28 Years Later
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Expectation: I will enjoy this. Won’t love it, won’t hate it, will have a good time.
Reality: Wow, I love this.
28 Years Later is totally unhinged in all the best ways. I already expect a little crazy with a zombie film, but I love how Danny Boyle worked everything in. The humor is intentional and specific, and doesn’t linger to distract the serious moments (many horror films fail to balance this). For the most part, the story stays true to its established world, so even though outlandish things are happening, nothing feels out of place. I was fully locked in the whole time.
Every member of that cast delivers a powerful performance. The story is not only interesting—it’s emotionally gripping. Every lead had a backstory, thoughts, feelings, and goals, which was welcome and refreshing. Too often there are characters who exist only to react or respond to a lead character. In 28 Years Later, I knew the other leads had life going on when they weren’t on screen.
A few notes regarding the previous movies:
Don’t look for answers to questions raised in 28 Weeks Later. I assume this is due to the second film in the series having different writers and director than the first (28 Days) and third (28 Years), but aside from the virus, the stories don’t connect. You can watch 28 Years Later without seeing either of the first two and not be confused.
If you prefer 28 Days Later to 28 Weeks Later, you will love 28 Years Later. Boyle’s signature style is present and he weaves in some flashes from 28 Days Later. These films are more artful and more suited for film critics. The music is weird, there are very specific shots and director choices made that work and make sense but are less palatable for a mainstream audience.
If you prefer 28 Weeks Later to 28 Days Later, depending on how much you disliked 28 Days Later and what you disliked about it, I might suggest skipping this one. 28 Weeks Later is more of a blockbuster film. It has Jeremy Renner and Idris Elba, high stakes, a clear, mildly predictable narrative story structure, and intense, fast-paced action. Personally, I enjoyed Weeks a lot more, but I find Days and Years to be objectively better films.
28 Years Later is a solid horror film. The unsettling feels are primarily driven by the cinematography, music, and story. There’s only a handful of jump scares.
I docked a star for the following:
A scared kid who can barely shoot an arrow and has been to the mainland one time wants to guide his sick mother across the land to a place he’s never been…this character choice doesn’t fit the story and character laid out in the beginning. He has decent motivation for this choice but I didn’t believe it was strong enough for him to not look into a few other options first.
The opening scene focuses on different characters than the rest of the film, and there are 2 characters introduced later that appear to be someone from the opening. It’s clarified at the end of the film, but isn’t immediately clear. This could’ve been an intentional misdirect, but it doesn’t fit the overall tone and vibe of the film to mess with the audience in that way.
The first 30-45 minutes focuses on 2 characters so I expected to follow both of their journeys throughout the film if they diverged, but that didn’t happen so it left me wondering/searching for a good portion of the story.
Overall, 28 Years Later is extremely well done. The acting, direction, cinematography, script, score—everything is at the same caliber and all of it works together to achieve an obviously intentional tone that is carried out from start to finish. It’s a lot of fun. Not scary in a scream-every-ten minutes way, more anxiety-inducing in a “look behind you!” kind of way.
