Going into 28 Years Later, I was thinking of jokes I could make about the title.  The original, 28 Days Later (2002), focuses on Jim (Cillian Murphy), who wakes up in a hospital to a London devastated by a “rage virus” that quickly turns humans into anger filled monsters.  Basically, think of a zombie and imagine it can run at normal human speed as it attacks you.  It is a sobering thought.  It had also been a while since I have viewed it, or its sequel, 28 Weeks Later(2007).  This should not be surprising given my aversion to the horror genre, though time can dim memories.  Hence, I was going to quip about how the next one in the franchise should be “28 Months Later” since that is the next logical time period.  Then I watched 28 Years Later.  Now I remember why this is not funny, and I pray that none of this ever becomes a reality.

Then again, there may not be a scarier reality than having to watch Teletubbies (1998-2001) as we see a group of children doing at the beginning of 28 Years Later.  They are being distracted by their parents as outside the rage beasts attack the adults.  Being too curious for his own good, Jimmy (Rocco Haynes) opens the door to the nightmare outside.  He is told to run, which he does to the church where Jimmy’s father (Sandy Batchelor) is a vicar.  He is inside praying and awaiting the arrival of the monsters.  Dad gives his son the Cross around his neck before telling the boy to hide and accepting his fate.  We then move forward the title number of years and the British Isles have been quarantined from the rest of the world, where the rage virus has been defeated.  Living on a small island near the coast is Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his son Spike (Alfie Williams).  Their settlement is self-contained, being connected to a narrow strip of land that is only walkable at low tide.  Any other time of the day, the currents sweep people and the infected away to drown.  Everybody in the community has a role, and Jamie’s is as a scavenger.  This also seems to be a hereditary job as today is a big day for Spike.  With everyone cheering the boy on, he is about to go onto the mainland for the first time.  Despite the support, the one person who is not keen on this happening is his sick mother, Isla (Jodie Comer).  Nobody is sure what is wrong with her, but whatever it is, she appears to periodically hallucinating and generally confused.  As such, her objections are set aside as Jamie and Spike venture into the wilds.  As they move about, the main lesson Jamie seeks to instill in his son is a familiarity with killing the rage monsters.  Spike gets a warm-up with a variety of the creatures that are overweight and slow-moving, mostly crawling along on their bellies.  The second time, however, they are spotted by the swifter kind, which is led by an “Alpha.”  Luckily, this faster, less vulnerable, and stronger one does not give chase like its followers, but it is enough to make all of Spike’s arrows miss due to nerves.  Father and son take refuge for the night in an abandoned house, but are forced to evacuate when a deer herd thunders past and begins collapsing the structure.  Being out in the open, they attempt a dash for the settlement, though the Alpha nearly catches them at the gate.  There follows a large party with everyone in town in attendance celebrating Spike returning safely.  Rather than being jovial, Spike is embarrassed by Jamie’s embellishments to their tale of survival.  The son is also scandalized when he sees dad sneak away with another woman.  Thus, Spike returns home where old-timer Sam (Christopher Fulford) has been monitoring Isla.  Since Sam had not been there for story time, Spike fills the old man in with the boy’s version, but adds the strange fire they had seen burning on the horizon when they were at the house.  Though Sam is somewhat hesitant to talk about it since Jamie had been dismissive, Spike is told that the flames came from a camp where Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) lives.  In the morning, Spike suggests they bring Isla there, but Jamie claims that the physician is crazy.  Not satisfied with this answer, Spike accuses his dad of being unfaithful and wanting his mom to die.  Jamie walks away angry, which gives Spike the opportunity to escape with his mother.  Spike takes it upon himself to keep his mom safe, but at one point they need rescuing by a lone North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) soldier named Erik (Edvin Ryding) from Sweden whose squad had been marooned while conducting a quarantine patrol.  Being the only one left from his comrades, he is thankful for companions but annoyed to be helping a woman who seems to have lost her mind.  This opinion is not helped when Isla assists an infected woman who delivers a baby, shooting the mother immediately after the birth.  Unfortunately, Erik is not long for the world as he is snatched by another Alpha and gruesomely killed.  The same fate is about to befall mother and son when Dr. Kelson intervenes.  Though the skull filled camp in which he lives adds to his aura of lunacy, he is actually a caring and kind doctor.  Sadly, while admitting possible inaccuracies due to the lack of diagnostic equipment, he determines that Isla has advanced cancer and does not give her long to live.  Over Spike’s objections, Dr. Kelson assists Isla in ending her life.  Dr. Kelson gives the boy the skull to place in the garden as a monument to her before returning to the settlement with the baby, who looks to be uninfected and whom he names after his mom.  However, he decides not to stay, leaving a letter for his aggrieved father before setting off to explore the interior.  He is chased by a pack of the infected until he is saved by Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and his party of “Jimmies.”

