I’ve always been a bit of a zombie officiando with lots of books of the genre adorning my shelves and a lot of DVD’s (yes, they still exist) in my cabinet.  But I was unaware of the 28 Days Later franchise.

So when by mate Matt asked to go see 28 Years Later at the cinema, it required me to go back and watch the first two movies.  While they were interesting enough, neither really wowed me and I found them both to be dragging and quite predicable by the end.

Thankfully 28 Years Later is by far the strongest and most compelling of the 3 movies, and while one will get more out of it by seeing its two predecessors, it stands quite well as a movie on its own.

 

The Lore

In the first movie it was established there was a Rage Virus, which shut down peoples higher brain functions, turned their eyes red and made them viscious psychopaths.  While not going around and eating people like traditional zombies, it made those infected extremely violent and desperate to bite anyone not infected, thereby spreading the virus. Those bitten have about 10 to 15 seconds before the virus takes them over too and they become one of the snarling violent horde.

In the first movie the virus quickly spread throughout London and then all of the UK.  In the second movie – 28 Weeks Later – all those infected have starved to death and locked off parts of London have started to be repopulated, that is until the virus rears its ugly head, resulting in carpet bombing runs by the US Military.  Apparently there was to be a 28 Months later movie too, but it never saw the light of day.

 

The Plot

28 Years Later, directed by Danny Boyle,  takes place oddly enough 28 years later.  The UK is now completely quarantiened from the rest of the world, their coast patrolled by international naval forces.  The mainland is prowled by various infected humans, though they seem to be seperating into different subspecies.  All traces of humanity from them have long gone, so none are walking around in ripped clothing.  Unlike the previous movies, they have learned to feed themselves, feasting on anything from worms to deer and anything they can catch.  Their instincts remain to hunt and infect any human that remains clean.

Enter our young lad and hero Spike.  Spike lives on a small island, a tidal community which is only accessible from the mainland at low tide by a single bridge, which is heavily fortified at the islands end.  He lives with his father Jamie, a scavenger by trade, and his mother Ilsa who is suffereing a delibetating sickness that is steadily eroding both her body and mind.

The movie really could be said to be in two parts.  The first part is Spike’s father taking him to the mainland for a ritualistic hunt where they kill the infected with bows and arrows.  That’s right, there is no hand-to-hand fighting or any guns in this flick, just arrows and that paradigm actually works in the movies favour.  Whilst on their hunt we are introduced to a number of different zombie hate virus subsets of humanity, such as bloated ones that crawl and feed on worms, and the dreaded Alpha’s who are huge, strong, resistant to damage and can rip a mans head off with his spine still attached.  As one would expect, the hunting trip goes awry and the father and son barely escapte back to the island with their lives.

After a scene where Spike discovers that his father is having an affair behind Ilsa’s back, the movie heads off in a different direction.  The father-son dynamic of the first half is replaced by the mother-son dynamic for the second.  Spike has heard there is a doctor living on the mainland and is determined to take his mother there, so sneaks her off the island, trying to find said doctor.  And of course this doesn’t go smoothly either, with the two nearly getting killed several times.

 

The Examination

What sets this movie apart is it perhaps the most character driven post-apocalyptic movie I have personally seen to date.  Spike is a strong yet vulnerable character that the viewer cant help but both admire and pity.  Despite the movie essentially being two halves, there is no disjoint between the two and the transition flows smoothly.  The movie is well paced, with enough happening that the viewer never gets bored, yet is not the usual  amecian-styled movie that is full of constant unrelenting action and characters fighting for their lives, thereby letting the audience get to know Spike and empathising with his lot in life.  Each character in the film is believable and well rounded, with there being no shining knights or evil villians, just flawed people trying to do the best they can in a world where death is just one bite away.

 

The Verdict

For anyone that has seen the first two movies, this movie is better, a lot better.  For anyone that hasn’t seen the first two, it wont take you long to pick up what is happening and 28 Years Later can stand alone as a self-contained film that you will enjoy.  Unless of course you want to see tons of gore, zombies climbing vertical walls and people firing rocket launchers – you will have to look to a hundred other movies for that.

So yes, I highly recommend 28 Years Later.  I look forward to seeing it’s sequal, 28 Years Later: The Bone Yard, when it comes out next year.

28 Years Later gets 4 ½ out of 5 headshots with an arrow.