Mikes Film Talk

Director Danny Boyle, from Alex Garland‘s script, gives us the 2025 horror sequel 28 Years Later. An iconic horror film on an island. Well, two islands to be exact. The isle of survivors and the mainland. The infected have been around for 28 years and the small island is ever vigilant.

28 Years Later Story

The Rage virus lives on. Great Britain is in permanent isolation from the rest of the world. A small island survives the virus but travels to the mainland regularly. A lad and his father go there for a rite of passage. The boy goes back, with his mother, to find a cure for her malady.

The Cast

Jodie Comer is Isla.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is Jamie.

Ralph Fiennes is Dr Kelson.

Rocco Haynes is Young Jimmy.

Alfie Williams is Spike.

Jack O’Connell is Sir Jimmy Crystal.

Let’s Talk 28 Years Later

Boyle and Garland take us back to the world of the Rage virus. In this long awaited sequel, the virus has mutated, but that is not all. “People are strange on the mainland,” Jamie says to Spike. International seamen patrol the shores of both land masses. The quarantine holds fast, even 28 years after the initial wave of infection.

28 Years Later is an almost nostalgic look at an earlier Britain. At the start, young Jimmy and his cousins are watching Teletubbies. It is clearly a video as the quality is scratchy and faulty. Later in the film there are clear nods to the late Jimmy Savile; pedophile, and Power Rangers. All of these, Top of the Pops, Jim’ll Fix It and the rest would have been taped off the telly.

There are flashbacks to the great war, bowmen and a military chant. These all hark back to the days when the “sun never set on the British Empire.”

The move from the cities to the countryside is a clear nod to the original film. Rather interestingly, the survivors on Holy Island (A real place.) have devolved. They are not too dissimilar to the survivors in Doomsday, a Neil Marshall film about another virus. In other words, they’ve had to “step back in time.”

It Works

One thing that Boyle and Garland have not lost is that touch of truth. Rage zombies aside, all the characters feel as real as you or I. Jaime is the island’s version of an Alpha male. Isla is the mum we all remember, when she’s not having an episode. All the villagers also feel pretty much spot on.

Kelson is a fascinating character who clearly lost his way but refuses to kill the infected. Sir Jimmy Crystal and his cousins are the only surreal aspect of the non infected. The tracksuits, the bling, the long wispy blonde white hair, all creepy imitations of the real Savile.

The tension here is palpable. When Jamie and Spike race to the island over the causeway it is almost painful to watch. The Alpha infected chasing them across is almost too much to bear.

Cast is King/Queen

All the actors knock this one out of the proverbial park. Fiennes is on form here as is Comer. Taylor-Johnson does what he does best, inhabits his character from top to toe. Kudos to young Williams as Spike. Keep an eye on this young actor, he will go far.

Kudos to Jack O’Connell as Sir Jimmy. A role that amounts to a glorious cameo. O’Connell seems to be in everything at the moment and rightly so.

The Verdict

Despite getting mixed reviews on opening, 28 Years Later earns a solid 5 stars from me. Everything works here. The music, the story and the VFX/SFX, all CGI, works. This one was worth the wait. It is streaming on Netflix right now. Check it out and see what you think.

The Trailer