28 Years Later, they don’t just return to a franchise they helped define, they fully reclaim it. With 28 Years Later, the duo have crafted not just a spiritual follow-up to their hit 28 Days Later, but a sharp, emotionally deep tale that is a reflection of a world repeatedly tested by crisis. The result is that the sequel doesn’t just catch up, it cuts deep.

The story centers around the young Spike (Alfie Williams), a 12-year-old raised on Holy Island, an outpost clinging to old rituals, this town could exist in middle age England. Connected to the mainland via a causeway that can only be used at low-tide. Spike is just old enough to be inducted into the ranks of hunters, but the young lad is not quite old enough or experienced enough to hide his fear, as he ventures off the island for the first time. Williams delivers a remarkable performance, with a wide-eyed vulnerability and a fragility in his curiosity, he’s no hero, just a kid forced to grow up in the shadow of previous disasters.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Jamie, Spike’s father, he’s a man molded by survival. His take on masculinity has a duality, it’s equal parts nurturing but also full of machismo and performative. And it’s in these contradictions his tenderness gets undercut by his bravado, it creates an obvious tension between father and son. Then there’s Isla (Jodie Comer), Spike’s mother, who’s sick with a mystery illness and she’s fading fast. Her role is more fragile, but despite her confusion her love for Spike shines through, Comer’s performance hits hard.

The infected themselves have evolved, and so has the filmmaking. Gone are the grainy handheld days of 28 Days Later. In their place, Boyle embraces modern tools with gorilla style shots, using iPhones and drones mixed with bullet-time trickery that make the visuals super slick. There’s a raw immediacy to the action, especially in the film’s most nail-biting sequences. One confrontation involving a mutated “Alpha” a hulking, almost unstoppable infected turns into a breathless chase that feels like a fever dream barreling into reality, it’s a complete adrenaline rush as well as part anxiety inducing and may well have you gripping your seat.

Ralph Fiennes shows up in the third act as Dr. Kelson, he enters the story late but leaves an lasting mark. His temple of bones is both grotesque and strangely poetic, a Memento Mori, he explains multiple times, built to honor the dead as once living souls, not monsters. Fiennes plays Kelson as a man caught between horror and hope, he’s a relic of compassion in a world that’s long forgotten it. He’s not a villain, creepy yes, but rather a casualty of living through decades of horror and facing extreme loneliness. He forces Spike to reckon with what real strength and humanity means when everything else has collapsed. His late appearance narrows the story’s focus, tightening it, although an unexpected turn it works.

28 Years Later is a sharp, emotionally deep tale that is a reflection of a world repeatedly tested by crisis.

28 Years Later wears a hell of a lot of hats, it’s part survival horror, part post-apocalyptic folklore, part fractured family drama, and also somewhere in there, a complete descent into madness. And Boyle and Garland manage to pack all of that into a tight, breathless runtime without it feeling overstuffed. It’s pacing feels spot on, not once did I feel like it was dragging, nor did I want it to end.

Beneath the gore and the grit, this is however very much Spike’s story, It’s a raw, emotional and spiritual coming-of-age tale. It’s also just the beginning, as the first chapter in a planned trilogy, 28 Years Later ends not with a whisper, but a bizarre scream into a whole new void. The final sequence goes full throttle into a complete new tone and energy, think cult energy, coded colors, an absolute operatic madness that promises the next instalment won’t be pulling any punches. With Boyle and Garland now in compete control of their ‘rage’ universe, this reintroduction is off to a deliriously strong start.

28 Years Later is now playing in cinemas worldwide.

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