28 Years Later Review

Incredible to see Boyle and Garland almost 30 years into their collaborations working with more money than they've ever had and coming out with their boldest swing for the fences yet and it's potentially the best both of them have ever been. They reframe the visual language of this franchise into something bigger, lusher and clearer than ever before. It's both a horror film picking at the remains of life amid cultural rot AND, most unexpectedly, a tender folktale about a boy (an astonishing debut performance from Alfie Williams) who wants to save his mom and the humane lessons of death and life that he will learn. It builds to a sequences that is conceptually grotesque yet undeniably and starkly ethereal and moving. Reader, I cried pretty hard at this thing.

It reminds me of when I was a kid and my biggest fear was losing one of my parents. I would have nightmares about it constantly and would think "when I'm an adult, I'm going to do whatever I can to protect them." But then my Dad died right when I was on the cusp of adulthood and it was a sober realization of the lack of power I had - not dissimilar to the one Spike experiences towards the end of this films when he loses his mom, Isla. But also, like Spike here, that realization was followed by another that being a 'man' doesn’t necessarily mean saving anyone or anything but accepting the means of the universe and that we exist to live. We must remember to love and we must remember to die.

That said, the carnage you paid for is still present but it has a new edge to it - brought forth with maniacal iPhone rigs and some nervy dizzying editing. But it evolves as you move through it as Boyle and Garland remind us that these rageful meat sacks have a humanity unto themselves. It complicates these primal ties of culture and family that loom over the whole thing. This was really at 5-bagger status until the last few minutes of this hit - a sequence so overtly goofy it feels like its threatening to undo everything that just came before. But then again, it feels like Boyle and Garland are bullishly calling their shots and I have no choice but to respect it because I want more. A