28 Years Later Is the Pick of the Week

I first started blogging back in 2004. That was before social media took over everything. Blogs enabled people who weren’t quite savvy enough to create their own webpages to still be creative. I started mine when the wife and I did a year abroad in Strasbourg, France. Initially I blogged as a journal, a way to tell my friends and family members what we were doing across the ocean. But eventually I got bored writing about cheese and baguettes, and I started writing reviews of movies, music, and books.

The problem was I didn’t know how to reach people beyond my friends and family. There were lots of blogs out there like mine, all vying for the same eyes. Then I discovered Blogcritics. That site had the genius idea of pulling lots of different bloggers under the same banner. More writers meant more reviews, which generated more views.

One of the first reviews I ever wrote for Blogcritics was for Danny Boyle’s revolutionary zombie flick 28 Days Later. Whereas I considered a review on my site a success if I got one or two comments, my review for Blogcritics generated dozens. Mostly negative. Quite a few were angry I dared call the monsters zombies instead of infected.

I was surprised by that, but also a little excited. Arguing on the internet was new and fun (at least back then anyhow). I was surprised because my review was mostly positive (it has sadly been lost in the dustbin of the Internet, so I can’t link to it). I really liked the movie. It was the first film to create fast zombies.

I was less in love with the sequel, which came out a few years later, but the original remained a classic. And now, because everything old gets retold or reimagined, Danny Boyle has made 28 Years Later. I saw it in theaters and quite liked it.

In this film, the zombies have been eradicated across the world except on the British Isles, where they’ve essentially been allowed to exist unbothered. There are a few groups of humans still living there, unsaved and not allowed to leave. One such group lives on a small island and has created their own strange community. They’ve created a coming-of-age ritual in which youngsters must cross over to the mainland and kill a few zombies. One lad, after surviving this ritual, decides to take his very ill mom (a wonderful Jodie Comer) back into the mainland in search of a mysterious doctor who might be able to heal her.

Naturally, he comes across loads of new and more deadly zombies along the way. Boyle manages to find interesting ways to bring us back into this world and tomorrow the film will be available for home video and that has become this week’s pick.

Also out this week that looks interesting

Superman (2025): The DC Extended Universe had always floundered behind the MCU. There are a myriad reasons why, but I’m not big enough a fan to get into them. Recently, the bosses decided to hand James Gunn the reins, and he’s essentially rebooting the entire thing. The first film in this new universe was Superman. I’ve not yet seen it (I’ve never been a big Superman fan), but it made a lot of money and garnered pretty good reviews, including the review by Todd Karella. It is now hitting the home video market in a variety of formats and sets.

Flow 4K: This animated film about a cat trapped on a boat with a variety of other animals garnered great reviews and is now getting the Criterion treatment.

The Last of Us: The Complete Second Season: Season One of this post-apocalyptic zombie series based on the award-winning video game was one of my favorite series of 2023. The second season gets even darker, and there are at least a couple of moments that will absolutely divide audiences, but I loved it. I’ll have a full review up soon.

Chucky: The Complete Series: As a bona fide horror fan, I hate to admit I’ve only seen one film in this long-running, well-loved Child’s Play film series. I didn’t even know there was a television spin-off. The original creator, Don Mancini continues to serve as showrunner, and Brad Dourif continues to voice the quippy, psychopathic killer doll. This set contains all three seasons.