Still Terrified of Zombies Almost "28 Years Later"

Hey team,

Younger-me is thrilled to share that I got to see "28 Years Later", the much-awaited next chapter in the "28 Days Later" (2002) universe, in theaters this month.  Younger-me is even more thrilled to share that the movie was SO GOOD.

Let's talk about it!

Given that "28 Days Later" is one of my favorite movies, I've rewatched it and thought about it so much that I unfortunately forgot how genuinely scary the movie was the first time I saw it... until I was in the theater watching "28 Years Later". 

Basically, this was me like 14 minutes into the movie:

...But like, the best kind of huge mistake?

It's particularly humbling to be a) fully an adult and b) a specialist in treating anxiety disorders and actually experience the physiological sensations that accompany intense anxiety because of a movie about the undead, but there I was in that theater, being humbled in precisely that manner.

All that to say, true to its originating story, "28 Years Later" is STRESSFUL.  But in a manner that felt perfectly titrated to its audience's wishful nostalgia for the adrenaline of the first movie, while also imagining the continuation of the original story almost 3 decades into the future.

My personal psychology has always LOVED a dystopian story.  Something deep in my brain takes an odd kind of comfort in playing through end-of-society-as-we-know it scenarios, trying to imagine not only how to survival, but also what kinds of new world could be realized, perhaps worlds where humanity and interconnectedness are possible.  At their best, these narratives affirm that humanity and interconnectedness can endure even under the direst of circumstances.  So in that strange and unnerving yet beautiful way, they're comforting.

"28 Years Later" does a great job of imagining a believable dystopian future, and of portraying how people might still be able to co-create a sense of adapted normalcy in the midst of incomprehensible horrors.  There are moments, like when we see a handwritten sign imploring people not to be wasteful of critical supplies whose quantities are dwindling, that prods at still-triggering memories of the pandemic, making the film's morbid fantasy all the more nevertheless believable.

The performances are excellent, successfully getting the audience emotionally invested in the characters despite the intense precarity of their lives.  The soundtrack also harkens back to "28 Days Later" in that it is extremely well-suited to amping up the emotion and tension of the movie by at turns complementing and unsettlingly contrasting with the action.  The effects are not excessively gory, while still being a zombie movie--so let's be real, it's definitely quite gory.  But given that there were only one or two scenes during which I preemptively covered my eyes, it's honestly probably somewhat tame as this particular subgenre goes.

All that to say, I absolutely loved "28 Years Later", and I highly recommend it to anyone who loved the original movies or loves this genre of film.  I gave it a 5.

{Heart}