Tripwire Reviews 28 Years Later

Apocalypse Why?

Tripwire’s senior editor Andrew Colman with Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows takes a look at Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later second sequel, 28 Years Later, in cinemas now…

28 Years Later
Director: Danny Boyle
Stars: Alfie Williams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes

It’s been 23 years since 28 Days Later and 18 years since 28 Weeks Later. Danny Boyle has returned to direct the second sequel in the zombie franchise that no one was really clamouring for.

A twelve year old boy (Williams) on a remote, quarantined Scottish island in the dystopian future goes with his dad (Taylor-Johnson) to the mainland to test his mettle against the zombie hoards. They manage to return, but during the journey the boy learns of a doctor on the mainland who might be able to help his ill mother. He falls out with his dad and takes his mum to find the doctor, who is played by Ralph Fiennes.

We’ve never seen Cannibal Holocaust or A Serbian Film but we can’t imagine that films in that genre could out-gross this unspeakably violent homage to the joys of evisceration. It practically fetishises every aspect of the near death / dying / death experience in such a revolting and graphic manner that even we, (who could happily watch the scene in the Sopranos where Fat Dom Gamiello gets brutally whacked over and over again) had to look away at this festival of gut-churning dehumanisation. What’s odd is how English the whole thing is, with Fiennes’s insane character exhibiting sympathy with the dismembering machines. No matter how hard the filmmakers frame it, his abode is a monument not just to death but degradation and does not sufficiently provide a theme for the movie. The film borrows a tiny bit from The Wicker Man and Mad Max 2, but not enough to engage, nor to create context or drama, unless endless jump scares are your bag.

Not so much horror as gratuitously horrific. And as for the final sub Tarantino scene, it’s in incredibly poor taste, even if it’s meant to be funny or ironic. Non-Brits probably won’t get the joke, so if you know, you know, as they say. 28 Years Later is not an exploitation movie like the two which we haven’t seen but effectively it does come across as one. Boyle is a director who has created notable works during his career, like 28 Days Later and Trainspotting, but it is hard to tell what he was attempting to do here. We put that down to the cynical need of a reheated franchise that has more than adequately dealt with those themes opting for gratuitous gore to grab audience attention. Too many scenes in the movie bordered on parody, and there wasn’t enough time for characterisation as the only constant / survivor was the twelve year old lead (the actor is fourteen) who didn’t really have the breadth or chops to become the focal point of the drama, or carry the film. The last scene was more or less the filmmakers admitting  that the series is a spent force. Incredibly a follow-up has already been shot: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta and written again by Alex Garland and out next year.

28 Years Later is a truly nasty and meandering film with no redemptive arc for any of its characters and it is sad to see a director who has made some worthwhile efforts frittering away his talent on such an empty exercise.

28 Years Later is in cinemas now.

ANDREW COLMAN WITH JOEL MEADOWS