Yours portly and his brother made it to a couple of movies during this most recent trip to Indianapolis.  While we were up in Chicago, we beat the heat with a viewing of 28 Years Later (2025), the third film in a long trilogy spanning back to 2002 with 28 Days Later (2002) and 28 Weeks Later (2007).  Apparently, this third installment lingered in development hell for two decades.

It was well worth the wait.

28 Years Later picks up—you guessed it—twenty-eight years after the outbreak of the Rage Virus, which rapidly turns people into fast-moving, ravenous zombies.  The Rage Virus was defeated in Continental Europe, but the British Isles were overrun completely.  Now, a hodge-podge of international patrols quarantine the United Kingdom permanently, while a few survivors persist on Lindisfarne, a small island separated from mainland Britain by a causeway.  The causeway floods when the tide is high, protecting the islanders from zombies; when the tide is low, islanders venture onto the island to search for food and supplies.

In the wake of the virus, England has reverted to its natural state—just with zombies roaming around.  Massive herds of deer stampede across the island.  Lush foliage grows densely.  The lack of light pollution makes the Northern Lights visible, as well as the full panoply of stars, constellations, and galaxies.  The Lindisfarne islanders live a meager but healthy existence, growing vegetables and raising sheep and other livestock.  The men explore the mainland, equipped and trained with longbows.

Indeed, the film frequently intercuts images of English longbowman from a film about the Hundred Years’ War, comparing the patriotic and self-sufficient islanders with their brave English ancestors.  I thought it was a clever touch that the men used longbows against the zombies; the weapon was and is easy to use, build, and maintain.  It also fires very quickly, with deadly accuracy even at range.  It makes sense that a hardy group of English survivors would, in the absence of firearms, revert to the weapon that nearly defeated the French for good in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

The flick is a horror film, yes—the zombies are cool, and evolving, even developing their own tribal societies—but it is also a coming-of-age story.  Twelve-year old Spike goes on his first hunt with his father, Jamie.  Spike learns a great deal about death and survival along the way.

Without spoiling too much, Spike sees a campfire, which—through various means—he learns is the location of a physician.  Spike’s mother, Isla, is suffering from an unknown mental and physical illness, and Spike decides to take his mother into zombie-infested territory to seek the doctor’s advice.

In addition to this coming-of-age tale, the film is a sophisticated meditation on death and grief.  So many horror films today try to explore the theme of grief, but do so rather clumsily.  28 Years Later pulls off this theme beautifully, in a way that is poignant, touching, subtle, and effective.

My brother remarked that he could have kept watching the movie for another hour.  That is the best endorsement I can think to offer here.  Indeed, it felt like the movie might have another hour in it, but it stopped, clearly (and hopefully) setting the series up for a fourth installment.

If you only see one flick this summer, see 28 Years Later.