28 Years Later (2025) Review

A community of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island, which is only connected to the main land during low tide. After young Spike has experienced his first venture to the mainland with his father Jamie, everything will change when he is left with many questions and curiosity of what else is actually out there?

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The opening scene takes us back to 2002 and that initial outbreak of the rage virus, Jimmy a young boy manages to escape from his house in the Scottish Highlands after his family is attacked and killed by the infected. Finding his father in the church who is a vicar and gives him a crucifix necklace for protection and urges him to escape.

We then move to the year 2030 that being twenty eight years after that original outbreak. After the second outbreak we learn that while Europe no longer has the rage virus the British Isles remain under indefinite quarantine. We are then shown a small community of survivors who live in a village on Lindisfarne an island which is connected to the mainline by a heavily fortified tidal causeway.

We get to focus on Jamie a scavenger, his wife Isla who has been rather ill and their 12 year old son Spike. A coming-of-age ritual within the island is being taken to the mainland to hunt, despite warnings from others before they leave about Spike being too young at 12 and they prefer 14 or 15, Jamie claims he is more than ready for this. What felt really good about this was that as a viewer we had no idea what to expect either from the mainland, we were experiencing this for the first time with Spike. It had been all those years since we witnessed what had happened, showing how the mutation of the infected had changed and that now even has different species.

Now an Alpha exists which shows massive growth and how some of the infected who are stronger and more intelligent. Naturally this is one that appears very early on with poor young Spike. I wasn’t expecting a truly emotional journey and that is what we are given, honestly in one scene I really was close to tears. I did find it extra special with the Geordie accents and while I knew that it had been filmed around my beloved north east, I did not realise the characters were going to have my accent.

We get a lot more twists and turns as we learn and grow with Spike, who wants nothing more than to protect his Mam Isla and that is what really draws us in to this being more than a horror with the rage virus forging on, it shows how people battle to survive and communities will rebuild, even if that means going back to basic ways of living. A Swedish soldier helps highlight the differences in society with the UK being under that quarantine. We do meet many characters on the way, Dr Kelson being a key one and showing that things aren’t always as you may judge from a distance.

Alfie Williams, what an incredible performance and quite frankly a star is born! Seriously it was amazing how well he did in this film and gave such a layered performance for a young actor. I was very impressed with the Geordie accents from both Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodie Comer, the latter really is such an incredible actress I always forget she is actually a Scouser as she has a different accent for every single role! It takes a while for Ralph Fiennes to appear but as usual he does not disappoint. Then I guess in this one Jack O’Connell’s appearance can be described more as a cameo until the next part of the story, right in that whacky final scene!