Zombies or infected attacking people have been terrifying in cinema since 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. From 1979’s Dawn of the Dead to HBO adapting an iconic video game with The Last of Us, we’ve seen different variations mindless rage fueled infected.

In 2002, Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland gave us 28 Days Later – a horror film that answered a simple question, “What if the infected were fast?” Films about incurable viruses and zombies were never the same.

Boyle and Garland have teamed up again to continue their terrifying tale with 28 Years Later. The story takes place 28 years aft ether rage virus events in 28 Days Later. Since then, the rest of the world has moved on but there is a section of Great Britain that is quarantined and still dealing with the impacts of the rage virus.  A community of survivors lives on an island that’s separated from the mainland. The mainland is heavily infected and also has groups of survivors that are willing to do whatever to survive.

Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is preparing his son Spike (Alfie Williams) for a sort of rites of passage where he goes to the mainland for the first time and learns how to kill infected. On their trip, they encounter different types of infected and they narrowly escape a group before they make their way back to the island. While on the island, Spike sees a raging fire in the distance and learns about a doctor who lives on the mainland. Spike, being a naïve 12 year old, decides to sneak off the island with his sick mother Isla (Jodie Comer) to find the doctor so he can cure her.

Isla and Spike navigate the mainland and all its dangers to find the doctor.

Every film in this franchise has an intense opening and this one does not disappoint. It opens with a family being attacked when the rage virus started spreading in 2002. We follow a young boy has he makes his way through his home as its being ravaged by infected. It’s an intense way to open the film and the reason people enjoy the franchise

28 Years Later is an intimate story about a son trying to find a cure for his mother’s illness. It’s a small story that fits within a bigger world that’s hinted at. The world Spike lives in with infected, a safe community on the island, and a dangerous mainland is all he knows. Because of the quarantine, his world is stuck in the events of 2002. However, the rest of the world has moved on. When Spike and his mom run into a shipwrecked Swedish soldier, we learn the rest of the world is as we know it in 2025.

Spike’s coming of age journey is a fun one to tag along with but we’ve seen different versions of this before. The free world juxtaposed with the quarantined section of Britain makes for a more interesting story that could add some new energy to this franchise. The film also shows there are different factions of people living on the mainland. We’re briefly introduced to a character played by Sinner’s Jack O’Connell. He plays a character that’s so outrageous; he leaves the audiences with more questions than answers. Any group that’s survived on the mainland for this long can’t be all good.  I would’ve appreciated more time learning about the mainland than following a 12 year old kid making 12 year old decisions in a wildly dangerous world.

What 28 Years Later does provide is a nice dose of kills and trills. Danny Boyle directs the film with very intimate shots that make audiences feel like they’re in the movie. Every vicious attack, ear piercing infected scream, and every narrow escape feels like it’s happening right in your face. Boyle’s ability to immerse the audience in this nightmare is what makes his films good.  The design of the infected with the blood red eyes and violent rage is still terrifying decades later. How fast they are and how quick people turn will still give people chills.

The best part of the film is when the Swedish naval team is running for their lives to scene when Isla, Spike, and Eric (Edvin Ryding) make a draw dropping discovery. When the film gets the final 30 minutes, we’re introduced to Ralph Fiennes and the film turns into a coming of age tale. It’s a tonal shift that won’t work for some and feels completely unnecessary. It makes more sense at the very end when you realize this is the first part of a larger story they want to tell.

Jodie Comer is very good as Isla. She gives such a good performance, we’re going to add her name to the list of actors that should win awards but won’t because their in a horror film. She gives a powerful emotional scene at the end injects the film with love and grace we rarely see in horror films. We’re going to save Jodie a seat at the table next to Toni Collette and sit her right between Lupita Nyong’o and Florence Pugh.

One of the main criticisms of the film is that it feels incomplete. A lot of questions are asked that are never answered. It’s like the ending of The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of Ring, it has a cool ending but story isn’t finished.

For fans of the first to films, 28 Years Later will be a great time. It lacks the intensity and newness of the first film. It doesn’t have the big scale action sequences of the second film. What it does have is the intimate storytelling that makes the franchise so good. All three films are personal family stories. The franchise doesn’t follow heroes or people with a cure; it follows everyday working people that are trying to survive a nightmare. If Boyle and Garland keep making these types of films, people will keep watching, even if they have to watch between their fingers.

Grade: B