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June 18, 2025 50 mins

In this episode of The Moviegoers Society, we dive into 28 Years Later, the long-awaited continuation of the rage virus saga from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland.

We share our mixed feelings on this brutal and beautiful return to the world that redefined zombie horror. From Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s powerful presence to Alfie Williams’ emotional journey with Jodie Comer, we break down the performances, story decisions, and whether the film lived up to the legacy of 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.


Is this the revival fans have been waiting for—or a missed opportunity in an otherwise iconic franchise?


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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Well, hello and welcome to the Movie Go Society podcast brought
to you by Nurtropolis. I'm your host, Chantargeburg,
the mayor of Nurtropolis. And joining me as always is
Drumenhausen, the professional media and movie mastermind.
But we have a special guest on this episode, our good friend

(00:31):
Jahan from fresh out the podcast.
Come on in, The price is right. Now to give Jahan full credit
because it is him, you know, we we are both over on fresh out
the podcast most weeks I'd say. And Jahan is the one that gave
me the professional media and movie mastermind title.

(00:53):
So I must give him his due credit here because he is the
board game guru and game master extraordinaire.
That I am. And also, I was so happy to be
part of y'all's podcast as a guest all the time.
And really Johan has encouraged me to do a lot of things from
tik toking, more to podcasting. So we have to thank you, Johan.

(01:16):
That's what we have to do. Oh, I appreciate it, guys.
Yeah, I know. I'm happy to help, happy to be a
part of things. We're excited that you're here
because you joined us for movie night.
It was a a date night amongst usnerds here.
So on this episode, we're raginginto one of the most anticipated
horror returns in years. But Drew, you got something that
came in the mail. I do, yeah.

(01:38):
I received from from Plum House and Universal the 4K copy of
Drop, a movie that we actually reviewed here on the show put.
It up, put it up. I got mine too.
And Johan could pretend he got one too.
It's actually a movie that I have thought about a decent
amount since we saw it and I, you know, as like as thriller

(02:03):
that takes place mostly in one restaurant with like kind of an
extreme premise. I feel like it's very fun and I
think back on it fondly. I mean, not Drew.
Johan, have you seen Drop yet? I have not.
We will. We will gift you with one of
these things. Oh.
I'll watch it. Yeah, that'd be great.
It's a lot of fun. The guessing game is actually

(02:24):
really good too. So I'm just saying I'm just, I'm
not going to spoil anything, butthe guessing game is is actually
pretty fun when you get into that of what's going on and
who's who and and stuff like that.
I love that. Pretty solid win from Blumhouse.
I mentioned this before, I don'tknow if Johanna is, but I was at
the premiere for this. That's all by Southwest and
Jason Blum and Michael Bay were in attendance.

(02:45):
And I bailed right when I saw Michael bail left for the party
so I can go say hi to him beforeI had to drive back home.
But that was an amazing moment to have literally an empty
party, just me and Michael Bay talking just for a few minutes,
and I bolted to come back home. So it was well worth it.
So I. Think cool man.
That is the fun thing. But yeah, we are talking about

(03:09):
28 years later. I snuck into 28 Days later back
in the day. That was my first rated R film.
Remember getting a ticket for I don't know what film it was went
to like the second row in the front.
Sat there nervously and watch this movie and I know one of the
employees came and just they usually come into check
sometimes, but they did not notice me.

(03:31):
I was able to enjoy this movie that made me fall in love with
the the zombie genre. Honestly, I'm not a zombie
fanatic. I don't really go crazy for it,
but something about that movie really kind of stuck with me.
I liked 28 Weeks Later. So this franchise has really
piqued my interest. And now 3 decades later, we're
back with Boyle and Garland returning to the world they

(03:51):
created. So First off, I'll be real.
I'm going to say we're going to go through our initial
reactions. I think right out the theater.
I liked 28 years later, but I didn't love it.
I wanted to because I was so hyped for this and the 1st 30
and 40 minutes to me, I was fully in.
And I like the world we came back to.

(04:13):
And I just love boiling Garland together.
I think they make a great duo. But for me in general, it didn't
stick the landing I was expecting.
So Johan, did this feel like a worthy returns to the franchise
for you, or did it fall short? What's your initial reaction
when you walked out of theater? And Jihad and give your history
with this movie too, 'cause I will hype up Jihad and say he is

(04:35):
our resident zombie expert over on Fresh Out the podcast.
He is a enthusiast of the undead, I would say.
And so I want to know your, yourhistory with this one too.
Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, I watch
zombie movies are like my favorite thing.
I watch all of them, even from other countries.

(04:56):
I get real deep into it. But yeah, 2828 Days Later shook
up the whole genre. It's really where we started
seeing, you know, infected versus undead kind of zombie
action going on. You had the fast sprinting
zombies that were horrifying. It it it it changed all the

(05:18):
rules and that was exciting for the genre for sure.
Other movies started incorporating this kind of like,
you know, to the fast zombies and, you know, blood borne
infections and, you know, peopleexperimented with the airborne
stuff, that kind of thing. But it all started here and I
feel that 28 years later continued to try to change

(05:42):
things. To its credit, it it it tried to
do some different stuff when it comes to the genre as a whole.
And I respect it for that. But yeah, I'm in a very similar
boat to Sean. I feel like, yeah, about 40
minutes in, like, I was like, man, this might be, like, the
best movie of the year. And then things took some turns

(06:04):
and I was like, OK, this is it. It was almost like someone else
was writing it. All of a sudden, the tone shifts
were strange. All in all, my initial reaction
was, I like the movie. I would watch it again probably
a lot because I just like seeingzombies eat people.
So you know. Well, hearing that.

