28 Years Later (15)

Almost three decades have passed since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory and infected almost the entire world. Quarantine is enforced for survivors so they can live alongside the infected. One member of a group of the uninfected, who live on a small island connected to the mainland by a heavily-defended causeway, leaves the sanctuary to discover what lurks beyond their defences.

LondonNet Film Review

28 Years Later (15) Film Review from LondonNet

In the 23 years since Cillian Murphy’s revived coma patient wandered through an eerily deserted London in 28 Days Later, zombified predators have infected popular culture to the point of weary saturation. Eleven long seasons of The Walking Dead plus six spin-off TV series and counting, Shaun Of The Dead, two Zombielands, half a dozen Resident Evil film sequels, The Last Of Us video games and small screen adaptations, World War Z, Train To Busan,… the bloodletting never ends. Director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland reunite for a sporadically grisly third chapter of the horror franchise, which arrives late to the gore-laden party and struggles to justify its belated RSVP…

Toothless and bloodless for extended periods, 28 Years Later is bookended by unfortunate sequences devoted to the same peripheral character, who will evidently play a larger role in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,here already in production with Nia DaCosta at the helm. The unevenly paced rites-of-passage drama that provides Garland’s script with its episodic structure has undoubtedly high points, particularly a protracted interlude with Ralph Fiennes’s survivalist GP that beautifully details the compassion and understanding that can bloom when all hope seems lost. Fourteen-year-old newcomer Alfie Williams confidently shoulders the weight of emotionally heavy scenes and he snaffles the biggest laugh at the expense of Young Royals star Edvin Ryding in a meaty supporting role that provides a fleeting reminder of vacuous consumerist life outside the quarantine zone.

Almost three decades have passed since the Rage Virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory and infected the UK. Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), wife Isla (Jodie Comer) and their 12-year-old son Spike (Williams) live on Holy Island off the north east coast of England. The insular community is connected to the mainland by a heavily-defended causeway, which can only be accessed at low tide.

Spike prepares for his first hunting expedition on the mainland with his father. The pair have four hours until high tide, plenty of time to practise killing the infected with a skilfully placed arrow through the heart or brain. Alas, Spike becomes embroiled in a gruelling battle for survival far from home that requires him to place his trust in the hands of a deranged medic (Fiennes), a Swedish soldier (Ryding) and a charismatic cult leader (Jack O’Connell).

28 Years Later boasts hordes of naked infected predators chasing after human prey and more than one freshly torn head with a spine cord but skin-prickling scares are disappointing moderate. One death sequence is blatantly telegraphed to the point that the character stands motionless for an extended period by a convenient opening, awaiting their grim fate. Tender scenes without a zombie in sight are the most compelling. Undead or alive.

– Jo Planter