What Format Should You Choose For The Movie ‘28 Years Later'?
To promote the movie, Sony has been projecting the Rage logo onto several locations around the UK, ... More including Gibside in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, which was the ruined hall used in the film. And also, not far from the local Dolby Cinema, where you can watch the film. How perfect.
28 Years Later, starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes, is the new post-apocalyptic infection sequel to Danny Boyle's 2002 film 28 Days Later.
An Iconic Original
The original was iconic for several reasons, but primarily because it was credited with revitalizing the Zombie genre. While it wasn't the first film to do it, it's scary fast-moving 'Rage'-filled infected zombies were very different from the traditional slow, lumbering creatures that most people knew from the movies.
Secondly, it's iconic scenes of a deserted, abandoned central London were astonishing when first released, though, proving that truth is often stranger than fiction, during the Covid lockdowns, the same sights were eerily recreated in real life.
To capture these scenes, Danny Boyle used the guerrilla-filming technique of shooting in the very early hours of the morning, which was helped by the third innovation on this film – it being one of the very first to use digital cameras. As they were so light and could be set up quickly, it meant the shots could be set up quickly to make the best use of time before the traffic arrived.
Another reason that the digital camera used was that Boyle wanted to use the consumer-level Canon XL-1 MiniDV cameras to provide a raw, gritty, and handheld look, as if the film was documented rather than stylistic.
On a recent rewatch, however, I had forgotten this and had to pause the film, as I wondered why it looked, to use a phrase made popular by social media, as if it was filmed on a potato. After reminding myself of the reason for the incredibly low-resolution images, I carried on with the movie.
In a similar vein, the sequel, 28 Years Later, is also filmed on contemporary digital cameras; in this case, an iPhone 15 Pro. However, as documented in detail here, an array of additional equipment was used to ensure the captured images are cinema-grade quality, which, considering the poor image quality of the original, is welcome news.
Which Format Should You Choose?
With all that, let's have a look at the various formats you can choose for 28 Years Later.
The choices are made simpler by dint of the fact that there is no IMAX release. With a slate of more IMAX-friendly movies there, with How To Train Your Dragon currently occupying the space, and F1: The Movie, about to take it over, there was likely no chance it was going to be released in that format.
HDR by Barco
This, then, makes the HDR by Barco format at the top of the tree for image quality for 28 Years Later. Again, considering the very low bar of the original is somewhat ironic, as the iPhone sensor is capable of 4K resolution, and the various lenses that have been applied to the iPhone should ensure that we get the most out of it. It is normally accompanied by Dolby Atmos audio as well, so it should be an excellent way of experiencing the movie. However,
Barco's HDR format is only available in a handful of US theaters, but, as per its recent announcement, 25 more are on their way by the end of the year.
Dolby Cinema
Should you not be near only one of those five theaters, which is quite likely, the next premium format to choose is Dolby Cinema. This offers an extended dynamic range, high-brightness pictures, Dolby Atmos audio, and a specially customized layout and seating for an optimal view. This makes it the highest-quality format that currently has wide availability, with around 150 in the USA (and set to extend to 200 by 2027). In the UK, there are now seven Dolby Cinemas (with Liverpool and Newcastle as recent additions).
If there are no Dolby Cinemas you can get to, then look to regular premium larger formats, which offer a large screen, usually floor to ceiling, 4K laser projection, so high-brightness and clear, and, again, Dolby Atmos audio.
Look for Prime at AMC, Regal RPX, Cineplex UltraAVX, and Cinemark XD, and in the UK, Cineworld Superscreen, Odeon iSense, or OmniplexMAXX.
4DX
The only other specialty format is 4DX, which involves moving seats that punch you in the back, so you feel every impact, and smoke, air, water, and flashes of light. Yes, it's theme park meets cinema, and, for the right movie, it's hilarious fun. I've now had more hits than misses with 4DX, so I'm a fan, but sadly, the focus on more on the shenanigans rather than image quality, so the screen tends to be smaller than the premium formats and the audio is just standard surround. That said, I could see it working for 28 Years Later.
Standard Digital
Finally, there's a regular digital screen, which may or may not be any good. If they have an ageing lamp-based Xenon projector, you'll get a dim picture—so get to know your local cinema, and if it isn't good enough, vote with your feet and go elsewhere.
