“Time didn’t heal anything.
Twenty-eight years after the Rage virus outbreak, a heavily-defended island survives connected to the mainland by a single causeway. When one of the group leaves the island into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.” – Letterboxd Synopsis
Although I am in the position of watching all of these movies consecutively, knowing almost nothing about this franchise coming in, I still found myself not really knowing what to expect from a sequel released almost 20 years after the previous film. Would it still feel the same? Is it a reboot or a continuation? Will it even be good? I found myself even more pleasantly surprised than when the credits rolled for 28 Years Later. This is the first time I have ever used the word beautiful to describe a piece of zombie media. But this is seriously a beautiful film from the top down that maintains the identity of the franchise while finally telling a wonderful story not only about family, but about loss and acceptance. And I loved every second of it.
28 years after the breakout, the UK and its surrounding areas have just been completely abandoned and quarantined off from the rest of the world. Leaving the people inside to fend for themselves. Which is a very predictable but bleak outcome, seeing how the last movie ended. And just thinking about Weeks at all, because they literally had it pretty damn contained and were probably on the verge of ridding the world of it. But now it has evolved, and the people inside the zone have adapted to this life, and with it being so long after the outbreak, there is an entire generation born after everything. Which is always interesting.
This movie is very family focused. The dynamics between Spike, his father Jamie, and his mother Isla. It is a story about a child coming of age and into his own, overcoming fear, understanding adult dynamics, and truly understanding life and death. As he travels for the first time beyond their village with his father on his rite (even though he’s still 4 years younger than the usual age), and then, after as he goes beyond the village again with his ailing mother to find her some help. The performance of Jamie’s character carries this movie in a way that deserves so much acclaim. And his story and struggles really resonated with me.
I thoroughly enjoyed every character in this movie. Even some of the zombies got character moments. Everyone is just trying to live this situation as best as possible. That involves various ways of coping, festivals, celebrations, and traditions. Spike is the glue and the strongest character in this movie. We see him grow up very fast. From dealing with his first time beyond the village to dealing with his family issues. In real life, death is something that we unfortunately have to learn about at any given time. It can always happen. New life is something we learn about typically in our adult years, and god forbid any of us ever have to learn about killing. But Spike has to face and internalize all of these things in a very short span of time, and he goes through every emotion that you can imagine someone, especially a child, would. Another beautiful thing about this film is that he doesn’t do it alone. Everyone, in their own way, helps guide him through these things and these emotions. As you should with a child. I really, really love Spike’s character, and Alfie’s performance is award worthy.
Not to mention the other performances. Jamie is this perfectly broken man who does care but is coping in his own way. Isla is unpredictable and sad in a way that I think anyone who has ever dealt with an ailing parent can relate to. And Dr. Kelson is beautifully psychotic, and his viewpoint on life and death and his breakdown of it, is the highlight of the story.
By the end of this movie, I came around to how beautiful the story and writing were and really appreciated it. Very early on, though, I reserved that word for the visuals. The previous two movies had their moments that looked good. This movie is just stunning. There isn’t a frame that doesn’t look amazing, and there are so many scenes where my jaw dropped. I was actually stunned by just how good it looked. And even though that one song from the previous two movies wasn’t in this one, the score is on par with the visuals. I was actually a bit worried because early on there were the quick cuts that I’m not fond of. But man, they do some cool panning shots and other things with the action that made me all about that at first. Strictly from a visual standpoint, this is one of my favorite movies ever.
So yeah, 28 Years Later is a phenomenal film. I really liked it, and by the end, I loved it. I found this movie to be beautiful from top to bottom. Writing, characters, visuals, performances. Not knowing what to expect from a sequel released almost 20 years after the first entry, this movie stands above its predecessors and even other films in its genre.
28 Years Later – 10/10
