I Watch Films: 28 Years Later

 

28 Years Later

28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later introduced the Rage virus, which turns people into feral, violent creatures. Now in 2030, Britain is quarantined by the European powers. On Lindisfarne there is a community of uninfected humans, who keep the Infected out thanks to the causeway. Jamie takes his 12 year old son Spike onto the mainland with their bows. The coming-of-age ritual is to kill an Infected.

Things on the mainland are wild, and occasionally weird. They spot a group of Infected led by an Alpha, stronger and smarter than other Infected. Hiding overnight they see the ships patrolling offshore and a light inland. Jamie tells Spike various stories. Spike kills an Infected but they are chased by the Alpha and escape back to Lindisfarne.

Spike’s mother Isla is ill. At the party Jamie boasts about Spike, exaggerating his exploits, and later that night he discovers Jamie is having an affair. Talking to a family friend about his experiences they suggest that the light they saw might be Dr Ian Kelson, once a GP but now in exile for unclear reasons. Confronting Jamie the next day, he refuses to admit to doing anything wrong, and when Spike suggests taking Isla to see Dr Kelson, says no, he’s seen Kelson burning lots of bodies, and he’s mad.

Spike and Isla go anyway. They encounter Erik Sundqvist, a Swedish sailor stranded on Britain. He saves them from some Infected. In a rather complex set of events the three encounter a pregnant Infected; Erik shoots the mother but the child seems to be uninfected. An Alpha appears and kills Erik; before he can kill Spike, Isla and the child, Dr Kelson arrives, covered in red iodine, and tranquilises the Alpha, something he's done before, naming him Samson.

He takes them to the Bone Temple, an ossuary he’s constructed as a personal memorial. He examines Isla and diagnoses brain cancer, untreatable in post-apocalyptic England. At Isla’s request he euthanises her, cremating her and giving Spike the skull to put in the Bone Temple.

Samson arrives and Spike saves Dr Kelson. Kelson encourages Spike take the newborn and return home; he leaves the baby and a note saying he’ll come back when he’s ready. Traveling across England he is chased by Infected and saved by a group of bizarre Jimmy Saville impersonators, whose leader we say in the prologue (28 years earlier).

This film has several extraordinary scenes, some intercut with imagery of other events, and with Kipling’s poem Boots being spoken. The temple is a genuinely striking image*. The naked Infected look human, but also strange, as though another species of human has emerged out of pre-history. As indeed forested England appears, until the characters encounter a leftover from the pre-Infected days. If the film is more interested in questions than answers that’s no bad thing, though leaving so much for the sequel(s) is not my favourite way to end it.

Watch This: Amazing revisit to the zombie ravaged world of the Infected
Don’t Watch This: Lots of senseless killing, implied to be much more

* Hence presumably the sequel 28 Years Later: Bone Temple.