a movie Stephen King liked but wasn’t scared by.
The two filmmakers have changed a lot in the two decades since their (not a) zombie movie, which makes “28 Years Later” a fascinating exercise in not trying to do the same thing again. As /Film’s own Chris Evangelista described it in his review, the film is “a kind of sensory overload — the blend of violence, mixed-media, and a frequently jarring soundtrack swirl together with feverish effect.” Indeed, as per his review, “28 Years Later” manages to be both scary and touching, an impressive, effective, and memorable horror sequel.
In “28 Years Later,” we meet Spike (Alfie Williams) and his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) almost 30 years after the rage virus escaped from a bioweapons laboratory and ravaged the U.K. mainland, which has been quarantined by the rest of the world. The father-son duo lives on a small island only connected to the mainland via a narrow causeway that disappears with the high tide. Of course, one of them decides to venture into the mainland and quickly discovers a world descended into madness, and a virus that has mutated beyond their imagination.
In the years before “28 Years Later” was made, there were many ideas for what a third film in the series could be about. One of them, Alex Garland confesses, could have been a disaster — an entirely different movie in an entirely different language.
