28 Years Later Review
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland collaborate on the long-awaited new sequel to 28 Days Later.
28 Years Later. Columbia Pictures / Sony Entertainment
More than 20 years after 28 Days Later, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland reunited to bring us 28 Years Later, the second sequel to the original film. This long-awaited movie is the first in a planned trilogy, with part two, The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman, Little Woods), set to release in January 2026.
The movie opens in a village on a small island off the coast of England, itself now quarantined from the rest of the world. The rage virus runs rampant, now contained to the British Isles, where survivors have been left to fend for themselves. Connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway that can only be crossed at low tide, the townspeople live in relative safety compared to the mainland. 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) lives there with his father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and ailing mother Isla (Jodie Comer). Jamie takes Spike on a journey to the mainland, a rite of passage where Spike will kill his first infected. After barely making it back, Spike learns about a doctor who may still be out in the wilderness, and decides to secretly go back out with his mother to get her treatment.
28 Years Later. Columbia Pictures / Sony Entertainment
On the surface, 28 Years Later is a fantastic coming-of-age hero’s journey. Spike leaves home to seek answers when he’s given reason to distrust his father, encountering monsters and trials. He ultimately transforms through his experience and the wisdom he gains from the shaman-coded Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes). He doesn’t find the cure he sought, but he brings back something else that has the potential to shatter the status quo beliefs of his home.
There are other layers of meaning to examine. The prominent use of a recording of Rudyard Kipling’s poem BOOTS alludes to England’s imperial history with its origins in the Second Boer War; it also drives a message of the madness of war, as the movie juxtaposes historical footage of British soldiers in the World Wars and clips of medieval warfare from Henry V with Spike and his father pushing into the wild as we hear the poem. Pushing forward in history, it’s easy to draw connections to England’s isolation through Brexit. We see other bits of British iconography, from the Teletubbies to the monstrous Jimmy Savile.
There’s also something in what we see with the new infected the film introduces, as what Spike witnesses brings him to question the understanding of them gained from his village of how human they are. Following that thread, there are multiple examples of othering—how groups perceive those outside their own—we can observe through the eyes of several characters in the film. 28 Years Later is a far deeper text than I expected.
28 Years Later. Columbia Pictures / Sony Entertainment
The film is also ambitious on a technical level. While 28 Days Later was filmed using prosumer Canon XL1 digital video cameras, much of 28 Years Later was filmed on iPhone 15s. The production took advantage of the camera's small size to do creative things. For example, DP Anthony Dod Mantle created custom rigs holding 20 iPhones to create some wild sequences in the film. The effect adds to the already dizzying but impressive, brutal first act of the movie.
28 Years Later. Columbia Pictures / Sony Entertainment
28 Years Later is a brilliant horror film, captivating from beginning to end in its execution and depth. Despite the amazing trailers, I didn’t know what to expect, and I was floored. I was treated to a movie that shows Boyle and Garland are in top form in their first collaboration since Sunshine in 2007, and I can’t wait to see the next two parts, the last of which will also be directed by Boyle.
28 Years Later opened in theaters today, June 20, 2025.
