“You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger darling.”
28 Years Later is not much more than a placeholder film. Originally announced as part of a trilogy of sequels, there was real excitement for returning to the post-apocalyptic world Danny Boyle and Alex Garland created with 28 Days Later. That film introduced the Rage Virus, an infection that popularized the idea of fast zombies. Between 28 Days Later and the sequel 28 Weeks Later, the foundation for an utterly bleak and fascinating world was laid. The burgeoning series was promptly put on ice. Now, 18 years later, Boyle and Garland are back and they’ve brought some surprises to go with the zombie action.
Days and Weeks expanded the world of the films while tying the intensely personal stories of characters into the larger themes of the series. For Years, the series downshifts for a more intimate story set on the edge of the world. It follows the story of Spike (Alfie Williams) as he turns 12 and ventures beyond the walls of the community that has kept him safe his whole life. He lives on a small island, accessible from the mainland via a causeway at low tide. His dad, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), takes him out for his maiden trip to the mainland, which is overrun with those infected with the Rage Virus. The goal is to get Spike his first kill. But he develops something beyond a killer instinct: hope.
Rumor has it somewhere on the island, quarantined and left to fend for itself by the rest of the world, is a doctor. Spike’s mom, Isla (Jodie Comer) is ailing and no one in their island village has the medical knowledge to proffer a diagnosis. While the situation with the Rage Virus and those sick with it is dire and appears to have no end in sight, getting Isla to this doctor, if the rumors are true, gives Spike a purpose beyond himself. The adults, including Jamie, are too jaded by the realities of their existence to even consider risking near-certain death to help Isla. But Spike is just naive enough to push his fears aside. So he sneaks Isla off the island and their adventure begins.
Garland’s script takes Spike and Isla on a videogame-esque journey through the forest, abandoned and dilapidated relics of the past (like trains and gas stations). Boyle’s direction leans into a videogame aesthetic, especially early on. There are shots of Spike and Jamie lining up their bow and arrows to take shots that could’ve come from a first person shooter to along with POV shots with the camera mounted on the rotting backs of the infected. The most ostentatious visual flourish has the camera spinning around Matrix-style to capture entry and exit wounds, although this gimmmick is abandoned as the movie goes on.
Spike and Isla’s journey works in fits and starts. The best moments allow Williams and Comer to dig into the emotional depth of their relationship and current situation. It’s impressive work by Williams, who essentially is carrying the movie. Comer gives a strong performance that is undercut by the writing and a relative lack of material to play with. She gets a few notes, and she makes the most of them. In my most cynical moments while watching the movie, I thought these scenes were perfunctory. As I’ve continued to think about the movie, I’ve come to appreciate the work they’re doing, even if I still don’t totally buy into what Boyle and Garland are selling.
That gets to my biggest issue with 28 Years Later. It feels less ambitious than its predecessors. I’ve been trying to suss out and separate my expectations from the movie Garland and Boyle have cooked up. Days and Weeks leaned into the relentless bleakness of the premise and the ways it permeated the infected and the humans combatting it, and expanding the scope of the story in the process. Years feels like a contraction that goes down some borderline gonzo paths. The village has been cut off from the rest of the world for so long that there is now a generation that has no knowledge of the things we take for granted on a daily basis. An amusing interlude between Spike and a Swedish soldier, Erik (Edwin Ryding) runs through a list of things Spike has never heard of. There is a de facto leader of the infected on the mainland, a guy called Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) who is referred to as The Alpha. In a movie full of horrific violence, Samson inflicts Mortal Kombat-levels of brutality on whatever he gets his hands on. I won’t give away the movie’s most baffling and most intriguing sequence because it’s mostly giving us a taste of what’s to come with Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple six months from now. But it’s an absolute howler of a scene and if I had been more on board with the movie I would’ve been hooting and hollering like the rapid creatures onscreen.
And I haven’t even mentioned Ralph Fiennes, who is putting in some deliriously entertaining work. He’s the best part of the movie, I think, but the specifics of his role are best left for everyone to discover on their own.
So, what does it all add up to? 28 Years Later feels like its purpose is to set the table for what’s to come. On its own it’s a serviceable, if not gratingly silly adventure film. But, a zombie movie bookended with references to the Teletubbies should be more than just serviceable. The sporadic moments of inspired lunacy and sincere emotions only made my frustrations with the rest of the film more irksome. I hope The Bone Temple pays off all this setup. At least we won’t have to wait another 18 years to see where this story is headed.
