28 Years Later – Memento Mortuorum

28 Years Later – 2025

Director Danny Boyle
Writer Alex Garland
Starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alfie Williams, Jack O’Connell, Ralph Fiennes

For a zombie film, 28 Years later is strangely contemplative. The film is beautifully shot over Northumberland, U.K. and the soundtrack is equally propulsive and effective. The story centers around the Island of Lindisfarne. It follows young Spike (Williams), his father Jamie (Taylor-Johnson), and mother Isla (Comer). The latter, suffering from an unknown illness, is in and out of consciousness. On his 12th year, in a coming of age ritual, Jamie takes spike out on his first “hunt.”

This hunt seems to have a simple purpose. It is for Spike to get his first kill of a rage-virus infected human. During this hunt we are introduced to different types of zombies, as if different levels of a video game. There are slow fat ones, faster skinny ones, then there is the Alphas. The Alpha are stronger than the others, and have accrued intelligence of a sort.

Spike does well against the slow ones. He struggles with the faster ones. As a result, they are stuck inside an abandoned house’s cellar until the evening. There, they see a distant bonfire.

Upon returning home, his father embellishes Spike’s accomplishments and the town celebrates him with a party. Spike sees his father go out the side door with another woman. He goes home to stay with his mother. Once there, he learns from an elder that the fire is run by a Dr. Ian Kelson (Fiennes).

Disillusioned by his father’s actions, Spike tells him to leave him and Isla. Once Jamie is gone, Spike escapes the island with his ailing mother. They set out to find the doctor. He hopes he will have a cure.

This part of the film is fraught with tension. Spike is no real warrior yet, and his mother is sometimes aware, sometimes thinking she is with her father. The only thing keeping them safe is being as quiet as possible.

Nearby, a squad of Swedish NATO officers land on the mainland when their quarantine operation boat sinks. They are all soon wiped out, but one. This one will be important.

The last 1/3 of the film is strange, and almost poetic in nature. We meet the good Dr. and he is a unique character, indeed. Before we can fear him, we hear an explanation of his life and his purpose, since the coming of the rage virus. Fiennes is the perfect actor for such a role. This part of the film brings out the best in Fiennes, Comer and Williams. Its almost like it belongs in another film, were it not for the bones and skulls piled everywhere.

As you progress further into 28 Years Later, it becomes increasingly clear. This is the first film in a new trilogy. The first two films were different in tone. The world was a scary place. This one feels like the birth of a new outlook on the circumstances that face humanity. While the levels of zombies dips into a familiar trapping, the character building for this story is unusually effective. How one reacts to the film’s ending depends on personal preference. Some may prefer a closed end, while others enjoy an ending open to possibilities.
(**** out of *****)