Yes, there’s a lot of horror movies out right now, and there’s a lot of zombie everywhere from TV to film, but when they’re great, they’ll definitely find an audience. Enter the next installment of Danny Boyle‘s 28 infected feature series, 28 Years Later, which truly elevates the undead genre to sophisticated storytelling (a helluva second act) and visual dimensions, read the Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire director shot the movie on an iPhone 15 ProMax with a Theo Angelopoulos’ sense of natural lighting.
There was always a want for both screenwriter Alex Garland and Boyle to return to the 28 films after 2009’s 28 Weeks Later (which was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo). While talks fell apart back in the day, coming away from a global pandemic can truly inspire a director and scribe whose previous work on the subject seemed prescience for a year when 2020 was destitute and shut down. Boyle expounds on the duo’s inspirations.
On what makes this zombie-like feature (ya see, they’re undead and they’ve been made that way by a virus) stand apart is its tender story of a father, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who takes his young son, played by Alfie Williams, to the quarantine UK isle where the monsters run amok. Says Boyle, “There’s a movement toward beauty, and it’s as well it’s not just about horror, and there is lots of horror in it, but it’s also a movement toward beauty as well.”
Boyles explains why he’s not directing all three planned films (the third movie doesn’t even have financing yet per the director, but Sony has the option to make it after winning the trilogy in an auction), and whether or not he’d ever think of directing Bond again in the new Amazon MGM Studios regime.
28 Years Later is opening Friday in what’s looking to be a $28M-$30M domestic debut.
Listen to our chat with Boyle below:
