Writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle waited 23 years to bring us this third instalment to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.
Does this mean you need to see the other two flicks before seeing 28 Years Later? No.
Prior knowledge of the franchise isn’t necessary; this film stands alone.
An origin story isn’t needed when the world created is fully fleshed out, even when the flesh is fully in decay.
Boyle and Garland never suggested their flesh-tearing creatures of no mind no soul were zombies, despite triggering TV’s The Walking Dead and The Last of Us wherein slow movers are definitely called zombies.
The 28 Days/Weeks/Years biters have always been referred to as the infected, products of the rage virus.
Teletubbies open the film.
I wondered if I’d stumbled into the wrong picture; that is until a bloodletting rage raid upon the children TV viewers.
A youngster named Jimmy survives.
Jump cuts throughout create tension. The soundtrack is unnerving and can lead to anxiety.
There are moments which make viewers twitch or tighten stomach muscles, such is the effectiveness of marrying picture with unexpected, unusual sound.
Almost three decades ago the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory.
In merciless quarantine, some have managed to exist amid the infected.
One group lives on small Holy Island connected to the mainland, Great Britain, by one heavily-defended causeway.
At low tide Holy Islanders may cross to the mainland; high tide means no swimming as the current will carry one past the island and out to sea to drown.
The family of mother Isla (Jody Comer), father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and son Spike (Alfie Williams) live on Holy Island.
Isla isn’t in the best of health.
Father is a hunter and, at 12, it’s time for Spike to experience his rite of passage.
Father and son use the causeway to the mainland to hunt, purpose for Spike to use bow and arrow to kill the infected, be they overweight crawlers eating earthworms or the attacking hordes running at them.
The whole of Holy Island’s village is behind Spike’s success, his passage to manhood, and a grand party is planned.
With mother unwell, Spike observes his father’s adultery and tells him, “Get out. Leave the family.”
At the core of the film is a story of a fractured family, the attempt to reunite it or replace it, a painful severance to requisite growth.
It’s about betrayal and faith, the need to believe in a better future even when, with the rage virus, it appears impossible.
Perhaps a second rite of passage for Spike is even more strenuous.
There is Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) on the mainland. Everyone considers him gone mad. Spike and Isla use the causeway, Spike hoping the doctor can cure his mother’s illness.
Unexpected adventure ensues, including meeting Erik from Sweden (Edvin Ryding) who provides a needed touch of humour.
Although big names head the cast, it is the boy’s film. Alfie Williams runs the alphabet of the gamut of emotions.
The first half of the film is far better than the second half which drifts into human melodrama.
Questionable decisions are made which don’t help the film’s validity and a quirky ending made me scratch my head.
It was interesting to read in the end credits that Cillian Murphy, Academy Award Best Actor for Oppenheimer, was executive producer.
Fans will love 28 Years Later, others not so much.
