A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors.

23 years after ’28 Days Later’ and 18 years after ’28 Weeks Later’ comes ’28 Years Later’, the third instalment in what is going to become a likely 5 movie series with a sequel already filmed and another due to come later after that. In this movie, Danny Boyle returns as director, as does Alex Garland as writer, however there is no Cillian Murphy, with the focus on a new group of characters led by the family unit of Jamie, Isla and 12-year-old Spike, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and newcomer Alfie Williams respectively. They live on the small island community of Lindisfarne (or Holy Island) off the coast of Northumberland, which is connected to the mainland by a tidal causeway that has been heavily fortified by the islanders. There’s good reason to avoid the mainland, as we learn that the Rage virus has been eradicated in continental Europe, but not in Great Britain, which remains under an indefinite quarantine. There are metaphors here should you choose to find them.

There’s a lot to unpack here so I’ll start on touching on the way Boyle and Garland have developed their post-apocalyptic world. Before we even get to Lindisfarne, we begin with an eerie sequence in the Scottish Highlands during the original ’28 Days Later’ timeline where children watch the frankly quite creepy 1990s British children’s TV show ‘Teletubbies’ as they are interrupted by the infection spreading through the community, leaving one young boy named Jimmy to make a desperate escape – that won’t be the last we’ll see of him, but that’s a whole other story that can’t be touched on without spoilers. 28 years later we switch to Lindisfarne, where those who have survived and live there exist in some sort of nostalgic existence, shutting themselves off to outsiders and living in a parochial society with traditional views on male and female roles. The themes introduced here will continue to develop in other settings as Garland sets out a societal vision where this kind of pandemic and breakdown leads to individuals looking to the past for solace and comfort.

Our viewpoint comes through Spike, played excellently by Alfie Williams, who is coping with his most likely terminally ill mother and his boisterous father who is determined to take Spike to the mainland to gather supplies and encounter the infected, leading to a thrilling sequence where they are hunted through the forest and chased back to the island by an ‘Alpha’, a supremely strong male who exhibits a mutation of the original Rage virus. On this journey, Spike notices a fire in the distance and finds out this is where Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), a reclusive and most likely crazy survivor lives, which intrigues him as he learns that he was a doctor in a previous life and may be able to help his mother. This sets him on a course to take his mother to the mainland in the hope of finding a cure, by tracking down Kelson, avoiding the infected they will encounter on the way.

I’ll say little else about the plot from here because I don’t want to spoil the surprising ways in which it develops, but suffice to say ’28 Years Later’ is visceral, violent and emotionally draining, sometimes at the same time. It is brutal and gory, but has moments of deep tenderness, and it never loses its ability to pivot in ways you don’t expect. This is a movie made by intelligent filmmakers who want to use genre to explore deeper themes, and in that they’ve mostly achieved what they set out to do, and I thought ’28 Years Later’ was a haunting sequel that feels earned, with its stall already set out for the next movie (or two) to come.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Danny Boyle

Starring: Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, Edvin Ryding and Jack O’Connell

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt10548174/