Netflix adds ‘unrelenting’ horror movie days before follow-up drops in cinemas

A few days before the highly anticipated 28 Years Later hits cinemas, fans of the franchise can catch up on the movie that came before.

In 2002 Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s post-apocalyptic horror movie 28 Days Later was released.

Inspired by George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead film series and John Wyndham’s 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids, it starred Cillian Murphy as a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to discover that the accidental release of a highly contagious, aggression-inducing virus has caused the breakdown of society.

After being made on a budget of $8 million (£5.8 million), the film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $84.6 million (£62 million).

Five years later it was followed by the standalone sequel 28 Weeks Later, which starred Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, and Idris Elba.

Set after the events of the first film, it followed ‘the efforts of United States-led NATO forces to establish a safe zone in London, the consequence of two young siblings breaking protocol to find a photograph of their mother, and the resulting reintroduction of the Rage Virus into the safe zone’.

Like its predecessor, it was also a massive hit, bringing in over $65 million (£47 million) worldwide.

Now, nearly 20 years after that film, the third in the franchise will be released on June 20.

But, before then, fans or those who haven’t yet had a chance to catch up can watch the sequel, which was released on Netflix this week.

When the movie was originally released, it was praised by many.

‘A smashing horror film, frightening and thrilling,’ The Hollywood Reporter wrote in its review.

‘28 Weeks Later excels at creating a keen, creepy sense of a civilization stopped dead in its tracks,’ Entertainment Weekly wrote.

‘28 Weeks Later lacks the streamlined thrust of its predecessor but makes for compelling, adrenaline-fueled viewing just the same,’ The Los Angeles Times added.

Soon after this film was released, there were discussions about a third film but by 2013, Boyle expressed uncertainty about whether it would actually happen.

It wasn’t until 2023 that Boyle and Garland confirmed they’d been working on the next follow-up, which was officially announced in January last year.

It stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes. It’s been teased of the film: ‘Twenty-eight years after the Rage virus escaped a medical research laboratory, survivors have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One group lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway. When a father and his son leave the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, they discover the secrets, wonders and horrors of the outside world.’

28 Weeks Later is streaming on Netflix.

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