28 years later on Canal Plus: Danny Boyle brilliantly reinvents his zombie apocalypse (review)

The Boyle-Garland duo returns with an unexpected sequel that transforms the franchise into a post-apocalyptic epic.

A few months after its release in France, where it attracted half a million spectators in theaters, 28 years later is broadcast this Friday evening on Canal Plus, and already available for streaming on MyCanal. That’s good, the rest, 28 Years Later: The Temple of the Deadarrives this Wednesday, January 14 at the cinema. And Alex Garland and Danny Boyle are already releasing the third part…

28 years older later is one of the 10 best films of 2025 according to the editorial staff of First. Our review:

The 10 best films of 2025 according to the Première editorial team

Twenty-three years after shaking up zombie cinema with 28 days laterDanny Boyle and Alex Garland make a resounding comeback. More than a nostalgic sequel, an attempt at reinvention that transforms the infected universe into a mythological playground.

The story begins on Lindisfarne, a remote island on which a community of survivors has rebuilt an artisanal society. Spike (Alfie Williams, real revelation of the film), 12 years old, has never known anything other than this island connected to the continent by a causeway passable at low tide. When his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) takes him for the first time to the British continent, now a global quarantine zone, the boy discovers a world where the rabies virus continues to rage.

This Britain cut off from the world becomes a formidable field of exploration for Boyle and Garland. This first part is clearly imagined as an allegory of Brexit: post-apocalyptic British isolation resonates with contemporary questions of identity. Island society has been rebuilt based on a medieval aesthetic and Boyle streaks his film with extracts from old films replaying the glorious Middle Ages and thus questioning this nostalgia for the good old days which obsesses some Britons.

But things have changed. In the world of franchising too. Zombies in particular. The infected are no longer simple humans transformed and vomiting blood: we now distinguish the “fast”, the “slow”, and especially the “Alphas” – naked mutants, stronger and merciless, capable of tearing off a spine with a gesture. Boyle films these horrors with enjoyable sadism, multiplying camera angles during the massacres, creating breathtaking action sequences punctuated by the fantastic soundtrack of Young Fathers.

The director draws from his usual arsenal while renewing his approach. Shot partly on iPhone 15 Pro Max (a nod to the first film’s cheap DV cameras), 28 years later alternates ultra-dynamic visceral sequences and almost mystical contemplative moments and everything exudes the punk energy of Boyle (who does not hesitate to resound with Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life”).

This is where we need to talk about his casting. Aaron Taylor-Johnson delivers a remarkably mature performance as a protective father with troubled motivations. Jodie Comer (Killing Eve And The Last Duel) impresses in a difficult role of a sick mother losing touch with reality. But it is Ralph Fiennes who steals the show as the mysterious Dr. Kelson, a character clearly modeled on the Kurtz ofApocalypse Now and whose appearance takes the film off into something completely unexpected.

And then there is Alfie Williams who carries this family drama and this post-apo coming-of-age on his shoulders. Through his eyes, Boyle explores the transmission of trauma and especially the relationship we can have with myths. 28 years later questions the stories we tell ourselves to survive, and in this it has a little Millerian flavor (that of Mad Max notably) quite striking.

The limits of overflowing narrative ambition

If the first half of the film proves electrifying, the second part sometimes struggles to maintain this tension. The plot zigzags, disperses in multiple directions without always finding its narrative coherence. Certain developments would have deserved more depth, notably the arc of Jodie Comer, brilliant but underexploited, or the intriguing presence of Ralph Fiennes’ character. And the film, designed as the first part of a new trilogy, ends on a cliffhanger which will frustrate some spectators.

Despite these flaws, 28 years later succeeds in its challenge: reinventing a cult franchise without betraying its DNA. Boyle and Garland prove that there is still more to be said in post-apocalyptic cinema, even in the age of The Last of Us.

Both pure horrific entertainment and sociopolitical reflection, 28 years later questions our collective fears and our relationship to civilization, while delivering enjoyable action sequences.

The electrifying shadow of Alex Garland