To be rescued in this manner might sound like a hopeful end to 28 Years Later, but Sir Jimmy Crystal is apparently the grown-up version of the kid seen at the beginning of the film.  Again, nothing about that should sound suspicious until you notice that he is wearing the Cross his father gave him upside-down.  Even if our society is slipping further away from Christ, I believe most audience members will recognize that as a bad sign.  Additionally, it is an anti-Christian symbol that signals evil without the need of a lengthy explanation.  There are plenty of examples from the horror genre where a Crucifix in such a position is an ill omen.  In real life, it is bad to flip it in such a way, but the Catholic Church does not necessarily subscribe to this idea.  Instead, it is the product of cinema that associates it with satanism.  In Catholic tradition, St. Peter, the “rock” on whom the Church was built and our first pope, was crucified in this manner.  Either way, like the Cross of Jesus, it is an instrument of torture that should not be taken lightly.  Hence, while the rest of the film has a gravitas, I was confused by the tone at the end.  The flamboyantly dressed Jimmies jump down to help Spike, making killing the infected into a silly game as they do parkour to do their violence.  It is such a contrast to what came before it, specifically the macabre but poignant skull forest built by Dr. Kelson.  The bones make it macabre, but he explains it in terms of memento mori, which is a Latin term originating with the Church that means, “remember, you must die.”  The doctor is honoring the dead with it, and while, as a Catholic, I do not condone the assisted suicide, it is slightly redeemed by the moment it affords Spike with his mom’s skull.  Hence, it is so out of phase with the ending that it makes me worry for the upcoming sequel.

Yes, apparently, they are making an immediate follow-up to 28 Years Later.  At the same time, what this one and the others in the series demonstrate is the preciousness of life.  Again, I do not like how Isla is killed.  It does not matter that she has terminal cancer or lives in a world full of rage monsters.  As long as we can draw breath, our lives matter, if not to us than to God.  He can make use of suffering, to humble the strong, for instance, or to demonstrate the importance of caring for those in need.  As odd as it might be to say, we can see this in Spike’s attitude towards killing in the beginning.  If, God forbid, we were to ever be in such an environment where there was a virus that turns people into murderous monsters, we would be hard-pressed to show mercy to the infected.  Even the Church is hesitant to condemn someone who ends the life of another in self-defense, particularly if it is a last resort.  This is not Jamie’s attitude.  He is far too eager to see Spike be deadly, and too proud in the aftermath.  Jamie’s intent is partially understandable, wishing to prepare his son for a brutal and dangerous environment.  Yet, it is Isla that shows the humanity of which we are all capable.  The infected woman that gives birth initially lunges at Isla.  However, after a few calming breaths, they hold hands as she goes into labor.  It is Erik that ruins the scene.  Nonetheless, Isla, and Spike later, do the Christian thing and protect the baby.  It a sequence where the sanctity of life is honored, praise God.  As such, I worry about such a world coming to pass less for the actual monsters but for life becoming cheap.  Since it is unlikely that this will ever happen, I pray for a greater value to be placed on all God’s children.

Ultimately, 28 Days Later is scary because there are far fewer of God’s children in it.  This is made clear throughout, but it also shifts its tone.  There are some genuinely touching moments in it, but the changes in direction bring down my opinion.  What makes it unrecommendable is the fact that it is truly disgusting in parts, playing up the gore element of horror.  This one is a pass.