Danny Boyle returns to the gory zombie track he first engaged with two decades ago to haunt the audience 28 years later. The third addition in this trilogy is a horror film that is subversive, gruesome, tonally adventurous and fancifully transitive
28 years later
Film: 28 years Later
Cast: Alfie Williams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell, Christopher Fulford, Stella Gonet, Chi Lewis-Parry
Director: Danny Boyle
Rating: * * * 1/2
Runtime: 115 min.
Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” comes back to haunt us “28 years later.” The director returns to the gory-zombie track he first engaged with two decades and more. Re-teaming with Alex Garland, who has since gone from screenwriting to direction(“Annihilation”), the director-screenwriter duo jump to a ‘threequel’ going from “28 Days Later,” to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s 2007 sequel “28 Weeks Later”, which Boyle produced, to the current film.
The third addition in this trilogy is a horror film that is subversive, gruesome, tonally adventurous and fancifully transitive. It’s neither predictable nor does it focus on call backs or re-tracks. It is refreshingly different within the franchise it seeks to build on.
The film begins during the initial days of the virus attack with a group of children in the Scottish Highlands, watching an episode of the “Teletubbies” interrupted by a horde of flesh-eaters. One child manages to escape, running to his dad, a priest accepting of this Biblical prophecy.
Boyle and Garland then take us forward in time, 28 years later, into a hamlet surrounded by water, a Northumberland isle called Holy Island, where a group of quarantined people have created an isolated community. We see a 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) preparing to go on his first hunt, a coming-of-age ritual, with his dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Spike idolises his father and cares for his ailing mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), beset by a debilitating illness. Their village is surrounded by water that only recedes during low tide, when a causeway connected to the mainland reveals itself.
When Jamie and Spike set out, the nightmare takes shape. They see several kinds of zombies. From slow-moving moving obese, creepy crawlies, naked and twitchy types to one that looks totally different from them all - a hulking giant Alpha (played by MMA fighter Chi Lewis-Parry), who is intelligent and has super strength and speed. The Alpha interrupts Spike’s first hunt, so father and son are forced to take shelter somewhere close to where an insane doctor, Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) goes about his fiery spells. It all gets complicated thereafter. Spike begins to distrust his father and runs away from the isle with his mother in the hope that Kelson can cure her.
Archival footage of British war films is intercut with scenes of Spike’s village training itself. On his trip to the mainland, Spike encounters a pregnant zombie and a Swedish soldier carrying news of the outside world. Spike also makes his first kill - a Slow-Low in a bucolic setting, and is chased by other menacing Slow-Lows drawing close for the kill.
Jamie and Spike’s flight through the forest brings on the thrills with zombies giving chase, coming at them faster than they can aim their arrows. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle’s imagery goes from grunge to verdant greens and back to grey apathy with stunning effect. The director even pays tribute to the dead in the film in an effort to mourn and grieve for their passing.
Boyle uses music to punctuate this horror-drama, going from violent drum beats, heavy metal to the solemn 19th century Scottish hymn “Abide With Me,” and it’s rewarding.
Newcomer Alfie Williams plays Spike with earnestness. Comer, Fiennes and Johnson do justice to their respective roles. This survival thriller basically has it all. It’s a tender family drama mixed up with spirituality, cult practices, mythical elements, nightmarish horror, stirring thrills and sly humour. It’s definitely worth a watch.
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