Culture Crash: Enjoy A Good Scare? Our Take On “28 Years Later”

In 2002, writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle teamed up to make 28 Days Later, which has become one of the most famous and beloved zombie movies of all time. This year, Garland and Boyle have themselves returned to the universe with the film 28 Years Later, which serves as something of a sequel to 28 Days Later but also works as a standalone film for people who haven’t seen or don’t remember the 2002 film.

In 28 Years Later, the so-called “rage virus” has been eradicated from the mainland of Europe, but the British Isles serves as a quarantine zone filled with infected. The film tells the story of one family – the father, Jamie, played by Aaron-Taylor Johnson; the mother, Isla, played by Jodie Comer; and their son, Spike, played by newcomer Alfie Williams. This family of three lives in a small community on a small island connected to the infection zone by a single causeway. Jamie insists on bringing 12-year-old spike on his first ceremonial hunting trip to the infection zone, and, well, things don’t go exactly as expected from there.

Like 28 Days Later before it, 28 Years Later changes form with several plot twists throughout the film. Without spoiling those plot developments, I will say that 28 Years Later is a pretty gnarly zombie horror movie, full of graphic violence and gore, while also being a family drama and a coming-of-age story. It all amounts to a tense but tender story of isolation and grief, forcing characters to acknowledge their own mortality and mourn for the overwhelming number of people who have died in the movie’s universe.

With an absolutely wonderful script from Garland and virtuoso direction by Boyle that both heightens the tension of the horror and isn’t afraid to slow down to let the drama breathe, 28 Years Later is one of the best films of the year.

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