28 Years Later Review: Messy and Jarring, But Never Boring.

Genre(s) – Horror, Thriller, Drama
Director – Danny Boyle
Writer – Alex Garland
Cast – Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, Edvin Ryding, Chi Lewis-Parry, Christopher Fulford, Amy Cameron, Stella Gonet, Jack O’Connell.
Runtime – 115 Minutes
My Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐☆☆☆

Where To Watch/Stream 28 Years Later

28 Years Later has moments of brilliance and one fantastic performance, but most of the time, I felt like I was watching five different movies arguing with each other.

28 Years Later is the first film in a new trilogy in the franchise, with the 2nd releasing on January 16th, 2026, titled ’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’. Oh, and I know they aren’t technically ‘zombies’ before someone mentions it, but I am calling them so.

So did it live up to the hype for me?

Plot Summary of 28 Years Later (Spoiler-Free)

28 Years Later picks up almost three decades after the Rage virus turned Britain into a dystopian hellscape. The rest of Europe has managed to keep the infection contained within the UK, treating it like an infected limb they had to amputate. We start on a remote island where a small group of survivors have built a medieval-style society. No electricity, no medicine, just bows, arrows, and some questionable hygiene.

Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a father doing his best in this rough environment. His wife, Isla (Jodie Comer), is sick and bedridden. There’s no doctor, and no help coming, and their son Spike is about to take his first journey to the mainland for a bizarre coming-of-age ritual.

Things kick off when Jamie and Spike make the trip across the causeway into zombie territory. But the real meat of the story begins when they meet Kelton (Ralph Fiennes), a former doctor who now lives in what I can only describe as a death museum.

28 Years Later Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Short answer is yes. I’d give it a solid 7/10, but I didn’t like it as much as I had hoped, although it’s worth seeing for Ralph Fiennes alone. But, it’s also a very messy movie, and feels like like watching someone trying to play five songs on one guitar at the same time. Some notes are beautiful, while others are just noise.

What you will notice quickly when watching it is just how different this film feels from the original. That gritty, lo-fi terror of 28 Days Later is largely gone, and in its place is something more polished, more stylized, and weirder in tone. Boyle still directs with with his usual flair, but while 28 Days Later felt like a scream from the abyss, 28 Years Later feels more like a very dramatic art school project that someone poured a ton of talent and a bit too much ambition into.

The first act is actually really solid. We get this quiet, lived-in community on the island that’s been cut off for decades, and it has this slightly creepy, medieval vibe without really going full fantasy. They make their own weapons, burn wood for heat, and don’t have any real idea what’s happening beyond their small patch of land.

The problems begin when the movie tries to juggle too many things. Is this a horror movie? A survival thriller story? A family drama? A political allegory? Yes. All of the above. Which is fine of course, and I always respect ambition. But all of these ideas and ambition need to mix and blend smoothly, but instead Garland’s script and Boyle’s film making end up clashing a lot of the time.

One moment we’re watching intense zombie-hunting sequences that feel straight out of an action movie, and the next we’re diving into symbolic dream sequences and philosophical monologues. This may or may not bother you as much as it did me, but the film is just really messy in that aspect. I always admire ambition, but it needs to to be executed well, and in 28 Years Later, it isn’t.

Which brings me to Ralph Fiennes. He’s the reason you should see this movie. His performance as Kelton is brilliant. He’s unsettling, but he’s also strangely gentle and, dare I say, a bit likable? He paints himself in iodine, lives among skulls, and talks about death like a stoned poet. It’s a weird dynamic that Fiennes absolutely nails.

The rest of the cast? Well, Aaron Taylor-Johnson does his best as the rugged, stressed-out dad. Jodie Comer’s talents feel wasted, as she spends most of the movie bedridden and confused. Spike, the kid, is just kind of there. Not terrible, but not that interesting either. He exists so the plot can move forward, not much more.

Also, there’s a twist involving a pregnant infected woman that is the kind of thing that might work in a B-movie or a graphic novel, but here it just felt forced. Then there’s the political stuff. Garland (the writer) clearly wants to make a statement about isolationism, nationalism, maybe even climate or pandemic responses, it’s hard to pin down because it never really goes anywhere. The movie gestures toward some deeper meaning but just doesn’t follow through much with it, which is a common recurrence.

And I still don’t know how I feel about the ending. Many will love it and many will hate it I think. I’m still undecided. But what it did do was make me anticipate the next installment in January, so regardless of anything else, I suppose it did what it was meant to do.

