Brett Hudgins

The divisiveness of this movie will no doubt propel a lot of casual moviegoers away from it, but I sincerely hope that in a few years time this is seen as the masterpiece that it is. Well, if they nail the sequels. Ending the movie with what amounts to both a cliffhanger and a major expansion of what this franchise could be was certainly a choice, but I think Garland has done more than enough to earn my trust that they can stick the landing with the soon to follow next movie, The Bone Temple. 28 Years Later has been described like a psychedelic fever dream, filled with strange imagery and experimental cinematography, but the bones of the story are as old as time. There’s just a lot of bones - they have structured this story so seamlessly yet intricately that you could sense there are many different themes at work. From a coming-of-age story, to the relationships between father and son; and in the second half, mother and son. To a commentary on masculinity and warfare, or an analysis of a society that has begun to fully regress. There is a lot narrative ground they try to cover here, and the complexity of the narrative could be off-putting to viewers who mostly wanted a bloody, scary time. But, I do believe even those zombie fanatics will be pleased. This is some of the most intense fiction in the genre, the new variants of infected offering twists on what the Rage virus is and expanding the design space for future movies. But the classic runners are still the stars here, with their starved sprinting coming off as almost silly but mostly utterly horrifying. I hope people give this movie a chance and try to open their minds to the story be told here, because as cerebral the themes may be, the action here is kinetic and legitimately scary. In the second half, even as the severed heads pile up, the movie shows itself to have a tender heart with a pinch of black humor. Highly recommended for anyone who still wants their media to surprise and challenge them.