(06:27):
So Drew, what were your first impressions walking out on this
one? And also talk about your
relationship with that franchise?
Yeah, so I actually have less ofa relationship to the franchise.
Full transparency, when I was younger, in my teenage years, I
kind of had an aversion to horror movies at that time.
Like I, I, I mean, honestly, I just, I got genuinely scared by

(06:49):
them. I didn't like jump scares and
would avoid them where I could. And you know, you go to friends
houses and in groups would watchhorror movies in that setting,
that kind of thing. But like otherwise on my own, I
would kind of avoid them. I have come to, especially
within the last, like I'd say 10years, really come to appreciate
them and if they have caught up on many of them and I have a

(07:12):
have totally reversed on on the genre as a whole and so really
love all things horror and and gore.
That being said, I didn't catch 28 years later and, and excuse
me 28 days later until maybe like two or three years ago.
And at that time it was kind of part of me catching up on all of

(07:34):
Danny Boyle's filmography and movies that I hadn't watched.
So I wasn't watching this with abunch of horror movies.
I was watching this with movies like Trainspotting and a rewatch
of Slumdog Millionaire and things like that.
So kind of in a different context.
That being said, I did really enjoy 28 Days Later and realized

(07:55):
when watching them in that context, I'm like, oh, this is
very much a Danny Boyle movie and and putting his spin on a
genre film. And I think that's why 28 Days
Later kind of defied the genre. It is kind of more of a slow
burn at times and it really turns it on its head.
It's not traditional jump scare horror at all.

(08:15):
So having come to that conclusion, I was very excited
for this one. And I think that now that I've
had a day to process it, I'm maybe I'm a little bit higher on
it than both of you, which I feel like is is I'm usually like
the one ready to poo poo on something when that's not the
case here. But I will say I do think it is

(08:38):
certainly an imperfect movie, but I'm happy that it exists and
took some swings and did some things I didn't expect.
And I'd say overall they really enjoyed the experience.
But again, to re emphasize, I think it is imperfect.
I think it has some actually pretty glaring flaws, but I
still kind of have a soft spot for it Despite that.

(09:01):
So I think that's where I'm landing on it.
I'll say this, I think you mentioned the slow burn of 28
Days Later. I think that's the highlight of
the franchise and the movies andespecially this one are the slow
burn moments. Like my favorite scenes in 28
Days Later are the slow burns and the kind of the more
happier, you know, moments too, when they're actually enjoying

(09:21):
the life and the crazy world that they're part of and
enjoying these 2 minute moments until crazy and chaos comes to
them. And there's a lot of moments in
here that are like that that I really enjoy as well.
I'll bring this up as we jump into this.
Oh, there we go. We're having three now.
So let's see how these layouts look.

(09:44):
So this is fantastic. The fact that we're going to get
maybe spoiler or share, we're going to say it a little bit
because I was excited when I sawAaron Taylor Johnson part of
this film and in this movie. He's such a strong lead, first
of all, and anything he is, he'ssuch a strong lead.
I love it. And early on, we see him with
his son Alfie or Spike, played by Alfie Williams, and I love

(10:06):
this dynamic of them. Pretty much the story is them
going into the mainland and teaching his son pretty much the
killers versus zombie. It's father son bonding, which I
love about the the story, but it's only part of the story that
we're introduced to because afterwards, and I'm not going to
go too much into the to what happens, but pretty much Aaron

(10:28):
Taylor Johnson get sidelined. And that's where I felt like the
movie just took a wild turn. So I want to start off there
about were you surprised with this pivot of really thinking he
was going to be in the movie or the main lead of our film, but
then to be sidelined and we'll start with John.
Yeah, I mean, the the stuff withhim, I agree completely.

(10:50):
That was where the movie was flowing.
You're getting the flavor of theworld.
He was kind of explaining thingsto Alfie and through that to the
audience. And I felt like, I don't know,
it, it felt it it their dynamicswere very good.
I think he played the father, the stern father figure very

(11:10):
well. You get the tension that's
between them. You get all that kind of
background stuff just from theiracting.
And but I don't know, in some ways I I felt he was a really
good dad at teaching his son, you know, because the world is
messed up and he's his son doesn't need to be tough to
survive it. Maybe he goes a little too far

(11:32):
at some points, but that's really where the movie was at
its peak for me. And once he got sideline, I was
surprised he was doing such a good job.
Like he really became the role. It almost didn't seem like him.
You know, his accent was spot on.
He really like was part if he felt like a lived in character

(11:53):
and I don't know why they they decided to take him out of the
movie, but you know. And and we're going to say, I'm
going to keep saying spoilers and stuff because we all want to
talk about the stuff. He is not like killed or
anything. He's just not part of the story.
He's just sidelined and put away.
And I love Aaron Taylor Johnson,he's so underrated, even though
he has had great roles, his ability to play any of these

(12:16):
roles that he's playing is amazing and he really makes
everything he does believable. Drew, did you feel like his
character strand the story or have you preferred, you know,
maybe a different way of of Aaron Taylor Johnson being used
as well or just where you find with him being sidelined?
Yeah, so I'm kind of hit and miss on Aaron Taylor Johnson as

