Danny Boyle's zombie reboot 28 Years Later leaves us dangling

Danny Boyle is the most British of directors, whether it’s portraying life under Margaret Thatcher in Trainspotting or invoking the National Health Service, the Queen and James Bond in the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.

So. it’s no surprise that the trailer for his new film 28 Years Later should rest on a poem by Rudyard Kipling.

In 28 Years Later, Boyle reunites with writer Alex Garland 23 years after they re-invented the zombie plague movie.

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Their "infected" were a lot speedier and scarier than George Romero’s shambling, living dead. They were more like hyped-up soccer hooligans.

This film flashes back to the beginning with a bunch of terrified kids being plonked in front of their TV – the Teletubbies, of course – by their parents, hoping they’ll be protected from invasion.

There is no protection of course, but at least one of the children – Jimmy – manages to escape.

28 years later we find out how Britain has coped. And we learn that the country has been quarantined by the rest of the world. Like Brexit in reverse, Britain has been abandoned to get on the best it can.

There are small pockets of survivors, including a settlement off the north-east coast.

Life is primitive on Holy Island – no power, no communication. While the mainland has mostly been left to the infected, it’s necessary to go there occasionally for fuel and supplies. There’s a causeway that rises above the water a few hours a day.

Today is going to be 12-year-old Spike’s first trip over with his father Jamie - Aaron Taylor-Johnson. It’s a rite of passage everyone has to go through.

But village elder Jenny reminds them of the rules. If there’s trouble no-one will come to bring them – and possible infection – back to the island.

Spike’s mother Isla – Jodie Comer, terrific as always – is an invalid, mostly bed-bound. Sometimes, she doesn’t even seem to know who Spike is.

Spike’s dream is for her to be made well. But there’s no doctor on the island, or apparently anywhere in the country.

Spike has another task – to kill his first infected. His weapon of choice is a medieval longbow and Jamie shows him how to aim at the slower, worm-eating variety.

There are various mutations of infected now. You definitely don’t want to run into the new, smarter Alphas.

But Spike starts to have doubts about the view of the world he’s been given by his father and the rest of the village.

Particularly when he discovers there actually is a doctor living on the mainland who he’s been told to stay away from. One who might be able to treat his mother.

It’s Ralph Fiennes, offering Spike and Isla an introduction to the world off the island.

There’s more going on there than Spike had dreamed of – including a towering pile of skulls, roaming vigilantes who kill for fun and - possibly even scarier - an infected woman who’s pregnant. Can they breed now?

And just as you start to engage with a new, broader world, 28 Years Later suddenly stops. Irritatingly, it’s part one of a trilogy – like everything these days.

A trilogy with no guarantees of a satisfactory outcome.

The good news about 28 Years Later chapter one is it’s well-made with good, smart ideas, as you’d expect from writer Garland, though the film turns down the visceral shocks a bit this time.

The bad news, of course, is you’re left dangling.

I gather chapter two comes out next year. And your subconscious search for little Jimmy after 28 years is confused by the fact that just about everyone in this film is called James, Jimmy or Jamie.

Mind you – possible spoiler alert for chapter two – Cillian Murphy, the lead in the original 28 Days Later, played a character called Jim.

Listen to Simon Morris review the latest films in At The Movies, available here or on Sundays at 1.30pm on RNZ National.