‘Jesus Christ. Can this get any more f..ked up?’’ You bet it can

Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later – a follow up to 28 Days Later – veers into Apocalypse Now territory with evolved Alpha zombies literally ripping people’s heads off.

Spike (Alfie Williams), Isla (Jodie Comer) and Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) in 28 Years Later

28 Years Later (MA15+)

115 minutes
In cinemas
★★★★

A zombie and a non-zombie meet in the woods. Who should live and who should die? In a million zombie movies there’s only one answer to that question. Less so in 28 Years Later, the third instalment in a post-pandemic thriller series that has a cult following.

Director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland said this film would be different to its predecessors, 28 Days Later (2002) and 28 Weeks Later (2007). They deliver on that promise in a big way. What we see reflects the past and the present. Given what is going on in the Middle East right now, it is prescient.

It’s also weird and crazy and funny in a good way. The final scene has to be seen to be believed, and even then you may not believe it. As I watched, the first person who came to mind was the 1970-80s American fitness guru Richard Simmons. In the first film, starring Cillian Murphy, a virus escapes from an animal experimentation laboratory in England. It infects people with rage. By the second film, England is in quarantine and NATO troops patrol its coastline.

Almost three decades later, the opening setting is an island off the mainland. The main characters are 12-year-old Spike (an impressive Alfie Williams), his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and mother Isla (Jodie Comer). They live in a fortified community.

Jamie takes his son onto the mainland to perform his “first kill” of an infected person. “The more you kill, the easier it gets.” The infected are referred to as “things” and “it”.

Father and son, armed with bows and arrows, soon encounter the “things”. What happens, however, asks the question that runs through the film. It’s clear the “things” are a family. Two adults and two children. Later this is taken further when an infected woman goes into labour. Should the newborn child be killed?

Director Danny Boyle poses for photographers upon arrival to the photo call for 28 Years Later in London. Picture: AP

It’s also revealed that some of the infected are fast, strong and smart. It’s been 28 years. Species develop. When one such “Alpha” chases Spike and his dad along a causeway that allows access to the mainland at low tide, it is spectacular. It’s reminiscent of the deserted London scene in the first film.

Two other characters become important. A Swedish NATO soldier (Swedish actor Edvin Ryding) and a doctor who lives on the mainland (Ralph Fiennes). They take the story into Apocalypse Now territory. “Jesus Christ. Can this get any more f..ked up?’’ the soldier asks. The answer is: You bet it can.

Zombie movie fans need not worry. There is an ocean of blood and gore, with the Alphas literally ripping people’s heads off. The fascinating and timely question is: Are they within their rights to do so? Are they entitled to act in self-defence?

This is a terrific film that will scare you, make you laugh and make you think. The filmmakers have said it’s the first in a three-part series. Given what they have done with this opening instalment, the mind boggles to think what will come next.