(12:38):
a performer in general. Like there are some movies I
really like him in and some movies like like I think as
recent as as Craven the hunter had, I thought physically he he
kind of fit, but there are partsof the performance I really
didn't like. And whereas like in this, I did
not have that issue at all. I was I actually really liked
him in this role and playing thefather and he does get sidelined

(13:00):
for a bit. There's a, a large portion of
the beginning is featuring him hunting with his son, teaching
his son to hunt, but not huntinggame, you know, hunting these
the, the infected. And I, I really enjoyed that
dynamic. And, and it did, I will say it
subverted my expectations because I was like, oh, this is

(13:21):
going to be something we're likethe dad gets killed off and the
son's forced to be on his own and that doesn't happen.
But he is sidelined for other reasons and it takes a pivot.
And I think I was sad to see that to an extent, But now
knowing some things that I know now, it makes a little bit more
sense. But we'll get into that maybe at
the end of our conversation. Maybe.

(13:41):
I mean, maybe we can go into it now.
I think you know. So yeah, boom, he sidelined the
story, shifts to focus Spike's story, the son and his mom,
Jodie Comer's character, who is sick.
And so after Spike learns there is a doctor in the mainland,
after they come back to the village, he takes his mom, goes
back to the mainland and searches for this doctor.

(14:05):
And yeah, the father son duo is no longer as well.
Let's talk about Jodi Comer. I think she is a chameleon
actress, amazing in everything she does.
I really love her in the the bike riders and.
Once you get over the accent, which is which is actually spot

(14:26):
on and really good, you just when you watch the movie, it
takes you back a little bit. Yeah, so having Jodi Comer part
of this and also we have Ray Fiennes and so this is the
Doctor. They find this is where like a
lot of the the thematic and the messaging comes into play and
some really powerful performances from all of them,
to be honest. So how did their additions and

(14:48):
you know, their performances land for for you, Johan?
Yeah, Jenny Covert, she did a great job as the mom she was.
She portrayed the mental illnessvery believably and
heartbreakingly, it was not. Even really a mental illness, I
mean she had a true illness Well, or I mean I didn't get
into it, but like it's clear that she is not well and I don't

(15:10):
want you know, and well effects her mentally something physical.
It's affecting her brain and her, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, she, she plays it very
well. You know, she's definitely
losing touch and, you know, you feel for her and that she has a
really good dynamic with her son.
They play really well on screen.I have no issue with the
addition of her character. I feel like things were done

(15:33):
strangely. Like I feel like it's more
believable for him to have snuckoff from his father when they
were out there to go bring the doctor or something.
I don't know. It's just, it was a weird beat,
but I'm not going to rewrite thewhole movie.
I mean, you couldn't. You couldn't do it where he goes
to go find the doctor because like I mentioned that to y'all
earlier and then going back and thinking about it, it's like it

(15:54):
doesn't work that way. It doesn't.
Yeah. It's just, I don't know, there's
something strange about their choices here.
But at the other day, her performance is great, her
character's good. And then Ray finds, I feel like
he also a very good performance.He was a weird, creepy guy and

(16:14):
but still had a lot of heart. He interacted with them well.
I thought his character was cool.
I thought it was a little over the top.
A little unbelievable and I understand, you know, sci-fi,
it's, you know, you can get out there, but I like especially in
this series, I, I, I enjoyed thegroundedness of it and I felt

(16:36):
like he was a little bit beyond that A.
Little bit maybe a little too poetic for for you, too much
emotional wisdom. He was super jacked too.
I remember seeing all the photosof him training for this movie
just to get super jacked as well.
But Drew, I know how much of A you are a fan of his.
I am as well, but I know you area super fan of Ray Farnes, so

(16:56):
did that his performance land for you?
It it did for me. I'm like the exact opposite of
what Johanna is saying. Like I was actually really into
his performance and somebody whois seemingly been living on this
mainland for an extended period of time and surviving and of
course isn't a very strange state, but like, while

(17:18):
definitely out there, still relatively coherent, I think
that, you know, I I actually really enjoyed his performance.
Jodi Comer I think is in an interesting place in this movie
just because she I think it's you're given a difficult role.
When is it essentially she has some illness and has to, you
know, portray she's unreliable as like a narrator.

(17:40):
So she's not like the main, maincharacter, but she there's times
where she's completely there andand you know, very motherly and
kind. And there's other times where
she, you know, doesn't even knowwhere she is.
So it's it's it's a tough role to play.
And actually I noticed when the credits hit the billing for this
movie is really interesting. If you if you look at that kind

(18:01):
of thing like I do, this is the type of stuff I study.
But like Jodie Comer's top bill in this movie.
And I would have thought probably Aaron Taylor Johnson
would be but Jodie Comer build above Aaron Taylor Johnson and
then Jack O'Connell below that, which that's we don't need to
talk about that. But then Alfie Williams and then
Ray finds gets like the and credit or the width, you know,

(18:23):
like that the kind of highlighting the supporting
role. So I mean, based on the billing
on on the poster or, you know, in the credits, like Jody
Comer's the the lead is essentially the lead of this
movie. Really, really Alfie is, you
know, Spike is a is really the lead of this movie.
But I think that all surprised me, just as like a tidbit of

(18:44):
from a production standpoint. I mean, I'm going to be honest,
I thought I didn't really watch the trailers that much or
anything, but I was, I was misled of who the star of this
film was. As you, as you just mentioned,
it's not really until you watch the movie, you really don't know
what's going on, you know, So you're in for a surprise of
what's happening on that. But Ray Fiennes in this, I
really think he helped put together some of the thematic

