Review: 28 years later from Boyle, reinvents the zombie genre (still)
by Alex Billington
June 18, 2025
“There are a lot of types of death … and some are better than others.” 💀 This is what happens when you get Danny Boyle & Alex Garland Back together! They will make more crazy genius films that push the limits of horror cinema and will reinvent whole genres! Gathered after 18 years (they did the last time Sun Together in 2007), director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland are ready to go wild 28 years later on the world. This Legacy suite is a series of their classic from the independent film of Zombie Indie 28 days laterAsking where things are about 28 years old after the rabies virus destroyed the United Kingdom and how people and zombies have changed since then. I’m just going to say – it’s the best of 28 movies. Yes it’s even better than 28 days laterand a much better suite than 28 weeks later. What I was not ready is how Boyle reinvents the zombie genre once again by trying new ideas. They even finally abandon the “zombie” in dialogue at a given moment, because this unable rage virus transformed humans entirely entirely.
In many ways, 28 years later is a tribute to the original 28 days later – pay tribute to all the distinct aspects of this film and follow the same narrative structure, as well as an entirely new creation with unique ideas that he explores. 28 years later throws us directly into the thickness of things, just like the two previous films before. There is a handful of “random and very strange WTF is it?!” Horror scenes and monsters they meet, a lot without clear explanation, because you are supposed to try to understand everything on the fly. Written again by Alex Garland, and made again by Danny Boyle, their synergy is out of the charts this time. Not only do they have so much to say about the way things have changed in 28 years (certainly for the worst), but they also desperately want to have a new life in the zombie genre. And they certainly did it. Boyle uses a fascinating cinematography gadget in ball time for all zombies, mainly used when killed and blood splashes in several cameras while we fly around the head disparaged with the zombie. Then there are the choices of sinister assembly, which are intelligent and bizarre, which fortunately remain away from becoming tripping or confusing. And finally the concept of zombies and how they work and what they are looking for – all this is also brand new. George Romero would be proud of what Boyle and Garland proposed.
There is a story to follow and a main character – a 12 -year -old boy named Spike, played brilliantly by Alfie Williams. He lives on an isolated island off the coast of the United Kingdom inside a town of survivors. His father is Jamie, played by Aaron Taylor-JohnsonAnd things will start when Jamie decides to release Spike for his “rite of passage” – a trip to the continent to hunt with an arc and arrows. Not only is it to teach him survival and what it takes to maintain this little civilization of people on this island, but it is also his chance to have his first true experience with zombies. Spike must learn more; Learn to spot them, escape them, kill them (only with arrows because that is literally everything they have), avoid them and / or everything you need to stay alive. What I really like about this 28 years later The rest is that he boldly presents a “What If” scenario to us according to the rage virus through time. 28 weeks later I also tried to do so by establishing the scenario around people who return to the United Kingdom after the zombies are all supposed to be dead from famine. This time, Garland takes over (and the boy did not care 28 weeks) and places us in a distant moment when humanity has evolved alongside zombies. It is a version of the way things are changing.
The zombies of the rabies virus are certainly still there, but there are different types now – large and large slows that crawl along the ground. And super frightening “alpha” zombies that lead the rapid zombie tribes – and cannot be killed very easily, regardless of the number of arrows they take. All this is fascinating because it makes you ask you how they came to this point, and why? Is there a strange biological explanation of this disturbing development? Or is the inventiveness of the kind of pure horror? (Or maybe a bit of both?) Each of the meetings that Jamie and / or Spike have with the zombies of the rage virus, whenever they meet something that is different. Boyle & Garland know this kind very well now, and they don’t want to run the wheels, they want this new film to be as fresh and as interesting as the original. My favorite sequence is a section on an abandoned train. However, at the heart, if all this is the emotional relationship between Spike and his family. His mother Isla, played with full-on Madness by Jodie ComerFinally becomes a part of the plot too. Spike wants to find help for his illness, so he sneaks it in the continent in the hope of meeting a mysterious and mythical doctor. This doctor is played by the only one and only Ralph FiennesBut he is no longer the kind of doctor we know. Meeting him is just as fascinating as meeting a zombie – I can’t wait for everyone to see the film so that we can all dig in his character even more …
All these fucking movies thrilled me. I had great hopes, but it went far beyond my expectations. Get in to watch 28 years laterI was well prepared after having seen the other two films a few days before (they are not favorites, but they are both solid zombie films for various reasons). Not only is 28 years old More beautiful, more visceral, more vicious and disgusting, it is more entertaining overall. The ball zombie kills Gogo, as well as violence and gore appropriately. With an incredible soundtrack (Boyle of course arguing songs perfect to use throughout And A formidable score), an incredible cinematography and an “and really” scenario. This is what horror suites should be. This is how you think back an entire sub-genre. Dp Anthony Dod Mantle Make this zombie film, shot on iPhones (!!), seems better than almost any other zombie film before. Scottish hip-hop group Young fathers Provides a completely nasty score, which improves tension and emotion. All breathtaking jaws and FX and VFX zombies are transparent and shocking and intestinal. There is another “WTF?!” aspect of this one which must be discussed. In this evolution of zombies, they no longer wear clothes (Why would they do it?). All run around Buck Nus – hundreds of them. It’s crazy! Brilliant, but totally crazy (without puns).
Once it ended, configure the rest 28 years later: the bone temple (It is directed by Nia Dacosta, a consecutive shot, which launched in January 2026), there is still a lot to consider. The kind of horror has always acted as a social commentary; It’s not just Gore & Violence and that’s it. One could say that what is represented in 28 years later is a reference to the way in which humanity has evolved (more specifically – discolored) in the past 23 years since the original 28 days. As if Garland said that some rotten people have taken place diabolically during these decades, becoming more and more odious, and unfortunately even more unstoppablereaching the point where we are today. Both 28 days And 28 weeks Try to say that zombies of the rage virus cannot live forever, they will turn off at some point. 28 years old Said Nah – They will be there anything, becoming stronger … And then there are other problems with which we have to face, other factions and crazy and crazy and everything else. Everything is so scary. And This This is why I like that Garland and Boyle finally recovered together and made an impressive nasty sequel that blows the original when it comes out of the water.
Alex’s note: 9 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @Firsthowing / Or letterboxd – @firsshowing
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