The powerful creative duo, Danny Boyle & Alex Garland, have returned with 28 YEARS LATER, a solid sequel to their original film of nearly three decades ago.

It's not often that we get filmmakers creating real time sequels 28 years after their original, clever undead thriller posed the first challenge to George Romero's zombie film legacy.

They waste no time pulling us back into their world. The film opens with young children watching the Teletubbies as the sounds of their parents in distress begin to intrude. Boyle stages it perfectly, with the older children beginning to cry and the younger ones watching them in horror. It's the beginning of the rage virus depicted in the first film and cleverly sets up pieces of this brand new envisioned trilogy from Boyle & Garland.

We then move forward the title 28 years.

Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and young Spike (Alfie Williams) are part of a small island of quarantined survivors. Their island is only reachable during low tide, when a thin sliver of walkway connects it to the mainland.

The remainder of Europe has beat back the rage virus and life goes on, but our island exists in a world of no technology, cell phones of computers. They work the land by hand and guard the massive gates around their community like that ragtag bunch in Mad Max that always surrounded the gas reserves.

Boyle & Garland deftly set up every day life in the community, immersing us in their very solitary world.

Jamie and Spike set out on the young man's first journey into life beyond the island, in quest of his "first kill".

Alfie Williams is a find, delivering a great performance as a young man in awe of what he finds outside his village. But this isn't a trip to Disneyland. It's a raw, tense hunting trip filled with graphic deaths, mutated creatures of every sort and life threatening danger.

Over the past three decades, the infected have morphed into very distinct categories. Two are the most fascinating, including a huge, slimy, slithering fat infected breed that moves very slowly, sucking at the ground or your shoe laces for worms.

Not too hard to escape from unless you doze off.

The second is wild. The Alphas are rage infected beings in which the virus has acted like some sort of steroid on steroids. They are tall, incredibly fast and, shall we say, dis-proportionally gifted in the well endowed category.

Raw, naked and savage, the Alphas have the same energy of the zombies in "World War Z', but with a more primal desire for blood. And they are smart, starting to show signs of community, of tribalism and patience. They are the raptors of the infected.

To say too much more would be to reveal too much of what lies ahead.

Jodie Comer (The Bikeriders) is terrific as Spike's ailing mother Isla.

Ralph Fiennes steals the film as Dr. Kelson, a former physician who has carved out his own territory on the island. Fiennes delivers one of the most complex characters I've seen recently. His world seems to exist on another planet from Spike's village, even though they are mere miles apart.

Fiennes' Doctor had been on screen for twenty minutes and I found myself tensing up, terrified of what he's capable of at any moment. He is not what I expected from the very clever trailers.

Boyle & Garland's original " 28 Days Later" was a very different film. A non-stop, terrifying roller coaster ride with a spare moment to take a breath once in awhile. Their new entry is a very different creature.

There are terrific and taut escapes, especially Jamie and Spike's first encounter with the Alphas in that beautiful, idyllic green countryside. But at least half of this new chapter is a reflective drama, immersing us into life on the island and the family drama within. Taylor-Johnson is so different in every film he makes and his conflicted Dad here shows great range. He's terrific in the action sequences, offering up even more evidence of why he should be the next OO7.

The final act with Comer, Fiennes & Williams is haunting and powerful, but will it satisfy fans of the action packed original? It worked for me as a fascinating and unpredictable experience dropping back into this universe.

As a side note, it was primarily shot using an iPhone 15 Pro Max, which makes this film the biggest feature length movie to be shot on a smartphone. That is incredible.

The mad final five minutes sets up part two of the trilogy, which is already done filming and will hit theaters in January 2026.

While 28 YEARS LATER doesn't hit the manic heights or resonance of the original, it's a fascinating film, loaded with Boyle's very distinct visual style. Hell, that alone gets it a solid B.

There are many kinds of deaths...some are better than others....