28 YEARS LATER

 Fear Scale :⭐⭐☆☆☆

My rating:4/10

Press Rating: 7/ 10

(Based on IMDb, Letterboxd, and AlloCiné)

Year:2025

Duration:1h55

Fans of the cult zombie saga have waited a long time for this... and in the end, you kind of want to say: "18 years for this?"

I won’t beat around the bush or pretend I had a great time watching this film, saying I had a bad time would be a stretch too. I was really curious going into it, having enjoyed the first two movies and noticing that the reviews were very split.

Right off the bat, I was disappointed with the opening scene. The first two films gave us haunting, tense intros that built suspense over several minutes. Here, everything moves too fast, it’s more confusing than frightening.

And honestly, that’s my main issue throughout the film: 28 Years Later feels disconnected from the rest of the saga. Even if 28 Weeks Later already had a different tone from 28 Days Later, they still shared key elements. This one feels like a completely separate zombie film.

The infected are no longer a real threat—SPOILERS—a 12-year-old kid survives alone in a forest full of infected? That would absolutely NOT have happened in the earlier films.

And they didn’t even use John Murphy’s iconic theme?! That’s criminal. It felt more like I was watching a drawn-out episode of The Walking Dead than a true 28 Later film.

Speaking of "drawn-out"... I’m not joking, this film feels LONG—especially the second half.

Without spoiling too much, the second part basically replays the first, but slower, longer, and less effective. Toward the end, I was just counting the minutes, especially as the film leans more into family drama than horror.

That being said, there are still a few redeeming qualities. A couple of scenes manage to keep you hooked, and the young protagonist and his relationship with his mother were actually touching.

If you loved the first two films, I’d say watch this one out of curiosity—but honestly, you’ll probably be disappointed and miss the boldness and charm that made the originals so memorable.