(19:06):
pieces in the the messaging about surviving some really good
lines from him as well. But also.
Some of the themes may be hammered home like a little bit
too obviously through him, but in a way that I didn't
necessarily mind. Well, did they resonate with you
or you felt like this got lost in the shuffle?
No resonated. I'm just saying like it's some
of the themes are almost spoken verbatim through him, you know,

(19:31):
in, in making it a little obvious, but you know, a little
on the nose I should say, but not in a way I didn't enjoy.
Right. There's something heavy-handed
about saying, you know, we all must die when you're surrounded
by bone pillars and a pile of skulls.
It's just a little a little muchlike that stuff was where it
got. I was like, come on, man.
Like that's, that's a crazy person did that.

(19:53):
Like the phrase memento Mori plays a really big part of this
movie in general and part of thethemes too.
That's fair. That, that is true.
You, you know, that moment, I guess she was Jodi Kummer's
character was like dreaming or something.
And then, you know, she was calling her son dad.
And so she was thinking about her dad.

(20:13):
We, we didn't, we don't know whoher dad was, right?
We never got that. No, I don't think so.
So I thought, you know, because they showed a guy with her, his
hands on her shoulder of a gentleman.
And I thought it was going to belike, Ray Fines was the dad.
And then when they find him, like, oh, that's my daughter.
Like, I thought that was where the story was going.
And I thought that would have been a great twist if that was
actually her father, because I was like, why they talk doing

(20:34):
this dad thing so much, showing a guy with, you know, not
showing his face, but showing her father there in her dreams
or whatever it was. Or I I was kind of disappointed
by that when they had like no connection other than he was
just the resident crazy doctor that gets just enjoys the
mainland. I guess I could they didn't say
he kicked they kicked him out. Or did he just decide to leave

(20:56):
on his own? I.
Think I always lived on the mainland.
I don't think he ever was a partof their.
Community. It almost comes across like he
doesn't want to leave. Like he likes to be there, like
he's made his home there and he's happy there in a weird way.
What do you think about the alpha situation?
And obviously not killing the alpha I thought was also a

(21:16):
strange thing. Well, the alpha confused me a
little bit because it comes across almost unkillable.
There's a scene early on. Well, there's two of them.
It's not the same one. Are there?
I mean, that's the thing. Exactly the same.
Yeah, Samson's a different alphathan the one that gets killed as
they're running back to the main, to the island or to the

(21:38):
village that gets killed by the tower.
That's a different alpha. So the alphas are somehow coming
up, and there's multiple alphas that can can be.
I I get that there's multiple alphas but is it the same actor
portraying? I mean they look the same.
No, Samson's totally different. Yeah, totally different guy.
They just have long hair. That's just how Fabio looks.

(21:58):
But the alphas are Fabio replicants, I will say.
I just like I don't have IMDb like the cast list.
I just I mean I hope I'm not wrong.
Yeah, right now and I just see an actor cast as the alpha, but
it doesn't specify beyond that, so I'd have to look and see if
there's multiple but. Like for Samson.
And that's what they named him. 'Cause I'm pretty.

(22:18):
Sure, that one died. Yeah, there's only one named the
alpha in the characters and so like.
Oh, Samson's a separate. Samson's a separate character,
then Alpha. OK, OK, OK.
That's just it was Wikipedia confusing me then.
Unless I'm wrong. You know, Wikipedia is always.
Right. Well IMDb does not have an alpha
listed, they just have Samson. OK, that makes sense.

(22:39):
Is it Chu, Lewis, Pare. Yeah, that's who I see on
Wikipedia as just the alpha. Yeah, Louis.
Oh, is that what it says? So that's what it says.
Yeah, but but the first alpha wasn't as tan.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure the first alpha was a white guy.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure he got gapbecause that that guy got hit

(23:00):
with a ballista. I'm pretty sure he died.
I tell you what, there's something that these alphas
definitely do have in common, but we're we'll keep it PG.
Keep it PG for R rated movie. Yeah, they're they're a lot of
nudity in this film, I will say that.
But just like the first film, you got some shock factor, you
know? Yeah.

(23:20):
Some opening scenes. There's a lot of full frontal in
this movie, which you don't get in a lot of movies.
So I mean, I guess enjoy it. I don't know.
It's a rare thing, but the the alphas, Yeah, man, the alphas
are it's it's another thing likeI was saying how 28 years or 28
days, you know, change the genre.

(23:41):
They've kind of played with the smart zombie thing, but having
them operate in these hierarchical packs in this
tribal way is really cool. That's scary.
Yeah. They they've like adapted to
live in nature because in the in28 days later, they couldn't
live beyond like 28 days or whatever because they would
starve to death or whatever the whatever it would be.

(24:05):
But now they've they've adapted,they've learned to eat.
You see also the other the othercast of this infectious aside
the the the low and slows, whichare the the big the big old big
old chunky zombies. Gluttonous, crawling obese

(24:25):
zombies that are fucking worms off the ground so.
I love them, dude. I love.
Yeah, they were gross, but they were creepy and unsettling.
Everything that you want from this kind of from the genre.
And but when they're moving, they're terrified.
And so like, I just thought it was cool that they had these
different kind. I've seen people play with the

(24:47):
idea of different kind of zombies sort of Left 4 Dead
style in movies before. And it always comes off like
very video gamey, very kind of campy in this.
I feel like they were well thought out and well executed.
It's like they all have their own personality and own their
own types of movement individuality.
I guess I want to circle back because it is bothering me.

