28 Years Later

23 years after 28 Days Later, and 18 years after 28 Weeks Later, comes this third in the trilogy. If it really can be called a trilogy, considering the biggest disappointment about it is that 28 Years Later is actually the first of another proposed trilogy. Like so many recent films, this has to be seen as big screen TV, leaving story elements to stretch out over further 'episodes'. 

Structurally, this is composed of two longish acts and then a third act of about 10 minutes, if that. So, yeah, not a lot of space for a resolution. Luckily, the end of the film offers some tasty possibilities for 28 Years and 28 Days Later (sounds shash but the third act starts with that time stamp). If this wasn't from the minds of writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle, there might be cause for concern.

The story starts on an island off the coast of north-east England. The folk here have managed to stay mostly safe since the rage virus decimated the British Isles. There's a narratively crafty 'water causeway' that only appears at low tide. Once you're across it on the mainland, you have a few hours until the sea recovers the path home for that day. Promising obstacle, lads.

Young Spike (Alfie Williams) is prepping for his first trip off island, his killing initiation is upon him. Dad, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) can't wait. Mum, Isla (Jodie Comer), bed-ridden with some unknown malady, doesn't approve. But off they pop regardless. Spike gets his first kill, a worm-eating 'slow one', but things get hairy when a group, led by an 'Alpha' sniff them out. And this Alpha makes regular tough Jamie look like a child. 

While sheltering from this rampaging rage crew, Spike spies a fire in the distance and eventually learns that this is the home of a possibly mad doctor Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), who just might be able to help Isla. Incidentally, the doctor's arrival is a welcome moment, for our protagonists AND the audience.

There are a couple of fine performances, specifically Comer and Fiennes, even Taylor-Johnson doesn't stink up the place too much. Relative newcomer Williams looks like he'll be around for a while and the late appearance of Jack O'Connell and his shell-suited acrobatic chav gang was a bold move (whether or not his character is based on Jimmy Saville).

A lot of the film was shot on iPhones, and designed to look grungy by DOP master Anthony Dod Mantle. Perhaps due to the style, at times, it does feel like a cheaper version of The Last of Us or The Walking Dead, but with more heft behind the pen and the lens. Another string to its bow is the treatment of the infected. Coincidentally, I was listening to a Louis Theroux interview with Bella Ramsey where he bemoaned the fact that in most of these 'zombie' films and shows, the ex-humans are seen purely as killing fodder, completely 'otherised', a fine excuse to get some murderous intent out of our systems. Well, Louis, here's something different.

As this finished in the cinema, I admit to a feeling of disenchantment, but now, after a few days, I've come to think that this is one of the best of the genre. Hopefully, the mooted trilogy keeps up the standard.

28 Years Later is showing around the country (I saw it at Palace cinemas).

See also:

Though not crucial to the understanding of this one, it's very much worth seeing the two earlier ones, 28 Days Later (2002), directed by Boyle (and written by Garland), and 28 Weeks Later (2007), directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Edgar Wright's zom-rom-com Shaun of the Dead (2004) is not only brilliant, but the final scene also shares a possible evolution of the zombie with 28 Years Later.