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That Terrifying Chant in '28 Years Later': Danny Boyle Explains How a 110-Year-Old Recording Came to Define the Film
When the first trailer arrived for '28 Years Later,' the third installment in Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's masterful '28 Days Later' series of horror films, it was scary, filled with gruesome images of zombies and a dystopian world. But what makes the trailer even more terrifying is an eerie, rhythmic chant by a high, nasal voice, moving with a military cadence, monotonal at first but growing increasingly louder and more agitated as it goes on, with the images and ominous musical backdrop growing in speed and intensity as it progresses. More from Variety Box Office: '28 Years Later' Debuts to $5.8 Million, 'Elio' Flies to $3 Million in Thursday Previews Danny Boyle Says He Could Not Make 'Slumdog Millionaire' Today Due to 'Cultural Appropriation' and 'That's How It Should Be': 'I'd Want a Young Indian Filmmaker to Shoot It' '28 Years Later' Duo Danny Boyle and Alex Garland Break Down That Cliffhanger, the Next Two Movies and the Studio's Reaction to Extreme Gore and Nudity Somehow, in that context, the chant, even though the words seem unrelated to the images, is absolutely horrifying, like a deranged rap song. Its use in the film makes an ominous scene even more ominous. The chant is actually 'Boots,' a poem by Rudyard Kipling, first published in 1903 and intended to convey the maddening monotony of soldiers marching; the direct inspiration was the hundreds of miles British soldiers were forced to march across southern Africa in the Second Boer War around the turn of the last century, according to the Kipling Society. The recording used in the film is nearly as old as the poem itself, voiced in 1915 by actor Taylor Holmes. It is a dramatic reading that starts off militaristic as the initial lines set the scene, but his voice is patently hysterical by the end, even as it follows the lock-step rhythm of the first five syllables: 'I—have—marched—six—weeks in hell and certifyIt—is—not—fire—devils, dark, or anything,But boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up and down again,And there's no discharge in the war!Try—try—try—try—to think of something differentOh—my—God—keep—me from going lunatic!' Unusually for something featured so prominently in a trailer, the poem plays a very small, although foreboding, role in the film — buttressed with an eerie bass synthesizer, it soundtracks Spike and his father walking to the mainland, which is thick with infected zombies, and presumably conveys that they're marching to war. But out of everything that could have been used to deliver that message, why a 110-year-old recording of a poem that dates back to the peak of the British Empire? Boyle explained in an interview with Variety last week. 'We had all these archives that we wanted to use to suggest the culture that the island was teaching its children,' he says. 'It was very much a regressive thing — they were looking back to a time when England was great. 'It's very much linked to Shakespeare,' he continues. 'For those who know the 'Henry the Fifth' film, there's a very famous speech, the Saint Crispin's Day speech, which is about the noble heroic English beating the French with their bows and arrows. We were searching for a song, for a hymn — for a speech, actually. We did think about using the Crispin's Day speech at one point, but that felt too on the nose. 'And then we watched the trailer — Alex and I remember it vividly — the first trailer that Sony sent us, and there was this [recording] on it, and we were like, 'Fucking hell!' It was startling in its power. It was used very effectively. 'The trailer is a very good trailer, but there was something more than that about that [recording], about that tune, about that poem. And we tried it in our archive sequence, and it was like it was made for. it' A rep for Sony wasn't immediately able to pinpoint the person who chose the chant for that trailer, but it was so effective that Boyle was quick to incorporate it into the film. 'It's like a reverse osmosis,' he says. 'It came into the film and seemed to make sense of so much of what we've been trying to reach for.' He also notes that Kipling's words and Holmes' voice, echoing across the decades in a context neither ever could have imagined, somehow take on a new power in today's context. 'You have to hold your hand up and say, 'How is it that something that's recorded over 100 years ago has that same visceral power that it's always intended to have?' And I think it was always intended to have that power and it still maintains it. In a TikTok world, it still has that impact. It's amazing.' Additional reporting by Bill Earl. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar
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It turns out the most terrifying thing about 28 Years Later isn't the flesh-eating infected, it's the emotions. In a recent interview with GamesRadar+, star Aaron Taylor-Johnson described the upcoming sequel not as a straight-up horror movie, but as something more intimate and disturbing… a family drama set against the backdrop of a collapsed world. Taylor-Johnson said: 'We played the reality of the family drama, didn't we? We just kind of leant into what our family was sort of feeling and going through in this post-apocalyptic world. 'So the story itself feels very intimate within this big landscape. So you don't really play into the sort of horror theme in a way? You're just playing the reality of the circumstances, and I think that, in itself, is more horrific.' Directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, both returning from the original 28 Days Later , this third installment trades the genre tropes for something a little more grounded. Of course, there are going be jumpscares. Yes, the Infected are back. But the emotional core revolves around Jamie (Taylor-Johnson), his wife Isla (Jodie Comer), and their son Spike (Williams), as they venture from the relative safety of Holy Island into the decaying chaos of the mainland. What begins as a coming-of-age journey for Spike quickly turns into something far more dangerous. According to Williams, it's that character shift that gives the movie its emotional bite. 'We really see Spike mature throughout this film, and he has to mature to survive. We see him right at the start where, you know, he holds back a lot and he's still got that childlike curiosity. 'Then we start to see… well, he still keeps that but he pushes it back to defend his mother, who's he trying to protect.' Taylor-Johnson and Williams both avoided watching other zombie films while shooting because 28 Years Later doesn't follow the usual playbook. When asked if he looked to the genre for inspiration: Taylor-Johnson said: 'I didn't because I didn't feel like it correlated or related to this.' Williams added: 'It's just so unique and creative. I just watched 28 Days Later a lot to try and get the vibe of this one.' With Jack O'Connell and Ralph Fiennes also on board, and Boyle and Garland fully back in the creative driver's seat, 28 Years Later is shaping up to be more than just a revival, it might be the most emotionally intense chapter yet. 28 Years Later hits theaters June 20th.
