28 Years Later follows a young person as they go out into a zombified world for the first time. The movie can be thrilling and scary and hardcore, though what makes it truly engaging is that it has just as much deep drama as that other stuff.
There are rules on the home island—a seemingly safe, communistic place which has survived for 28 years since the zombie virus first infected humans on the mainland. And so Spike, as a right of passage, must now go to that mainland and understand reality. Mom is sick and stays home, but experienced Dad joins.
It’s hard for our heart not to race as we take those first steps . . . or for any of the many firsts we’ll experience. Brilliant moviemaking amplifies this. Is that the wind, or is some thing exhaling? Nighttime cut scenes blast our senses like red seizure dreams, while during the day we march to a different sound—though, maybe, it’s a similar mania.
This one is just fun. It is no marathon of gore, but a compelling blend of past and present, good and bad, seriousness and camp.