The third installment of this “Rage Virus” horror film series comes prior to its own sequel “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” scheduled to be released in January. Both films were written by Alex Garland (Civil War, Warfare). This one is directed by Danny Boyle, who directed the first of the films, 28 Days Later. Boyle loves to challenge perspectives in his films, like- the abandoned house is discovered to be occupied, the tranquil forest is discovered to be hostile, and of course, the doting father is actually affluent. Garland’s scripts tend to be cryptic, leading up to a pinnacle location for the climax of the story. All those ingredients are played out in this film, and it leaves the film feeling uneven and incomplete. The film feels like a technically sound, rough draft of a film.  

The production sets and cinematography are terrific and even the performance doesn’t pull you away, but the choice of editing and inserting stock footage of old films and recordings of microphone military shouts and commands for me feel foreign to the film. It does not add anything to the make-up of theme or tone of the film. The choice to constantly bombard the audience in its quieter moments of horrific shrills and screams to make sure you don’t forget the horror and devastation that encircles your life- even if you live on an island off the mainland, which is quarantined off from other countries. 

The horror, shock, and violence is all there and wonderfully presented and placed in the film, but in a dystopian, post-zombie infested world want needs to work are the surviving characters and I felt nothing for any of them. Boyle loves to cast doe-eyed innocent face kids in his film to contrast the horror and although Alfie Williams is doing fantastic as Spike in this, there’s not much there to entice interest for me throughout. There is a great set-up for a terrific scene in the films when young boy Spike is holding a baby infant in front of the Bone Temple, a set-up that should speak volumes to the theme and tone of the film, but falls empty and loses momentum to deliver because of the cacophony of aesthetics and tone. 28 Days Later wanted to present compassion as the greater tool to survival instead it shows us life is just in mere circumstantial events with luck outweighing  skill, and stupidity. 5.5/10