Almost two decades since the release of the previous installment in its franchise, 28 Years Later arrives in theaters this weekend, and the first reviews are in. Following 2002’s 28 Days Later and 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, this horror sequel welcomes back the original’s writer Alex Garland, director Danny Boyle, and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle for a new story about secluded survivors of the apocalyptic rage virus. It is more moving than scary, but it’s again as visually inventive as expected and features a standout performance from its young lead.
Here’s what critics are saying about 28 Years Later:
Danny Boyle’s best film is 2002’s edgy, grimy, frenzied zombie shocker 28 Days Later… Or it was, because 28 Years Later – wilder, weirder, darker, bloodier – is even better.
Expectations were already high for 28 Years Later… and the film shatters them.
28 Years Later is, put simply, one of the best movies of the year.
The technology may have advanced, but Boyle’s punk-rock spirit is unchanged.
It’s desperately averse to being another straightforward 28 [Insert Time Duration] sequel, yet is missing the rabid intensity witnessed prior.
Some people will probably be annoyed that 28 Years has introduced different types of zombies, but these aren’t zombies; these are sick people.
(Photo by Miya Mizuno/©Columbia Pictures)
One of the chief rewards of 28 Years Later is that it never feels like a cynical attempt to revisit proven material merely for commercial reasons.
In some ways, 28 Years Later doesn’t feel like a 28 Days Later movie after the first act. Perhaps that’s the intention moving into this planned trilogy.
28 Years Later easily cements itself as one of the greatest legacy sequels ever made.
28 Years Later subverts expectations in many ways… Boyle and Garland still have plenty of fresh inspiration for pulse-pounding terror.
Garland’s script seems hellbent on subverting many obvious choices.
Typically, we look to adrenaline-fueled entertainment for catharsis. Boyle’s thrilling reboot offers enlightenment as well.
The script frustratingly breaks its rules when it comes to the infected this go around.
(Photo by Miya Mizuno/©Columbia Pictures)
Boyle and Garland push the gore and violence further, leading to fascinating developments.
In addition to a few well-placed jumpscares, Danny Boyle and editor Jon Harris keep a tangible sense of dread alive throughout the film, and thanks to Boyle’s mosaic direction, the viewer can never guess what gruesome image could be possibly coming next.
What Boyle does with this story, Garland’s setting being in the Scottish Highlands, is make the landscape so captivating that when the darker parts seep in, you’re shocked by what you’re watching.
Opportunities to elicit jump scares arrive in full force, as this is a horror movie designed to rouse the audience.
In terms of being a horror movie, it’s a bit more up in the air whether or not 28 Years Later really accomplishes that… In terms of scares, it’s a couple of jump scares and some chases.
In the classical sense, this doesn’t feel like a horror movie, but more of a coming-of-age story set during a time that just so happens to include a bunch of infected people who are out of their minds when they’re sick.
Its greatest strength is a more emotional story that runs throughout, emphasizing an introspective commentary that brings depth to the world and the characters.
I didn’t cry while watching Days and the subsequent 28 Weeks Later films. Yet with Years, I found myself moved by the story.
There are still frantic chase sequences and plenty of bursting water-balloon-like wounds every time arrowheads puncture targets, but Boyle’s vastly more interested in the value of life and death in all earthly creatures, healthy or raged-up.
This riveting blend of horror and heart reminds that death, horror’s favorite equalizer, can be as beautiful as it can be cruel.
Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle captures beauty in the face of ugly terrors with a tender touch.
The movie’s visual textures are intoxicating.
Nothing about the film’s look — from unnerving, avant-garde inserts of medieval soldiers to infrared flashes of the oft-misunderstood infected — could be described as conventional.
The aforementioned rigs (which line up several dozen iPhones) create a disorienting sensation during bursts of intense action. Anytime arrows pierce an Infected’s skin, the frame slides between these various lenses, in what feels a modern descendant to “bullet time” in The Matrix.
Sometimes… decisions come across as stylized merely for the sake of being so, but there’s no denying the unique methodology being attempted.
28 Years Later is an abundantly visual-forward movie that shows rather than tells, but these fast-paced music video interludes distract from the actual storytelling.
Editor Jon Harris adds another edge, unpredictably jumping axis and splicing in non-diegetic elements in total defiance of traditional visual logic.
Boyle and editor Jon Harris flex their muscles, expressing a frenetic, bullet time-esque cinematic language during the kill sequences, pushing the boundaries of iPhones and infrared cameras.
Rapid editing, layering of images on top of each other, the insertion of old movie clips and film stock, as well as some fancy camera rig-based tricks, lend the sort of propulsion one expects from a horror movie made by the director of Trainspotting.
(Photo by Miya Mizuno/©Columbia Pictures)
While the cast across the board is solid, and Taylor-Johnson conveys the conflicts of a loving father and husband in dark times, Comer is the movie’s standout.
Everyone is excellent, but it’s Williams who is the standout. He’s going toe to toe with some big veterans of the industry, but manages to be just as good as the rest of them.
Williams is remarkable in his feature debut.
28 Years Later belongs to young newcomer Alfie Williams, though, with the entire movie resting on his impressively capable shoulders.
The last five minutes essentially play as a cliffhanger to tune into the next episode, which is a jarring finale.
The filmmakers do the annoying thing of sequel-baiting, leaving us on a cliffhanger.
Not everything receives tidy resolution by film’s end. That’s okay, because Boyle and Garland once again introduce characters we want to spend more time with, even when they break our hearts.
The nail-biting tension and heartbreaking climax will leave you thirsting for more.
That ending indeed leaves much to the imagination, and if it’s any indication of what is on the horizon, we’re in for a treat six months from now.
The fact that there are at least two more sequels planned is an exciting promise.
Intriguing narrative building blocks put in place for future installments mean they can’t come fast enough.
28 Years Later is back with a vengeance, yet is off to a positive yet rocky start with two more releases on the horizon.
It often feels like the more interesting personal story clashes with the horror set pieces, leaving the latter to become tedious exercises.
The movie being split into two different trips to the mainland means that the pacing for 28 Years Later is a bit off.
Unfortunately, the picture suffers from some pacing issues, leading the proceedings to feel longer than the run time.
28 Years Later opens in theaters on June 20, 2025.
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