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While it wasn't the first film to feature fast-moving ghouls, there is no denying how much of an impact 28 Days Later had on modern zombie movies. It was a gripping and nauseating wonder, whose action felt uniquely visceral thanks, in part, to director Danny Boyle's inspired use of a digital video camera. And there was a gut-wrenching sense of hopelessness baked into writer Alex Garland's script that made 28 Days Later feel far more grounded than most of the zombie films that inspired it. Boyle and Garland stepped back from the franchise as it continued with a graphic novel and director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 28 Weeks Later in 2007, but they are back together again for 28 Years Later. Though it's set in the same world and calls back to the original, the new film hits very differently because of how much more overrun pop culture is with zombie-themed horror. You can feel Boyle and Garland trying not to echo other big pieces of zombie IP as they weave a new tale about how the world has changed almost three decades after the outbreak of a deadly virus. And in a couple of the movie's pivotal moments, the filmmakers manage to avoid being too derivative. Many of this story's smaller beats feel overly familiar, though — so much so that it almost seems intentional. That wouldn't be a huge knock against 28 Years Later if it could conjure the same kind of pulse-quickening scares that made the first film such an instant classic. But the most terrifying thing about the franchise's latest chapter is how oddly conservative and, at times, nationalistic its story winds up becoming. Though 28 Years Later opens with an arresting reminder of how people had no idea how to defend themselves against those infected with the rage virus in the outbreak's early days, it revolves around a community that has learned what it takes to survive. Like everyone else holed up on a tiny island in northern England, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) knows how dangerous the infected are and how easily their virus is spread. He also understands that, were it not for the island's unique geography — it connects to the mainland with a causeway that vanishes with the tides — his life of relative comfort wouldn't be possible. Jamie and his sickly wife Isla (Jodie Comer) work hard to impress upon their son Spike (Alfie Williams) how important it is to adhere to their community's rules. People can leave the island to collect wood or hunt for whatever food they can find. But they do so knowing that no one will come to save them if they can't make it back to the island on their own. Everyone also knows that, while Great Britain is still quarantined, the rage virus has been all but eradicated everywhere else in the world. 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This is also true of the way 28 Years Later prominently features a recording of 'Boots,' Rudyard Kipling's famous poem about a British soldier's participation in the Second Boer War. But all of that imagery becomes charged with a very pointed, Brexit-y energy when 28 Years Later juxtaposes it with shots of the writhing, naked infected who have become the mainland's dominant population. The racial homogeneity of Jamie's community is that last thing on anyone's mind as he prepares Spike to go on his first trip to the mainland — an experience that's supposed to help them bond and show the boy what it's like to kill an infected. Isla's terrified at the idea of her son leaving, but it excites Jamie, who almost seems to enjoy his forays into danger. Spike, too, is thrilled to finally get a chance to see parts of the world that he's never had access to. But it's not long before they encounter the infected and are forced to spend the night hiding rather than returning home. Especially once Jamie and Spike have ventured out, 28 Days Later starts to feel a lot like The Last of Us in the sense that its story is — at least initially — about a man working through his feelings about fatherhood in a world plagued by flesh-eating monsters. And the film's focus on manhood (as well as its parallels to other, more recent zombie fiction) becomes that much more pronounced when Jamie and Spike first encounter an alpha, one of the new types of infected. The way 28 Years Later evolves its monsters is one of the more interesting aspects of the film. There are still jerky, sprinting infected who present the most immediate risk, but after decades of mutation, the virus has also given rise to corpulent 'slow-lows' who crawl on the ground, and infected who seem able to form social connections. Boyle showcases the film's new types of monsters brilliantly in a number of action sequences that make heavy use of a unique iPhone camera array that creates shots that pivot around scenes in a very Matrix -y, bullet time fashion. Those shots — of arrows being shot into infecteds' necks and groins — are exhilarating and impactful, but deployed so frequently that it quickly grows tiresome. What's even more exhausting is how, despite the fact that we're told how these survivors have adapted to life with the infected, the film's characters repeatedly make decisions that feel wholly unmoored from reason. This becomes very apparent in the movie's second half as Comer — who delivers a tremendous, if restrained performance — takes on a much more prominent role. Columbia Pictures That said, 28 Years Later is absolutely gorgeous more often than not. Boyle's shots of the English countryside are majestic, but they become alarming as the infected shamble into view. There's one chase scene on the causeway that stands out for having some of the most beautiful visuals ever featured in a zombie film. But the story's rote-ness keeps 28 Years Later from feeling like the product of Boyle and Garland working at the height of their powers. As questionable as some of its messaging is, 28 Years Later is just the first installment of a new trilogy. It's possible that its off-putting qualities are being propped up for the subsequent two films to knock down -- which means that, like the infected, the series will have to evolve.
