With "28 Years Later," Danny Boyle imagines an original horror film

In 28 Years Later , you show the suffering of the infected. A rather unusual theme for a zombie film...

This idea was born from initial research. I didn't want to make a simple zombie film, but rather a reinvention, an update of the genre. We thought about how to represent these creatures, this threat. While exploring, we came across extraordinary medical photographs of rabies patients. These images showed the different stages of the disease, which is extremely painful. Today, if you are bitten by a dog, a very painful injection can save you. But in the past, without treatment, rabies progressed inexorably. In the third stage, called hydrophobia, patients developed a visceral fear of water. These photos, taken in hospitals, also captured faces contorted with terror when you brought a bottle of water near them… We then thought: what if, at the moment the infected person attacks you, they were not triumphant, but terrified? In this case, the last thing you see is someone killing you, but suffering at the same time. This idea of ​​uncontrollable pain and fear makes the infected tragic.

It's about the epidemic. Has the evolution of Covid influenced your creative process?

Yes, a lot. When we started working on this project, 28 years after the initial epidemic depicted in the first installment, we wondered what had changed. We see the survivors living self-sufficiently, on a farm or a fortified island, protected not only from the infected, but also from outsiders. A community of 100 to 150 people is ideal: small enough for everyone to know each other, for trust to be based on personal relationships, without the need for systems like money or religion. Everything seemed stable at first. Then we wondered about the evolution of the virus. Covid taught us that, in the face of a pandemic, behaviors evolve. At first, everyone was terrified, confined, and cautious. Then, little by little, people relaxed and took more risks. We saw that viruses mutate and adapt. So we imagined that our virus had also evolved. The infected, who burned through enormous amounts of energy in their frenzy, would have quickly exhausted themselves if they hadn't changed. They learned to feed themselves, to hunt in groups, like organized predators, much like felines, and even had Alphas as leaders.

Regarding violence, where do you draw the line in a horror film, and how did you approach this?

In horror, the line that must not be crossed is that of credibility. The audience must believe it, must feel the emotions viscerally. It's not a question of medical realism, but of conviction. The spectators must say to themselves: "Yes, it could happen like that." Horror works because it touches something deep, a raw sensation. That's why I emphasize the pain of the infected, so that we feel it in our guts. That's what motivates us to go see a horror film: to experience that intensity.

Our opinion

It's been nearly thirty years since the Fury virus escaped from a biological weapons laboratory. While strict containment was put in place, some found ways to survive among the infected. Thus, a community of survivors took refuge on a small island connected to the mainland only by a road, placed under heavy protection...

Our opinion

28 Days Later (2002), 28 Weeks Later (2007) and therefore 28 Years Later (2025). A new installment that is set in the same universe as the previous ones but which is also the starting point of a new trilogy. The final cliffhanger leaves a lot of things hanging. And if we do not find, for the moment, the original hero, Jim, played by Cillian Murphy (Danny Boyle promises that he will appear at the end of the next film and will take the reins of the last one), this installment offers characters strong enough to immerse us again in this England cut off from the world due to the presence of infected.

The main protagonist, Spike, a pre-teen, discovers this apocalyptic world, not seeking to be a zombie killer like the men around him, but to be in a form of empathy. He also confronts death through the illness from which his mother suffers, whom he tries to save until the end. In this way, this anti-blockbuster evokes illness and the need to pay tribute to loved ones who have left us. A memorial created with skulls, by a former marginal doctor (the astonishing Ralph Fiennes), perfectly illustrates this point. With his nervous and dynamic sense of direction, the director of Trainspotting also shows the pain... of these zombies, as if they were somehow aware of their condition.

BY DANNY BOYLE (Great Britain), with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Alfie Williams… Horror. 1h55. Our rating: 4/5.