28 Years Later (2025)

Fair warning: the final scene of 28 Years Later swerves into a different movie entirely, the sequel it was shot back to back with. Before that swerve, you get something stranger and braver than a zombie sequel has any right to be. Danny Boyle shot much of it on iPhones, and the camera snaps and stutters like it’s scared too. Alfie Williams carries the film as Spike, a twelve-year-old pushed to grow up across a causeway the tide swallows twice a day. Jodie Comer is luminous and fragile as Isla. Then Ralph Fiennes shows up as a gentle doctor who has spent years building a towering memorial out of bones, and the movie turns into a beautiful meditation on death and memory. The tone lurches hard, horror to tenderness to comedy, sometimes inside one scene. It made $151.3 million worldwide on a reported $60M. A 7.2 because it’s bold and moving and doesn’t land every swerve. $4,408 says you check a tide chart this week for a beach you have zero plans to visit.

What works: Alfie Williams and Ralph Fiennes are terrific, the jittery iPhone camerawork gives the infected real menace, and the bone memorial stretch is haunting.

What doesn’t: The tone jumps between horror, sentiment and odd comedy without warning, and the final scene plays like a trailer for the next movie.

Who it’s for: Horror fans who want a sequel that takes real risks, and anyone who loved the first film’s grimy, handheld panic.