Movie Review - 28 Years Later

Director: Danny Boyle
Genre: Horror
Runtime: 115 minutes
Year: 2025
Starring: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, Alfie Williams
 
Description: A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When on 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.
 
Review: “28 Years Later” is the long-awaited sequel to “28 Days Later” (2002) and “28 Weeks Later” (2007). In my opinion, “28 Days Later” is one of the scariest films ever; ending up in a world like that is a nightmare. In “28 Years Later” we meet a group of survivors of the virus, who have started a civilization on a small island, that can only be reached at low tide.

The tension is there, the atmosphere is oppressive and brutal. And it is again terrifying. The performances are really strong. Jody Comer and Ralph Fiennes stand out, but it’s the young Alfie Williams that really impresses. He has a difficult role to play and he does it very well.

“28 Years Later” is a really good film, although very gory as well. Not for the faint of heart. It’s definitely not as good as “28 Days Later”, but I think it reached the same level as “28 Weeks Later”. Solid horror film.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

Five to Watch - Movies About Pandemics

With a global pandemic going on right now, I’m kind of surprised that I haven’t thought of this before. There are a ton of movies about pandemics and now is the time to list of few of them. The ones that you might not have heard about, are overlooked or underrated. Here are five movies about pandemics.

Contagion (2011)
After a business trip to Hong Kong, Beth from Minneapolis doesn’t feel well. Her flu turns out to be a virus infection, which is very contagious and very deadly. While the number of victims is rising rapidly, scientists from the Center of Disease Control and the World Health Organization are trying to get a grip on the disease. Meanwhile, a blogger sends all kinds of conspiracy theories out into the world, and massive panic breaks out. A pretty realistic thriller by David Soderbergh.

World War Z (2013)
When a global virus breaks out that turns people into rabid zombies, former UN employee Gerry Lane has to leave his family behind to bring salvation. The mix of small human drama and pandemic panic gives the film an impressive grandeur, which is enhanced by beautiful spectacle.

Outbreak (1995)
Military virus specialist Sam discovers an unprecedented deadly virus in two places in the US. He wants to take measures to prevent an epidemic, but for mysterious reasons is being thwarted by superiors. Director Wolfgang Petersen executed this well. It’s an exciting film, with the help of a great cast with amongst them Dustin Hoffman, Renee Russo, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey.

It Comes at Night (2017)
In a post-apocalyptic world, in which exposure to a virus leads to a horrific death, a family lives. Father, mother and teenage son live deep in the forest, in an almost completely plastic-covered country house. As always, the threat comes from the outside, but director Trey Edward Shult focuses more on te psychological effects that continuous living with that threat has on the family.

28 Days Later (2002)
A successful zombie film by Danny Boyle. After Jim wakes up from a coma in an empty hospital, London has changed: he finds only deserted neighborhoods and empty streets, with traces of a sudden flight of the population here and there. 28 days earlier, militant animal protectors have allowed a monkey infected with germs to escape from a laboratory, thus declaring a plague over England. Grainy images of empty street made with digital cameras reinforce the feeling of unease in this for the genre very intelligent film.

00s Movie Review - 28 Days Later

Director: Danny Boyle
Genre: Horror/ Thriller
Runtime: 113 minutes
Year: 2002
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, Alex Palmer, Noah Huntley, Christopher Dunne, Emma Hitching, Alexander Delamere, Kim McGarrity

Description: Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.

Review: Jim wakes up, 28 days after an epidemic infection outbreak, in a hospital in London. When he leaves the hospital, he sees that the streets of London are abandoned, trash everywhere, cars and busses in the middle of the street. When he visits a church he is confronted with the aftermath. People with serious rage are coming after him. When he flees, Jim meets Mark and Selena. They tell Jim what really happened and the three join forces. When they visit Jim’s parents, who killed themselves, they decide to go out and find more survivors.
A lot of horror films don’t have the best script or story, but the movie is scary anyway. “28 Days Later’ doesn’t have an ingenious plot either, but it’s very well shot. The power is especially in the silences. Normally music and sound effects build up tension, but here it’s absolute silence. You have to focus on the dialogue, which makes you more involved with the characters. And the strong cast also helps making this movie as believable and convincing as it is. Unlike a lot of horror movies, this movie has characters with depth and you actually care about them. And the performance are also great.
This is a must for every horror fan, it’s definitely one of my favorite horror movies.

Rating: 5 / 5

Top 5 Thursday: Dumbest Decisions in Horror Movies

Are you sure you going with that? We all know that in horror movies, people can make dumb decisions. They’re simply dumb people. I listed the five dumbest decisions in horror movies.

5. Almost safe Helen (I Know What You Did Last Summer)
When Helen is chased by the hook man in “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, there is a moment where she could have gotten away. Helen is in an alley and sees the street filled with people. She is almost there, but instead of running for her life, she stops and turns around. To nothing. When Helen turn back, guess who’s there? End of Helen.

4. Don’t believe the scientists (28 Days Later)
In the opening scene of “28 Days Later” we meet a group of activists that wants to free apes. The scientists warns them about the danger and how highly aggressive the apes are. You can actually see their behavior. But why would a scientist be right? They release the apes and with that release an aggressive virus. And that will have serious consequences to the human race.

3. Watch the video (The Ring)
There is this creepy, disturbing video that, if you watch it, will kill you within seven day. If you know about this, what do you do? Exactly NOT watch it! Well, in “The Ring” they off course do.

2. Not calling the cops (Scream)
Casey is home alone and gets a creepy phone call. While I would have called the cop immediately, she keeps answering his calls and stays on the phone, instead of hanging up and calling the authorities. She clearly has access to a working phone line, which lots of horror characters don’t have.

1. All for the tourists (Jaws)
Even though a dead body washed up on shore and a marine biologists warns him, Mayor Larry Vaughn doesn’t close the beach. Because of the tourists. He just made someone happy: the hungry shark.

They Almost Made the Top 5: Exploring an unexplored cave (The Descent), Hands in the Box (Saw 2)

Top 5 Thursday: Horror Movies from the 2000s

I did a 1990s version of this list last week, so I’m doing kind of like a series. This time, horror movies from the 2000s. I’m excluding horror comedies, like “Shaun of the Dead” and “Zombieland”. Here are my favorites.

5. The Mist

Creepy and disturbing. Not just the monsters and creatures, but also what a situation like this can do to people. People are crazy

 

 

4. Final Destination

No visible monster, ghost or any other creatures. This time it’s death itself and the people in “Final Destination” are trying to cheat death. A really good movie in the genre.

 

 

3. Let the Right One In

It’s a Swedish movie, based on the story of John Ajvide Lindqvist (the Scandinavian Stephen King). The bullied Oskar befriends a girl, Eli. She is a bit peculiar, later shown she is a vampire. Very good horror movie without any spectacle.

 

 

2. 28 Days Later

Danny Boyle likes to play around with different genres. And the horror genre went well for him. This is such a good movie, which also terrifies me. It all looks so realistic.

 

 

1. The Descent

The movie is scary for a couple of reasons. At first, the spelunking. Tight spaces and darkness all around, two things that are very frightening, even without monsters around you. But that’s the second scary thing, because there are monsters in that cave. I remember when I first saw one of the monsters. It shocked me.

 

 

They Almost Made the Top 5: Saw, Rec, Slither, Hostel, Paranormal Activity, The Ring, Drag Me to hell