28 Years Later (2025)

phancy.com - horror reviews - MOH 2025

28 Years Later

IMDb Info

Release Year: 2025
Runtime: 1h 55m
Country: UK, Canada, USA
Language: English, Swedish
Genre Tags: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Plot Summary: A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors.

Poster - Title Card

phancy.com rating:

phancy.com notes: Zigs when any other sequal would've zagged. It's a dual coming of age story, once through violence, and second time through care-giving. The second half is a surprisingly sincere elegy, in stark contrast to the hedonistic first. Sure, it's a gnarly zombie movie, but there are a lot of metaphors for losing one's country and either pretending everything is still the same, or properly grieving and accepting the world as it is. Spoiler: Ignoring the zombies doesn't make America great again. Uh, I mean Britain. Seriously, this is an excellent movie that will surprise you.

Outside Reviews:

Robert Daniels
3.5 out of 4 stars - rogerebert.com

"28 Years Later" is a deeply earnest film, a picture whose sincerity is initially off putting until it's endearing. Toward the end, through the concept of "memento mori," this zombie picture attempts to grapple with the toll of the onscreen death that's filled viewers' minds for decades now. It's a desire that isn't inspired by a need to craft elongated arcs, future callbacks or even the return of former characters. The decision to consider the finality of death and how we remember those who've passed on is a gesture to the human in a franchise filled with the inhuman. Rather than needling our instinct to run, Boyle commands us to stop and mourn, to remember and grieve. Many more days, weeks and years will pass, but the surprise that is "28 Years Later" has our attention now.

Jacob Oller
Grade: B - Coming of age means embracing death in the wild world of 28 Years Later

The biggest success of 28 Years Later is that, by the film's end, mere survival is less of a priority for both audience and hero, usurped instead by a desire to explore. By taking the film away from the familiar—both in regards to the franchise itself and its genre spawn—the story's fresh eyes tempt audiences with lush landscapes and strange characters. Fiennes, shredded and covered in blood at the base of a skull tower, making Shakespeare jokes is just as good as Ryding trying to describe an iPhone to a kid who might as well live on a different planet. That's a boon for a film intended to feel like a first step into the wilderness, one that confronts its young hero with the reality of death—both banal and spine-rippingly bonkers—and the possibilities of life.