28 Years Later, one of this year’s most anticipated horror films, has finally hit theaters—and fans of the series are… disappointed? Confused? Intrigued? How about all of that and a shot of blind rage.
28 Years Later is the latest entry in the long-beloved horror series created by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (read our review of the movie HERE and check out these interviews we did). The film follows a family of survivors 28 years after the initial outbreak and shows us what the world looks like after everything we’ve seen. And ya know what? This movie was really something, my friends. Let’s talk about it.
So, it’s been 28 years since that adorable little monkey infected the UK with a deadly virus, causing nearly all UK residents to become bloodthirsty monsters known as “the infected.” In that time, the infected have evolved while humanity has kind of devolved—resorting to primitive living conditions on a remote island to survive.
Raised on that island is our main character, Spike (played by Alfie Williams), a 12-year-old boy who is about to go hunting with his father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), exposing him to the world beyond his small island for the very first time.
At least, that’s the first act of the film.
What starts as a well-shot (albeit shot on an iPhone—but well-shot nonetheless) small vignette of a father and son dealing with life in the midst of a nightmare… good stuff, right? It had me on board. Aaron Taylor-Johnson did a pretty good job, but the real star of the show was young Alfie, who really held the film up on his shoulders—and he did a great job of it.
After heading into the woods and having a few encounters with the infected, a second storyline sort of kicks in and takes over the film—and now we’re in act two.
Act two is something different from the setup. If the beginning of the movie was a dramatic return to form for outbreak horror, the second act is where we start thinking less about the zombies (btw, they call them zombies at least once in the movie, so I’m allowed to run my mouth). The second act of the film becomes more of a story about the lengths you would go to save someone you love.
That’s where I have to shout out the performance of Jodie Comer, who plays Spike’s mother. She had a tough role, and I think she crushed it. Now, Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character basically stops existing in the story from the end of act one onward—but Spike, being the throughline for the movie, kept it feeling almost totally consistent. At its core, this is a coming-of-age movie, and despite the jarring plot change in the second third of the film, it does mostly still feel like a coming-of-age story.
Now, I don’t want to spoil too much, but this is where I think the movie really lost the fans—and potentially shafted their own movie, which, up until act three, could’ve made for an agreeable entry in the series. Somehow, it corkscrewed into a blend of bold and creative… and straight-up parody. I don’t want to tell you exactly what happens (we’ll save that for the spoiler video), but suffice it to say that the final two minutes had me VERY confused. In fact, if nothing else, this is a perfectly fine movie that I honestly quite enjoyed for its MANY well-done attributes. But the word to describe how I feel about it right now is just: confused.
So, if this is where the main “problem” with the movie lies, and you’re one of those audience members who’s looking for something more straightforward but still want to enjoy a good, scary zombie movie—leave the theater after act two. No, I’m serious. You’ll like the movie more if you just leave before the final act.
The next movie, which is a follow-up to this one, will be out in less than a year, and I’ll definitely be in my seat at the movies to check it out—but the ending of this movie was truly… bizarre.
As for a rating, I’d say this movie is a 6.5/10. It’s not an offensive legacy sequel that relies on iconic lines and references, but its confusing ending made for a slightly disappointing feeling leaving the theater.