(25:09):
Like why did they not get rid ofSamson?
What was up with just making himgo to sleep?
Why did they not want to slit his throat or anything and just
be done with it? I mean, my reasoning for that is
like, I don't know if it's as easy to kill that.
Like we, we did talk about how the, the first one we see, we
assume was killed the way he's killed.
But like unless you have a ballista, as John mentioned,

(25:32):
like do we know that even just aknife to the throat will even
really get this thing? I mean, he could endure a lot.
He injured multiple bullets through him and would still
charge ahead. So it's possible Ray Fleiss just
didn't want to risk it when he was just paralyzed.
He's like, I don't know if I cantake this thing.
I'm just going to leave, like, and you know, that he's playing
it safe, but also, you know, plot armor, I guess, you know,

(25:57):
so that you get to keep the big scary around.
But yeah, I don't know that I would try to execute that thing
if it was paralyzed either. That guy was huge.
Well, Simpson's a very good namefor him.
I'll, I'll say that visually, let's talk visually.
There's a behind the scenes look.
I just love the landscapes and just how this movie was shot in

(26:19):
general. That was absolutely gorgeous.
So many shots actually remind meof the original film.
Some of the angles, some of the ways they filmed it.
That's the parts I really, really enjoyed.
But you could pause this movie at any time.
It'd be like a haunting, just landscape.
It just a just a character of its own.

(26:39):
And Boyle really knows how to shoot, I feel like.
And what was it they shot this like with iPhone cameras too?
So I think I don't know how muchthey shot with iPhone, but they
did, which is really amazing. But he knows how to shoot
intensity. And like I said, I just love
this Garland Boyle team up. I love civil war, Alex Garland

(27:00):
civil war. So I'm I I think some of the
shots reminded me of that film. So maybe Alex Garland was able
to kind of get some of his own kind of shots in there as well,
things that he has an eye for. Drew, was there any sequences
that stood up for you? So a lot actually, and I, this
is the part I really wanted to get into because I think for me,
stepping away from this movie and, and visually and you know,

(27:23):
it's this is very much a Danny Boyle movie.
And again, having seen his wholefilmography and watching this,
this is I think why I'm walking away from this so high is that
this felt like a little bit moreon brand.
Danny Boyle, who has made some movies that I really like.
I mean, Trainspotting's a classic.

(27:45):
The Beach is kind of a wild movie with Leonardo DiCaprio
that a lot of people don't like,but it does a lot of interesting
things. Sunshine is an awesome sci-fi
movie, but then you have like his best director and best
picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire following it with
127 Hours, Steve Jobs and, and then the most recent film you
made was six years ago, which was yesterday, which was the

(28:06):
the, you know, the movie where The Beatles disappear and a
movie that like has an interesting premise, but doesn't
really work all the way through.And I think that's where is
interesting to me with Danny Boyle is like he takes a lot of
risks. He does a lot of interesting,
interesting things technologically.
But this movie, like the moment where the score sets in or the

(28:26):
this music sets in, that's like very frenetic and intense and a
lot of cuts to like historical events and things like that is
Danny Boyle to AT. And that's where part of this
movie made me feel like Trainspotting or, you know,
really harken back to 28 days later.
And I was just like, oh man, like Danny Boyle is back after

(28:46):
six year gap and it feels like he's kind of back to classic
boil. And so I think I really enjoyed
the boil of it all. And that's why some of the risks
and things that he does here, just it makes the whole thing
interesting to watch when you'reseeing quick cuts back and forth
to different angles of the same thing.

(29:07):
And, and just the the music likegiving me chills and making me
feel like feel the anxiety. That's the stuff that I really,
really enjoy about this film andthe franchise and, and what it
does differently. So yeah, I thought that.
I mean, even the first we talkedabout the low and slow, slow and
low or low and. Slow, low and slow.

(29:28):
Roly Polys. The the first time we're really
like exposed to them. You see, you see it from the
view of its back crawling on theground and it's just like this
BLOB moving and you know, you see like the decaying zombie
skin and it's really gross looking and you're not even sure
exactly what you're seeing untilyou see the pan out.

(29:50):
Like things like that just was like, oh, I was.
It just took me into that world and I thought it really worked.
Jihad, you know. What do you think how Boyle
handled this film compared to the first film?
I mean, it has a lot of the sameappeal, a lot of the big faraway

(30:11):
shots of the landscape with the characters being small, going
through the spaces. He does a really good job of
showing the desolation and like the absence of people in the
world, but while still showing the world.
That was every chance he gets. It had a lot of that he drew

(30:34):
said something the the suspense.I I noticed a lot of the time
when we were watching, I was actually like holding my breath.
There's a lot of really intense scenes.
I was like, man, like he, he really captured it.
All the scenes where they're fighting the infected feel they
don't feel actiony, they feel desperate, they feel hopeless.

