Mighty Morphin’ Jimmy Rangers!

Previously on 28 Years Later: Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland reunited to imagine further adventures and new terrors in the world of their 2003 speed-freak zombie nightmare 28 Days Later, which redefined the subgenre’s rules for years to come. I wrote of 28YL, “Boyle shifts gears to a more measured pace as Garland reveals the film’s true heart — one of vain hopes in a hopeless environment, of love in an arena of rage, of reconnecting with inner humanity in the middle of the killing fields. Audiences gripped by fiercer bloodlust craving their EPIC KILLS NOW NOW NOW might then revolt. Given Garland’s recent track record for sometimes denying our base cravings, it’s worth wondering if maybe the best zombie movies are the ones that veer from the storytelling dead end by transforming into another kind of movie.” I didn’t expect Boyle to test me on this right then and there: the film’s last five minutes needle-scratched off the turntable into one last out-of-nowhere cliffhanger throwdown that felt like a Skittles ad starring Mr. T’s cartoon teen gymnastic squad.

That was never meant to be The End, though. Their planned trilogy continues with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, for which Boyle retires to a producer’s chair and invites guest director Nia DaCosta (The Marvels, the Candyman remake) to team up with Garland and lay fresh eyes on what happens next. Once again most of the undead are reduced to incidental critters in favor of Man’s Inhumanity to Man, but the foregrounded terrors are all the scarier for it. That goes double for the dance number.

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