28 Years Later Parent Guide

While Great Britain has nearly been destroyed by the Rage virus, the rest of the world managed to stem the tide of the undead and has quarantined the entire island.

Spike (Alfie Williams) has never known another world. He grew up on secluded Lindisfarne Island, and now that he’s twelve he’s taking his first trip to the mainland where the undead prowl between isolated villages of survivors, some of whom are even more dangerous than the zombies. With the help of his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Spike makes it back to the island alive, and with a new appreciation for the dangers of the world outside his home.

But his mother Isla (Jodie Comer) is sick and there are rumors of a mad old doctor wandering the mainland. Since there is no hope of medical care on Lindisfarne, Spike sets out, sick mother in tow, to find the only man in the world he thinks might be able to help.

When this movie is good, it’s good. Heartfelt performances, unusual perspectives, and clever visuals define the successful elements of the film, but they are not the only elements of the film. For every example of an interesting, creative shot, there are three confusing and awkwardly placed ones, and the plot seems a little unclear on which story it wants to focus on – an issue unfortunately clarified by the sequel already in the works. I liked this film more when I thought it was a nicely contained little story.

I haven’t seen many movies with this kind of structure. It’s loosely a three-act film, but early on it has a tendency to feel more like an extended trailer. The filmmakers keep throwing old film and newsreel footage into the mix, and while the connections they intend to make are obvious, these clips feel jarring.

On the other hand, 28 Years Later is one of the more visceral zombie flicks I’ve seen. Most of the undead stagger around in the buff – the virus doesn’t melt your clothes off, but it might as well – bleeding, oozing, and chewing haphazardly until somebody comes along and re-kills them. This movie is the last thing I’d recommend you watch while eating, unless you find your appetite whetted by constant scenes of necrotic rotting flesh. Unsurprisingly, this production is completely unsuited to family audiences, or anyone with a weak stomach. Constant, albeit non-sexual, nudity and gruesome violence are the issues du jour, but there’s also a whole lot of swearing and some brief adulterous sex, just for variety.

The cultural obsession with the undead, which saw the huge success of the first two installments in the franchise, has waned substantially in the interceding 20 years, and I don’t know that this is the film to bring it back. While 28 Years Later clearly has the capacity to tell a compelling and relatively grounded story about life on the planet of the undead, it struggles with consistently doing so. And don’t even get me started on the sequel-baiting ending. The dead may rise, but I don’t know that these movies are going to rise with them.

About author

Keith Hawkes

Keith Hawkes graduated from Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada with a degree in English and History. His interests are movies, American literature, science fiction, almost every kind of music, and museums. He enjoys criticizing films for fun - although he's okay with being paid for it.