I’m not a fan of zombie films but one thing really stood out about 28 Years Later – Yahoo

I’ll say straight off, I’m not a zombie movie fan. It would be fair to wonder then why I decided to go to see 28 Years Later.

The reason I joined the audience at a preview screening at Tyneside Cinema of Danny Boyle’s eagerly-awaited sequel to 28 Days Later is because it was made here in the North East. And also because Danny Boyle is a brilliant director and because I’d heard such good things from those involved in the film.

Lots of the cast were locals enlisted as extras during last year’s long shoot, to play either survivors of the virus strain that waa leaked in the original film or the zombie-like infected. And Boyle also found the film’s young star here: Alfie Williams, from Gateshead, who is now 14 but still below the age certificate of the film which begins with his character Spike receiving a hard lesson in how to tackle those pesky zombies.

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But mainly I braved the blood and gore because I really wanted to see how the chosen locations – mostly in rural Northumberland – looked on the big screen and if I would recognise anywhere. I had thought it unlikely and that the region would play an anonymous role – but it was clear from the off I was wrong.

Places are name-checked. Holy Island – the quarantined home of the survivors – is the focus of the action; Whitley Bay gets a mention; there’s a gloriious sun-drenched flashback at The Angel of the North and an appearance – then another – of our much-missed Sycamore Gap tree, which struck a chord with the local audience, with a universal ‘aah’ heard around the auditorium at the sight.

There was even a party scene singing The Blaydon Races, so there was no disguising this was the North East and some of the visually stunning film’s sweeping shots of rolling countryside and sweeping panoramic views were like a love letter to the region. Until those zombies stumbled into view.

Core cast members Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodie Comer who play couple Jamie and Isla, parents to Spike, have local accents too. The Holy Island community they’re part of – which looks a bit Wicker Man like at times – has the causeway to protect it from the infected on the mainland but at low tide Spike and his dad go off on a hunting expedition.

You can guess what for and you know it’s going to get messy. The infected basically come in one of two types: fat or fast. The first are easier to kill as they can only crawl around the ground, which is probably why their diet is worms.

They’re all totally gross. I knew there would be plenty times when I’d have to look away from the screen: a birth scene in a dirty trailer was one. And then pretty much all the killings.

What I didn’t expect was to be so totally drawn into the story and the middle part of the film has the most moving scene – and Williams is in it, along with Comer and Ralph Fiennes who plays a remarkably resilient doctor. Living amongst sculpture-like creations, intended as deterrents to the infected, he comes across as a humane figure amid the mainland horror, despite an apparent obsession with constructing a huge tower out of skulls of the dead.

It’s the scene here, with Williams pitched against two acting heavyweights, that sees powerful performances from all three and where I was totally engrossed. I wouldn’t want to give any story spoilers but it brought tears to my eyes and I certainly hadn’t been expecting that.

I enjoyed the film far more than I thought: it’s fast and furious, has probably as much heart as gore; great performances and the region’s landscapes look amazing. Whether or not the hundreds of local exras who worked on it were able to spot themselves in the scenes of mayhem, they have lots to be proud of.

And then came a most bizarre final scene where Jack O’Connell enters the fray as a character called Sir Jimmy Crystal who, along with a band of acrobatic followers who are similarly clad in garish tracksuits and heavy jewellery, help out Spike by dispatching some chasing zombies.

I’ve no idea what to make of that but, with a second 28 Year film having been filmed back-to-back with this one, no doubt all – or at least some – will be explained when it’s released in January. I’m not sure I’ll have a ringside seat for that but Alfie Williams is going to be back and I bet this is only the start of big things for him.

And Sir Danny has plans for a third film, to round off a trilogy, and has spoken of returning to film up here which means we may well have another chance to see parts of our beautiful region receive the Oscar winning director’s cinematic treatment. So, to quote a film I do quite like, I’d never say never again.

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