I went to see the movie 28 Years Later with no expectations ¹(I thought it could be a (trashy ?) zombie horror movie), but found this movie to be suprisingly quality film-making - great story, great acting, good cinematography ². Roughly, the story is about the protagonist teenager Spikey who is part of a survivor village holed up in an island off mainland (Britain) after a virus turns pretty-much-everyone-else into zombies and his adventures visiting the mainland and his encounters with the zombies. I really liked the movie and I think it ranks highly amongst other greats in the genre like Apocalypto and Train to Busan.

The movie splits very well into 2 parts along the intermission. The first-part is Spikey’s fake coming-of-age where he visits the mainland with Dad, kills a ceremonious fat zombie, gets chased down by other zombies before getting back to the island safely. The second-part is Spikey’s real coming-of-age. It’s slightly more logic-bending and interesting, he wants to treat his progressively sicker mother, so he causes a diversion, takes her and comes to the mainland in search of a doctor who is supposedly kooky, lives-alone and spends his time burning the dead. On the way, they are chased by zombies -> meet Erik (aka Nordic super soldier) -> deliver a normal baby from a zombie mother. Finally when they meet the doctor in his lair of skulls and bones, he tells the mother she has terminal cancer, then euthanizes her and cremates her. Spikey then returns to the island, drops-off the new-born baby and goes back to the Mainland ³ where he’s chased by zombies again. The movie ends in suspense with Spikey being rescued (adopted ?) by a fashionable (track-suit wearing) british gang.

Erik’s character in the second-part of the movie was a great addition. Absolutely hilarious Swedish-coded dialogue delivery (explanation of online-delivery to a survivor, proving a point to his delivery driver friend by signing up for the navy). His short stay on screen was truly appreciated by the audience (and lightened the mood in the theatre) before having his head ripped out by an Alpha (Super Zombie).

I think this movie works very well in its genre because it’s a very well told story with a proper hero-arc for the protagonist and great world-building. Spikey feels like a real teenager, the world he is part of feels like a very real system (in the higher-level sense that its barbarism without civilization). This is unlike trashy superhero movies where the hero does not feel like a person (in terms of their actions, behaviour, intentions) nor does the world around him which doesn’t seem coherent.