28 Years Later (United Kingdom | 2025 | 112 minutes | Danny Boyle)
Spoiler alert (not): 28 Years Later, the second sequel to director Danny Boyle’s influential 2002 shocker 28 Days Later, could hardly be better. And unlike 28 Weeks Later, the rather meh second film of the franchise, this new entry serves up something deeply emotional, stunningly ambitious, seriously creepy, decidedly distinctive from its predecessor(s), and exhilaratingly suspenseful.
This latest installment begins by flashing back to the Rage Virus plague that sparked the original film, with a house full of children in the Scottish Highlands (and a priest and congregants in a church) being massacred by the zombie-like Infected. One boy, Jimmy, escapes.
Flash forward to (you guessed it) 28 years later. The Rage Virus has left Great Britain quarantined and isolated from the rest of the world. Most of the country teems with Infected, except for Holy Island in Northumberland. That tiny haven connects to the mainland by a stone causeway that can only be accessed at low tide.
The residents live a rough rustic life without most modern creature comforts, and they handle the Rage Virus-fueled revenants with weary resignation. Holy Islanders even engage in a ritual around the threat, with fathers and sons venturing to the mainland, bows and arrows in hand, to hunt the Infected as a rite of passage.
Blustery islander Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) takes his young son Spike (Alfie Williams) on his coming-of-age journey to the mainland. It’s a vast world of wonders to Spike, even as the threat of the Infected looms around every corner. But after a harrowing, ultimately successful ‘Hunt,’ some awful misdeeds on the part of his father, and cryptic clues from his grandfather about a doctor on the mainland, the boy decides to sneak across the causeway. His ailing mother Isla (Jodie Comer) in tow, Spike seeks a cure for her from the enigmatic Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes).
From there, 28 Years Later presents a classic hero’s quest, and Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland most definitely draw on familiar touchstones. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, George Romero’s Zombie films (particularly Land of the Dead), the original Planet of the Apes, and The Wizard of Oz all course through this movie’s DNA, but in the end 28 Years Later stakes out its own turf famously.
Boyle and Garland commit to some spectacular world-building here (catch it on the biggest screen you can. Srsly). and aside from some deftly-woven exposition in the opening reel, they wisely avoid spoon-feeding information to their audience. The approach allows viewers to share in Spike’s unease, crises of confidence, and sense of discovery. Moreover, this is one immersive experience, engineered for optimal awe, wonder, and bone-chilling eeriness. Boyle’s assembled a crack technical team: Production designer Mark Tildesley, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, and editor Jon Harris have all logged in previous stints on Boyle movies, and they’re bringing their absolute A-game here.
That world-building extends to the Infected. Like any good implacable menace that’s had a couple of decades to their own devices, they’ve evolved. They’re capable of reproducing now, and some of them (‘Alphas’) display a terrifying increase in strength and intellect. And even with some extra bits of background fleshed out, these revenants have lost none of their ability to induce the Willies.
Happily, the core of 28 Years Later turns out to be a well-defined cast of characters. Boyle’s one of those rare mainstream filmmakers who can mine emotional resonance without inducing a diabetic forced-sentiment coma. He and Garland gift their audience with relatable, fully-rounded characters here. And the script’s moments of mordant black humor keep things from getting too oppressive.
Garland’s sharp screenplay clearly draws its protagonists out, and the cast proves more than equal to the material. All three leads feel like a genuine (if genuinely dysfunctional) family. Taylor-Johnson has a knack for playing compulsively watchable characters regardless of their flaws. Comer handles the potentially thankless role of The Sick Mom with nuance, vulnerability, and an authentically warm rapport with her son. And Fiennes lends gravitas and a twinkle in his eye to his post-apocalyptic Wizard of Oz surrogate.
The bulk of 28 Years Later, however, rests squarely on the shoulders of young Alfie Williams, and the kid proves to be nothing short of remarkable. Spike’s journey from earnest, nervous kid to reluctant hero resonates with the kind of universality from which movie icons are made, and Williams’ utterly natural presence on camera seals the deal.
Danny Boyle’s latest trip to the 28 [insert time measurement here] Later franchise looks like a home run from this vantage point, but it’s not perfect. After carefully crafting a beautiful, scary, epic yet intimate pocket universe, the final five minutes indulge in some seriously silly action shenanigans that feel a bit at odds with the perfect, darkly fantastic pitch that Boyle and company work so hard to maintain.
Ironically, the movie might also turn off audiences expecting a straight-up carbon copy of the 28 franchise’s established pseudo-zombie siege formula. 28 Years Later delivers the scares, gore, and thrills for sure (Boyle can direct a horror set piece like no one’s business). But it’s as much a surprisingly moving family drama/coming of age story, post-apocalyptic fantasy, and dark fairy tale as it is a horror movie. And risk-averse viewers wanting an undemanding dose of horror movie tropes will likely have those expectations frustrated.
Then again, that kinda wacky end scene (which kicks the door wide open for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, due out early 2026) does dovetail with the movie’s intro amusingly. It also promises a lighter adventurer’s spirit–potentially a welcome contrast to 28 Years Later‘s riveting but sometimes extremely intense heart of darkness. And if audiences can get past their frequently stubborn hunger for The Same Damn Thing in their sequels, 28 Years Later will likely engage their hearts as fully as it does their adrenaline.
28 Years Later arrives in theaters June 20. Image courtesy of Sony Pictures.