‘28 Years Later’ is one of the most unexpected artistic successes in recent memory. The film signifies the reunion of early 00s dynamic duo Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, the director/screenwriter team responsible for the original ‘28 Days Later’, ‘The Beach’, and ‘Sunshine’ before going their separate ways. Garland has gone on to become an iconic filmmaker himself (‘Ex Machina’, ‘Annihilation’, ‘Civil War’), while Boyle has been consistently churning out interesting work to varying degrees of success on the big and small screen. What would these two bring for their revisit to this zombie apocalyptic world? It turns out quite a bit thematically and yet another level up visually for a director known for his frenetic style.

28YL opens at the very start of the rage virus epidemic, in contrast with 28DL’s in media res start. Instead of the iconic visual of Cillian Murphy waking up in a deserted hospital, 28YL begins to the strains and image of that annoyingly popular British (and US) children’s television staple, ‘Teletubbies’. It turns out that a group of neighborhood children have been sequestered in an attempt to protect them from the roving bands of manic infected looking for blood. A young boy, Jimmy, is the focal point of this sequence as he escapes the invaded house and finds himself at his pastor father’s church. It’s here where his dad seemingly welcomes the ransacking horde, but Jimmy remains safely in hiding to witness the violent orgy of death.

Cut to some fateful expository on screen text to provide a brief overview of the consequent quarantine and segregation of the British Isles and ending with an ominous “28 years later . . . “, the movie then introduces its main characters. While the world has moved on and presumably resumed to become our modern day, this story is focused on a tiny community that has successfully cordoned itself off on an even smaller island, connected to mainland England via a causeway that’s exposed only during low tide. It’s here where resides young Alfie Williams’ character Spike, who lives in a rundown but still cozy abode with his parents, dad Jamie (a charismatic if singular-minded Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and mom Isla (Jodie Comer covered in sweat and believably delusional).

Danny Boyle is no stranger to coming-of-age tales that veer askew, but perhaps the biggest surprise of 28YL is that it falls into this category and it’s up there with his best (see ‘millions’, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, and even ‘Trainspotting’ to some degree). As per this strange locked culture, Spike has been preparing for his role as a forager on the mainland, trained with a bow, although he’s yet to bag his first “kill.” It’s his dad’s intent to help him by escorting him to the wilds of the mainland to seek out a slow-moving, worm-eating mutation of the fast-running infected and take it out via the jugular. They end up getting up to much more, including having a run-in with a trussed up, upside-down hanging, head-bagged zombie, and seeing evidence of a constantly burning fire, both the handiwork of human denizens whom Jamie refers to as having “strange” ways.

This is all preamble to Spike’s return jaunts to the mainland wilderness and interactions with other humans and fascinating evolutions of the plague-stricken. Throughout these encounters, multiple metaphors for societal ills, misunderstandings, and appreciations of life and death abound. Isolationist and populist parallels to real life events like Brexit, false truth in social media, and immigrant invasion, are thinly veiled but extremely well executed over scene after scene of driving action, constant music, gorgeous visuals, and affecting acting from the principals and supporting characters alike. This is truly some of Danny Boyle’s best and most iconic work, even more surprising when understanding his extensive use of iPhone rigs coupled with his signature cutting style. ‘28 Years Later’ is the first in a planned trilogy (the second of which has already been shot(?)) that follows some of the characters introduced here – if the ideas and the execution is anywhere close to this foundation set by the director and screenwriter Garland, horror fans are in for real unexpected treats . . .

Directed By: Danny Boyle

Written By: Alex Garland

Rated: R

Running Time: 115 min.

* * * * (out of 4 stars) -OR- A