Intensity: 🩸🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland.
This one’s a real puzzler. Not unlike the Netflix reboot of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre which unsuccessfully tried to pack in metaphors relating to class war, the cultural disposable nature of the elderly, and perversion of the current real estate market.
28 Years Later takes much the same approach with allegory regarding Brexit, masculinity in the 21st century, end of life decision making, and our mercurial relationship to technology. While both pack in quite an unpleasant number of analogies, these are two very different films.
28 Years Later is an exceptional cinematic achievement replete with iPhone footage, goat cams, and lots of drone footage. The problem is Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s non-sequitur approach to the film has audiences ending up feeling like they’ve watched three films instead of one. Each act of the film ends up almost being an entirely different film.
This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a different thing.
Summary of 28 Years Later
The film follows Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his son Spike (Alfie Williams) as they wrestle with the trials and tribulations of quarantine isolationism and what it means to be a “man.” Following the original rage virus, the UK is permanently (?) quarantined by the rest of the free world and the remaining citizens are left to fend for themselves.
Jamie, Spike, and several hundred other residents take shelter on a small island off the coast of Scotland that is connected to the mainland by a tidal causeway. The group of survivors uses the causeway for foraging, collecting wood products, and other bric-a-brac they might be lucky enough to find. Each trip to the mainland is closely watched by the survivors, and if a forager is compromised they’re no longer welcome on the island.
In the first act Jamie decides that it’s time for Spike’s inaugural zombie hunt. It’s time for Spike to see trees, roam the highlands, and wander through Jamie’s old stomping grounds. As the pair makes their way to the island they are immediately confronted by slow moving zombies — which appear to be an intentional nod to the great George Romero. They are also presented with hyper-steroidal giant fast moving zombies. Picture a fast Bigfoot, with a giant penis, from the Six Million Dollar Man, and you’ve got the new and improved zombie archetype.
Spike and Jamie barely make it back to the island where they are presented with another conundrum, Spike’s ailing mother. Enter act two.
Spike’s mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), is in and out of reality, fully delusional, dealing with hot and cold sweats, and constantly in pain. Jamie grows distant from his wife, while Spike naturally slots in to become the parent of his parent. Obsessed with finding a cure for his mother Spike learns of an aging doctor that may still be living on the island.
Spike and Isla (get it?) make way for the mainland against Jamie’s wishes, and stumble their way through one zombie foible after another. Along the way they encounter a Swedish naval staffer, Erik (Edvin Ryding), who’s been shipwrecked in the UK. Eventually, the rag-tag crew makes it to Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) who patiently and empathetically explains to Spike that life is life and once your number comes up, you’re done.
The film follows an incredible web-like through line with both linear and non-linear plot devices. Along the way, the film is made all the more incredible by introducing audiences to a series of almost inexplicable elements, including:
-Ample amounts of naked zombies caked in mud and puss.
-A zombie birthing sequence.
-A very thin exposition dump that explains the rage virus causes gigantism in some of the zombies, but not all.
-The seeming promise of a cult that never manifests itself.
-A kung fu group of chav-like teens.
-A bone temple that really serves little purpose.
Should you see 28 Years Later?
Garland and Boyle bring so many flavors to the film that the zombies almost seem like an afterthought. The chaotic editing, the incredible soundtrack, the beautiful dream sequences, the amazing performances are all a bit undermined by the weird and off putting collection of zombies and non-traditional narrative.
28 Years Later is an exceptional film accomplishment, but it’s also a messy film that doesn’t deliver a coherent narrative, or a clean connection to 28 Days Later. The intensity of fast-moving zombies neatly paired with wild editing and a discordant soundtrack is still very present. But, if you’re looking for sycophantic fan service 28 Years Later will not scratch that nagging decades-long itch.
If you’re looking for a mish-mash of Alex Garland’s Men and 2024’s Civil War then you’ve come to the right place.
28 Years Later is Rated R and available everywhere.