(30:57):
And you can't believe when they make it out of there, which is
it's hard to pull off, especially for like a jaded
zombie viewer like me. Like he does a really good job
of making the, the, the the creatures feel like a threat,
even though they're dumb, even though they're slow or, you

(31:17):
know, I mean, some of them are fast, but it had some of the
best infected zombie sequences I've I've ever seen, especially
the one towards the beginning where they first encountered the
pack and they're they're fleeingand.
That shot on the hill where you see them all come up in the

(31:37):
silhouettes, so great. Yeah, that harks that that,
that, that really reminds me of 28 weeks later in the the the
opening sequence of that where, you know, they're in the house
and they're living day-to-day and then they have to flee and
you just see them pouring over these hills and running at it's

(32:01):
just so terrifying. So yeah, it was, it was, it was
definitely, it definitely ties into those similar styles.
But this, this movie, I feel like he definitely was being
more as Drew saying because I'm not really familiar with his
filmography. I don't really look at things

(32:22):
like that. It's not it's not how I do it.
I'm not good at that, that wholething.
But he seems more comfortable with his style.
He definitely he he he's not afraid to showcase it.
Maybe he has more pull now being, you know, this super
famous director than he did in 2002.

(32:43):
But yeah, it was a very cool, a very well shot thing.
I liked all the the imagery thatof the like Archers that they
kept shooting back to and just, I don't know, showing people the
whole world's fucked up and changed.
But he he with these flashbacks,he kind of shows how it's the

(33:06):
same as it's ever been, which I find really interesting.
But yeah, I thought it was shot beautifully well.
And talking about the way it's shot because I want to talk just
very briefly about the technology.
But like, it's worth noting that28 days later back in 2002, that
a lot of that film was shot unlike a Canon digital video
camera at the time, which was like newer technology then.

(33:29):
But it also made it harder when other movies started
transitioning to HD to like, I think that's why that movie has
had taken a while to be like remastered in HD and brought,
you know, in that capacity. But it's just super small and
maneuverable. And that's why they were able to
film and like parts of London early in the morning or when
there's nobody around because I could get in and get out and do

(33:50):
it quickly to create the feelingof there being no people in an
area that is typically extremelybusy.
And so to kind of mimic that, I'm looking here that a lot of
this movie was shot. And Sean, you had a picture of
it up earlier on the stream thata lot of this film was shot
using iPhone 15 Max, which they have like, this rig here set up.

(34:12):
Yeah, this picture where those are all iPhones in a big semi
circle that they're filming it on.
And so I think that's why this movie really feels like a true
sequel to the original, because it has that kind of digital look
to it. It's a little bit less polished,
which works so well for this world and why it all looks so
gritty. Yeah, it's perfect.

(34:34):
I mean, Boyle has a vision and he goes with it and not much
push. I don't think there's much
pushback of what he wanted to do, even though I feel like it
kind of lost its way a little bit in the film.
I, I, we mentioned 28 Weeks Later, I think that's a movie
that still doesn't get enough praise.
It's not perfect or amazing, butI think that's a great addition.
It's a, it was a great follow up28 Days Later.

(34:55):
I actually really enjoyed it. I think it's fantastic.
So I still love 28 Days Later. It's my favorite out of the
three, followed by 28 Weeks Later, obviously, and then
that's what I have to put third.Well, personally, but it's still
a very worthy addition. And they already filmed the
follow up Jew. What was the the title for the
the follow up to 28 years later?28 years later, the bone Temple
is what I'm seeing now. And I didn't realize this at the

(35:19):
time, but apparently they, they came out and said this, I guess
back last year. And NIA Dacosta has has directed
it. And you know, she did the, the
candy land, candy Land, the candy man kind of like a sequel
a few years ago, but also directed the Marvels most

(35:39):
recently. And now it's kind of going back
to, to more genre horror stuff. And I mean, it sounds like they
filmed these back-to-back and Aaron Taylor Johnson's the one
that that let that slip. And so it's slated for 2026.
And the fact that Aaron Taylor Johnson is in this one makes me
think that it gives a little bitmore reason to me as to why he

(36:00):
was sidelined for a bit of of 28years later.
And it sounds like he will play a bigger role in this kind of
direct sequel to to that one. I I hope so, Johan, if when they
go with the sequel, like what doyou want to see them do next?
Like what do you want to see? You can talk about that ending
too in this film. That was pretty interesting.

(36:21):
Yeah, the ending was interestingto say the least.
You see the audio, The jumpsuit ninjas?
Well, let's lay, let's, let's bevague about this one because I
think that I think that what we can say is that this movie's
going to end ends on a note thatwill probably be pretty

(36:42):
divisive. It ends on a very a totally
different note. 1,000,000%. It almost changes like genres
completely. Like it's it it, it's campy,
it's fun. I think it's funny.
And I've seen them do stuff likethis in other movies, like they

(37:03):
kind of do some silly stuff at the end of the original Dawn of
the Dead. And I don't know, it's just, it
does happen in zombie movies that they they they ended on a
silly note for whatever reason. I thought it was dumb in this
instance. I thought I was like, this is
kind of dumb. The one of the characters we see

(37:25):
is just very, he's just a caricature and.
He's a character. He's a character we see as a
young kid in the beginning. He's.
A character you see as a young kid in the beginning, they
finally bring him back. You get to see what happened to
that kid. Portrayed by Jack O'Connell, who
played kind of the lead vampire in Sinners this year.

(37:47):
So, oh, that's great again, you know, going from playing a
vampire to playing a, yeah, I guess a zombie killer.
Yeah, it was. It was very much that like
European sort of humor. It's like that Nick Frost Simon
Pegg style humor. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, it just switched. It turned into a Nick Frost

(38:10):
Simon Pegg movie at the end, andit was silly.
But yeah, what I want to see in the in the Bone Temple is a
return to some seriousness. I want to see Eric Terry Johnson
looking for his son and you know, because that's where it
seemed like it was going. I thought that was going to be a
big part of the second act and it wasn't.

