28 Years Later Reviewed by an Autist

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As someone who used to watch the first two movies of the 28 Days Later franchise, I've been anticipating a new one to enter it, titled 28 Months Later, for a long time. The end of 28 Weeks Later left us with a cliffhanger. The infected breached mainland Europe in Paris, France, where I believed the next installment's plot would focus on most of the eastern hemisphere succumbing to the extremely viral spread of the rage virus. I believed this premise would pose a threat to humanity as a whole within two years once the infected breached Europe.

I had expected that scenario to be part of the 28 Days Later lore, but I was surprised when the story fast-forwarded to nearly three decades ahead. It was revealed that the breach was stopped by NATO forces, highlighting how far the British Isles have fallen to the rage virus as well as witnessing nature reclaiming the land. There are now few pockets of healthy survivors remaining in the U.K. fending for themselves against the infected. The movie features a safe community on a tiny island from the Scottish shore. I was aghast at the mutation of the rage virus affecting some of the poor souls it infected into various and terrifying variants of zombies.

The story was just okay. There was a young boy named Spike who lived with his parents on Holy Island, safe from mainland Britain, along with other surviving members of the community when his father, Jaime, took him out to get his first kill. They encountered many infected and were exposed to the real danger of post-apocalyptic Britain until they went home after Spike's first kill and were nearly killed by an alpha infected chasing them. His mother, Isla, is suffering from a debilitating illness that's even making her lapse into episodes of seeing her memories and then forgetting them the next minute. Spike becomes aware that there's a surviving general practitioner who he believes can cure his mother's illness. So he takes her, and they embark on an adventure across Britain to find that doctor together. They get into a lot of life-threatening trouble with the infected along the way.

I would've loved to see more screentime of the dad with him joining the duo on the search for the doctor. Not only do I want to see more bonding with his wife and son, but I also want to see him atone for the mistakes he made towards his family by helping them find the person believed to help Isla. The infected in this movie were more terrifying than ever before, with some remaining the original fast-running variant, while others were more like the scariest zombie variant in my books, with the alphas who are tall, muscular, strongest, fastest, and smartest. The good news is that the 28 Years Later movie is set to be a trilogy of three parts, and I look forward to reviewing them all and will definitely review the 28 Days/Weeks Later movies too.

Overall, this movie is a horrifying addition to the franchise that adds nightmare fuel to the scariest zombies of all time. It sets the stage for the near end of the U.K. and the desperation of the survivors fighting for what remains of the meaning of their lives. It may not have lived up to the hype, but it's still serviceable to the franchise. I rate this movie a 6 out of 10.