22 years ago, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland helped launch the zombie movie renaissance with a movie that isn’t technically a zombie movie. “28 Days Later” is a pandemic film. It’s unfortunate that, 22 years later, this subgenre is ripe for bloody exploitation.
On June 20, 2025, “28 Years Later” will pick up 17 years (in our own timeline) after the Rage Virus pandemonium. The sequel to Juan Carlos Fresendillo’s 2007 hit “28 Weeks Later.” Lest you think this is a small matter, know that 2024 Oscar winner Cillian Murphy will reprise his role as the comatose Jim in the film. He will be joined by a group of talented people such as Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Jack O’Connell, and Ralph Fiennes in the cast. As for the state of the world in 28 Years Later, it is assumed that the rage virus is spreading again, and it is assumed that the aforementioned actors will strive to avoid joining the ranks of the infected.
This is Boyle’s first feature film since 2019’s Yesterday, and his first full-length horror film since 28 Days Later. It should be a pleasure to have the “Trainspotting” and “Slumdog Millionaire” author working in this genre again, and hopefully it will be an absolute pleasure to have him team up again with screenwriter Alex Garland, who has become a great director in his own right right along with Bangers like “genocide” and “civil war.”
So what does the new trailer for “28 Years Later” promise in the way of rage-filled mayhem?
After 28 days, it seems the road meets I Am Legend
At first, the trailer for “28 Years Later” appears to show a post-apocalyptic future where things basically seem the same. Later seasons of “The Walking Dead” With luxuries like electricity and mundane things like housework. However, this relatively stable life belongs to the people on the island, and it turns out that they live in a bubble. Here’s the official synopsis for “28 Years Later.”
It has been nearly three decades since the Rage Virus escaped the bioweapons laboratory, and now, still in mercilessly imposed quarantine, some have found ways to exist among those infected. One of these groups of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily guarded bridge. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers the secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only those infected but other survivors as well.
There are strong hints of cannibalism, towers of skulls, and starving victims of the Rage Virus – all of which herald the darkest chapter of the story yet. But perhaps more disturbing than any of the visuals is the result: Taylor Holmes’ 1915 reading of “Shoes,” a war poem by Rudyard Kipling. This recording is specifically used during prisoner of war training in the US Navy’s SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) schools to test the mental resilience of soldiers, by holding them in a small cell and playing the recording over and over again. You can easily imagine how that could drive a person crazy.
“28 Years Later” hits theaters June 20, 2025.