(38:34):
I just want to see him back out there trying to trying to make
amends. And I don't know.
I think I thought his character was very well written and very
he did a good job acting him. I want to see I will see more of
that. And you know, I guess I'm
interested to see what happens to Spike.
He was a cool character that kind of got the short end of the

(38:55):
stick at the end. But.
We also made some dumb decisionswhere like come on now.
Other than that, he had. Really dumb decisions.
Other than his dumb decisions I thought it was he was.
He acted really great at Spike, obviously, and his character was
really the vulnerability in the beginning and how he was able to
kill some zombies but didn't really want to at times and
everything else. And and I wanted to see how he

(39:16):
develops, how his character develops being on his own and
being very strong. Being on his own.
He was fine. He was like, I'm sticking this
out. I'm not going back to the land.
I'm going to be one with the mainland and these zombies and
survive, which is really interesting.
What about you Drew? What do you want to see in the
upcoming follow up? Well, well, I'll say this kind
of regarding the end of 28 yearslater.

(39:37):
And I'm not always advocating for the marvelization of all
movies, but it it just seems like it maybe would have made a
little bit more sense to like end this movie The way it should
have ended on like on a little bit more somber note.
And you could still leave it as like a bit of a cliffhanger,
kind of open-ended, but then take this divisive scene at the

(39:58):
end of the movie. That is, I mean, I completely
agree with everything you said, John and and Yashan.
It's like totally. It's it doesn't really fit it.
It ends the movie on like kind of a wild note compared to where
it was just like 2 minutes before this scene happens.
It almost would have made more sense to end the movie and then
have this be like. A mid credits scene or even take

(40:21):
place after the credits or just I could see you putting it
somewhere and then maybe do likea quick montage of scenes from
this this sequel that's allegedly coming next year and
then put that title up 2028 years later, the bone temple.
And then you know, like, OK, we're we're getting this crazy
scene, but we know we're gettinganother movie next year or

(40:42):
something like that. Just seems like maybe it would
have been a better move or you just cut the scene out entirely
and put it in the next movie. Like I don't know what the right
move is, but it seems like maybegoing like a mid credits or in
credits would have potentially been better.
I I don't know. I mean, it's just weird because
like, when you look at the two like, bookends of this movie,

(41:06):
right, you have this wacky ending.
The opening was so harrowing andmessed up and like it was one of
the better, like opening infected sequences I've seen.
Like it was wild. There's a lot of stuff
happening. It was.
It was gripping and terrifying. Yeah, you got the Teletubbies.
Yeah, the Teletubbies were there.

(41:27):
It was crazy. And and so you start with that
and you end with this. It's just a weird shift, you
know? And especially knowing that
Cillian Murphy is is going to bepart of that follow up yet we
they could have ended with little tease.
Allegedly, yeah, he's he hasn't seen filming and.
It's. I'm guessing he's in it.
I mean, Cillian Murphy coming, people thought that there.

(41:48):
Were I say Cillian Cillian? Did I say Cillian Murphy?
Did I say silly? Cillian Murphy, It is Cillian.
I mean, there are people that thought it was him when we saw,
you know, early images of one ofthe undead in this movie, which
was, you know, we can. What a horrible compliment.
Too. That's not him.
It's not him, but I don't mind necessarily.

(42:08):
Like you have this movie 28 years later, which again, an
imperfect movie, but one that I really enjoyed and one that's a
lot about the relationship between this, this son and his
father, but then a lot between him and his mother and, and the
journey he's on. And, and have this movie be that
and take that tone and then havethis sequel be more like you can

(42:30):
put a little bit more camp in it.
You have this strange cult leader and stuff coming in.
And what if would you start to call them John, like the the
jumpsuit, you know, whatever it like, you know, have that be
this next one that's like a little bit more camp, but you

(42:52):
know, maybe still some cool. I don't know, like, I think
there's room to play around withthat.
But just yeah, sticking it at the end of this movie.
It was a choice that maybe, you know, some people will enjoy and
some people won't. I just felt like this movie was
a little too honest on a small scale, Right?
Not not major battles or anything against the infected,

(43:13):
not much of the cast in it. You know, it's really just a
really a small story on a small scale and just really focusing
on a couple characters at a time, which is fine, but didn't
expect that if we're going to wait that long for a follow up.
I thought it was going. To be something, it's true,
Huge. And you know what?
Epic scale. That really seems to be like the

(43:36):
Sony move now in in general. Like not to make it too big
picture, but what's the other big Sony release that came out
this summer? It was Karate Kid Legends, which
is another franchise movie. Kind of like a legacy sequel,
you know, a combining of of the French, you know, different

(43:57):
entries of the franchise. But like that movie bills itself
as a, you know, a blockbuster summer movie, but made on like a
pretty small budget and same at 28 years later.
Is this like big genre horror movie?
Not great. It's an it's an R rated genre
movie. I'll be, I'll be really
interested to see how it does atthe box office because I think
critically this movie is going to do pretty well.

(44:18):
But I don't know how the generalpublic will respond to it
because it is, it is, it is different.
It's a slow burn and it's not like your typical jump scare
horror movie. But again, this one's allegedly
made for a $60 million budget, which is, you know, it's, it's a
high budget, but not like the crazy $100 million.

