“28 Years Later” might be a sequel to “28 Days Later” and “28 Weeks Later.” However, while keeping a 30-year zombie movie narrative alive, which several other directors have since attempted to emulate (think “The Walking Dead”), Danny Boyle has just made every zombie copycat universe that has emulated him since 2002 look as tame as your average pussycat.
At the same time… Jesus Christ, what a beautiful movie.
I had no idea what to expect with “28 Years Later.” I was a massive fan of “28 Days Later,” but “28 Weeks Later” felt like I was watching out of curiosity. The initial scenes directed by Boyle are fantastic; the rest… not so much.
Then there I was, having completely forgotten about the film franchise, and suddenly trailers for “28 Years Later” were hitting me from everywhere. I’ll also admit it: I was reluctant to watch this movie. The trailers showed an isolated hub of humans on an island just off the coast of the UK.
Fine, okay, do that, I thought. But I’ve seen the isolated community in a zombie world done to death over and over in “The Walking Dead” since 2010. What’s actually new about this?
As it turns out, everything is new about this. I could almost feel it as I paid for a second viewing to watch “28 Years Later” again.
Danny Boyle hasn’t just made a sequel. He’s made it while saying, “This genre is mine; now try and do better if you dare.”
I don’t believe in spoilers, so I won’t give you any. All I will say is that “28 Years Later” is so layered, so well-cast, so terrifying, and so not what you expect, that it is ingeniously terrifying, beautiful, and persistently troubling all at the same time.