28 Years Later (2025) – Was It Worth The Wait?

I was in college when I first watched 28 Days Later, and to be honest, it’s probably a big reason why I love horror so much. The rage virus, the empty London streets, the chaos…that movie changed the way I thought about horror and movies in general. I rewatched both Days and Weeks right before seeing 28 Years Later in theaters, and honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. A sequel after this much time usually doesn’t land. But somehow, this one does. I didn’t love it as much as I did the first one especially, but it felt like seeing an old friend.

This time around, we meet Spike, a 12-year-old boy raised inside a secluded, post-outbreak island community. His dad, Jamie (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is training him to survive, and his mom Isla (Jodie Comer), is clearly fading both emotionally and physically. When things go sideways, Spike leaves the island on a mission to find help, which basically kicks off a zombie-infested trip across a version of Britain that looks feral and forgotten.

The setup sounds like classic post-apocalyptic fare, but the tone feels different. It’s less about pure horror and more about memory, grief, and what we pass down, intentionally or not. There’s a weight to it that I wasn’t expecting. It still delivers on the gore and jump scares (yes, the infected are still sprinting at you like nightmare Olympians but also now there’s slow one’s too?), but it also gives you time to feel things.

There’s a stretch in the middle of the movie that slows down in a way I really liked. It leans into the weird, almost mythic vibe of a world that’s been cut off for decades. Some of the characters Spike meets feel like they stepped out of a fairy tale – just the very dark, possibly cannibalistic kind. Ralph Fiennes shows up as a hermit doctor who lives with skeleton art and monologues about regret. He’s not in the movie long, but he makes his time count.

And speaking of counting: the movie clocks in under two hours, which I appreciated. It doesn’t try to over-explain the lore or tie everything up with a perfect bow. It knows what kind of story it’s telling and it sticks to it.

The visuals are stunning. Danny Boyle’s direction is as kinetic and unnerving as ever. There are moments shot with iPhones that feel raw and immediate, then suddenly you get these huge, sweeping shots of wild countryside that are somehow peaceful and terrifying at the same time. The music’s great too. Emotional where it needs to be, chaotic when it has to be.

I won’t spoil the ending, but it’s…interesting. I could see some people loving it, others leaving the theater with a full-body shrug. Personally, I wasn’t a fan but others I’ve talked to loved it. Its a deviation from the tone of the movie, so I was just surprised. But this world isn’t about clean outcomes.

It’s not perfect. A few plot threads get introduced and then sort of… wander off. And some of the allegory about isolationism and fear of the “other” sits quietly in the background without fully landing. But none of that took away from the experience for me.

If you’re going into this just hoping for good zombie action, it’s there. If you want something a little heavier that sits with themes like legacy, loss, and what survival even means, that’s here too.

I went in cautiously curious and came out genuinely moved. 28 Years Later is a worthy continuation that somehow doesn’t just feel like a nostalgia cash grab. It’s intense and emotional and a little weird, and honestly, I’m really glad I saw it on the big screen.