(44:38):
And the first film was made withlike $8 million, so this is
pretty high budget for that. But like Sony, their their big
summer tent poles are made for by comparison to the other big
summer blockbusters like made for relatively smaller budgets.
And it's interesting the the tactic they're doing.
That's true, but their films arevery quality.

(45:00):
Surprisingly for some of the budgets they have, they they do
produce some good stories and some good, good entertainment
for the big screen. I'll say that.
Especially when they don't have the highest budget which they
they save those for Spider Man Ithink.
Yeah, absolutely. I will say part of part of my
final thoughts, the yeah, what you you you ranked the movies.

(45:25):
I think 28 days later is probably definitely my favorite.
I think these this one and 28 weeks kind of tie like I I like
them both for different reasons.This one has some of my favorite
scenes. But that being said, even if
this movie is my least favorite of the series, as far as like in

(45:45):
the grand scope of zombie and infected movies, this is far
from the bottom. I think that this is actually
pretty high up there quality wise.
But yeah, that ending is so weird.
I actually had a funny thought about.
I was like, what if, what if they're doing regional endings?
You know, like, what if what if this isn't the real what if?
What if we were just shown like like the clue endings?

(46:08):
Oh yeah, God, the clue endings. Drew, are you aware of this?
We have to save that for the episode.
I mean, it's it's kind of like what Sean and I, so Sean and I
reviewed John, we reviewed Ballerina recently like a like a
couple weeks ago whenever we didand which is a John Wick spin
off movie. And that is a franchise where I

(46:31):
like all of the entries and Ballerina to me was probably the
worst of the entries, but still a movie I I enjoyed.
And so it's like, it's kind of like with this, like even if
you're saying 28 years later is the worst in the franchise for
you, it's like it's a franchise where you like all the entries.
So saying that, it's not like it's not damning the movie.
You still liked it a lot. The worst movie in this

(46:53):
franchise is still significantlybetter than the best movie in
other franchises, you know. Exactly.
It's a quality movie. It just didn't land where we
wanted to. Waiting this long.
I figured it would have been like a big knockout, right?
Because they had all this time to come up with something in a
higher budget. But a lot of.
Yeah, a lot of my upsetness, like, like it didn't land like

(47:17):
you're saying, but at the same time, I didn't know there was
another one coming out. So that kind of for me, I'm just
like, I'm just excited again. And I didn't know that till we
sat down to record this and I was just perusing.
I'm like, wait, there's another one coming out next year or so.
I. Mean, I didn't know until you
told me I was. That's exciting.
The three of us would be back here again.
Maybe we're talking. Yeah, that'll be Part 2 of this

(47:37):
episode. I'll be here 12 months later if.
If not, I mean, this is saying January 20, 26, which if that's
the case, we're going to be waiting much less than 12
months. I don't know if that release
date will stick. There you go.
So Johanna, please put that on your calendar.
You're coming back obviously before that, but we're going to
follow up to that episode in in January.

(47:58):
But yeah, I think that's a wrap on this episode of the Moviegoer
Society. Huge thanks to everyone tuning
in. Shout out to Johan for joining
us. He's definitely coming back.
And you don't have to wait till January to come back, Johan,
don't worry. But that will be the one that
we're going to have back-to-backdouble features, obviously for
that. If you watch 28 Years Later,
just let us know what you thought about it or tell us what
you loved about, you know, 28 Weeks later, 28 days later.

(48:20):
I love that. I will say that that in the
movie 28 Years Later, there is amoment when it says 28 days
later and I was like, oh, that'sa nice call back.
Right there. But we got more reviews, more
interviews, of course, and more hot takes coming your way.
Just visit nurtropus.com. Johan, go ahead and do some of
your fun plugs so people know where to follow you and check
you out. Check me out Johanan Blue Sky.

(48:40):
You can also watch me run my TTRPGS fresh out the box at
twitch.tv/johananan. And also don't forget to check
out Fresh Out the podcast available everywhere that you
can get podcasts with me and Drew being charming.
Drew, Drew is in high demand, but thanks for hanging out with

(49:02):
us. And Drew, how are you?
How are we going to end this one?
You go for it. Well, I'm Drew Manhouse and the
professional media and movie mastermind is John.
As Jehan said, you fresh out thepodcast.
We actually just dropped an episode with our thoughts and
impressions of the Switch too. After getting some time with it,
we each got the the new console.And me too and I'm waiting for

(49:24):
you to send me your information so I can add you.
Johan and I are connected. We are sure.
Yeah, we have to. We have to connect.
I'll send you my friend code. Yeah, we're gonna switch it up.
We talked to we, we did talk a little bit about some Mario Kart
world thoughts and and so on. So yeah, just, you know, check
us out over there at Fresh out the Box.
We talked movies and stuff on there too.
But we talked, we do a lot of video game talk as well and

(49:47):
sometimes TV and stuff. So whereas here on the, you
know, moviegoers society, we focus a lot more on the movies,
as we just said. But John and I like to just nerd
out and talk about all the things that we're enjoying.
So yeah, just if you like listening to us here, check out
Fresh Out the podcast, you get achance.
But otherwise, yeah, as I said, I'm, I'm Drew Manausen.
I'm the professional medium and movie mastermind.

(50:08):
And Sean, you, you take it from here.
I take it from here. I'm Sean Togworth, the mayor of
Neutropolis, and we'll see you at the movies with John.
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