But overall, 28 Years Later is a mixed bag. We certainly have things to like and appreciate, but as I mentioned, the messiness of the film might not bother some, but it bothered me. I wanted to care more, I really did, but it all felt a little bit jarring.

But 28 Years Later is certainly never boring or dull, and that’s something.

What I liked (And What I Didn’t Like)

Pros

Ralph Fiennes Steals the Whole Damn Show

Fiennes plays Kelton with a lot of depth, and I kind of wanted to follow him into his iodine-scented skull temple and ask for life advice. He’s creepy, but also quite layered. Every scene he’s in feels elevated, like the film wakes up when he enters.

Boyle’s Visual Style Still Works

Danny Boyle knows how to shoot the hell out of a movie. The action sequences are tight and fast without being confusing. The landscape shots of abandoned Britain are hauntingly beautiful. He’s good at making decay look gorgeous, and that skill’s on full display here.

The Setting Is Genuinely Interesting

The island society is one of the more grounded and believable post-apocalyptic setups I’ve seen in a while. It makes sense. These people aren’t superhuman survivors or Mad Max cosplay warriors. They’re regular people, trying to keep life going with what little they have.

There Are Some Big, Memorable Moments

Even if the film doesn’t always work, it still has some really good moment. That scene with the Kipling poem? Fantastic. The father-son hunt? Genuinely tense. Kelton’s bone temple? Visually unforgettable. The film may be a mess, but it’s a memorable mess.

Sound Design Hits Hard

Every screech, every infected grunt, every arrow slicing through the air, it all sounds very raw and real.

Ambitious Themes (Even If They Don’t Fully Land)

There are moments where you can feel the film reaching for something bigger. Questions about mortality, survival, the soul of society, they’re all in there, somewhere. I just wish they were more fully explored.

Cons

Tries to Be Too Many Things

I wish the film hadn’t tried to be as ambitious as it was, it wasn’t as tight or tonally consistent as I would have hoped, and Boyle’s film making and Garland’s script often feel like they are clashing.

Weak Character Development Outside of Kelton

I couldn’t really tell you what Jamie’s arc is supposed to be. He’s sad, he’s angry, he’s doing his best. Cool. That’s it? Spike is even flatter. And Jodie Comer’s Isla is more a plot device than a person. It all felt a bit undercooked.

That Pregnancy Twist

Nope. Didn’t work. Took me right out of the film. I get that horror can be wild, but there’s a fine line between unsettling and just plain stupid. This crossed that line, did a little dance on it, then set it on fire.

Political Commentary That Goes Nowhere

You can tell Garland had thoughts about the world today. And they peek through here and there. But the film doesn’t commit. It mentions ideas but doesn’t explore them. You’re left with fragments instead of a statement.

Emotional Beats Don’t Always Land

I should care more about Spike and Isla, but I didn’t. The movie tries to tug on your heartstrings, but it doesn’t earn those tears. Maybe it’s the writing, maybe it’s the pacing, but the emotion often felt hollow.

Disconnected Tone

Some scenes are deadly serious. Others feel almost campy. It’s all quite jarring. You never quite settle into a rhythm, because the film keeps changing moods in quick fashion.

Who might like 28 Years Later

If you want to watch Ralph Fiennes at his best, you have to see it, And if you appreciate ambition in a film, and seeing something take a new direction and are open to a kind of new experience, it has a lot to appreciate, even if you don’t feel it land.

Who might dislike 28 Years Later

If you’re expecting more of the same from the previous entries, you will need to change your expectations quickly. And if you don’t like films feeling too ‘scattered’ and a bit all over the place, you will probably find it as messy as I did. The film gestures at deeper themes, but never really follows through on them, and that is annoying.

Final Verdict: Did I Enjoy Watching 28 Years Later?

Yes, but it’s complicated. There are parts of 28 Years Later that I loved. There are moments that floored me. But there were also stretches where I just felt confused, and/or disconnected and slightly annoyed.

It’s ambitious, it’s messy, but it’s occasionally brilliant, but it didn’t live up to how hyped I was if I am honest. Whether my critiscms would bother someone else as much as it did me would be down to the person I suppose, but I actually wish the film tried to be less ambitious than it was.

But do I regret watching it? Nope, not at all. Watch it for Fiennes. Watch it for the visuals. Watch it for some moments of brilliance. Just don’t expect to walk out of the theater with a clear idea of what the movie was trying to say, because it never commits enough to what deliver the impact as strongly as it wants to.

28 Years Later Trailer