28 Years Later: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, Jack O'Connell
Director: Danny Boyle

Three decades after the original 28 Days Later leant into the vibe of a disease being released from a lab and infecting the whole world, director Danny Boyle has returned to the scenario that gave the world the then-unknown Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy.

This time around, the story follows a group of survivors quarantined on a heavily guarded island. But when one of them heads away from the island, what they discover rocks the core of their foundations of belief...

To say much about 28 Years Later is to steal away from what threadbare plot there is - which sounds like a disservice but is anything but. The story revolves around the loss of innocence of a child, of discovering a role model is not what you thought they were and of the lies we tell ourselves and others to survive.

Taylor-Johnson is Jamie, who, as the film begins - after a brutal massacre of children watching of all things Teletubbies - is taking his younger than hunting age son Spike (a terrific Williams) out for his first kill on the mainland they live over the water from. However, things don't go entirely to plan...

The best thing to say about 28 Years Later is that it's a film that does everything new with the post-apocalyptic zombie genre that's been run ragged by countless copies and revitalised by The Last Of Us. Not once does Boyle follow the pack, and spends most of the film breaking out from doing so. Even a coda at the end delivers one heck of a punch that will land with those au fait with British pop culture. ("Let's be pals" will be the most terrifying of words uttered this year for those who know about tracksuits and children).

From having the zombie kills play out like elements of the X-Ray cam on Rebellion Games' Sniper Elite to an entirely elegaic ending that is not what you'd expect, but is entirely what you deserve, 28 Years Later delivers nerve-shredding moments mixed with a disturbing calm, and a rich world that brims with contemporary allegories and parallels. (An isolated Britain filled with rage-hating populace covers so many bases right now).

But central to it all is Williams' brave portrayal of the coming-of-age Spike, forced to kill out of goading from his father and uncertain of his right to do so before inevitably having to take the lead and become his own man.

The film looks spectacular too - lush green run-riot plants curl over decrepit buildings; the infected have evolved into different types of creatures and the passing visuals are nothing but upsetting in a hope-less way.

28 Years Later is visceral cinema at its finest - and it's an unmissable in-cinema experience.