28 Years Later 4K UHD Review

28 Years Later is a movie of two halves. In one, it’s a traditional zombie survivalist story, with a father and son trudging through renewed Scottish forests decades after a viral plague. In the second, it’s mother and son on meaningful journey toward death. The second half is what makes 28 Years Later work.

It’s a bizarre sequel at times, wavering in tone, erratic in editing, and ferociously violent. In this world, some survivors became isolated, cut off by the governments of the world, while everyone else continues living in a modernized society. Rather than treat the scenario as hopeless, it suggests coordination and intelligence will save us in such a scenario. Hopefully so.

Maybe it’s forgetfulness, but I can’t recall seeing another on-screen zombie birth; 28 Years Later delivers that genre first. This begs the question of how these vicious undead managed to procreate, but the assumption is an afterthought. It’s more hope in a movie with so little, depicting a world divided into packs and lifestyles, connected only by the most enraged among us. It’s an apt depiction.

After watching numerous infected fall by arrows, fire, and gunshots, 28 Years Later finds is motivation. The young Rocco Haynes is this movie’s star, remarkably adept at drawing out emotional and thematic weight beyond his years. Traveling with his sick mother across forests and grasslands, 28 Years Later finds purpose, dwelling on images of Haynes lost and grief-stricken, but willing to survive.

Intercut with images of WWII, British cinema, and other clips, 28 Years Later begins to connect the idea of how easily we revert to our primal state. Even after decades of infestation by a brutal virus, society on the mainland still gives way to vanity, and with isolation, fear, and aggression. Meeting a young soldier, we see how few changes happened to contemporary society through Haynes perspective. The soldier is brash, eager, and terrified, even as he discusses package delivery and mobile phones. Domestication brings more worry, burying the true violent nature under the veil of civilized laws. Still, we kill, and when faced with possible danger, the soldier breaks first, his empathy voided by fear.

28 Years Later’s mundane first hour – a typical zombie elimination tour through the Scottish (really English) forests – quickly shifts toward a nuanced discussion of life and the purpose of death. Then it ends with a cliffhanger, designed for a quick turn-around sequel that feels hollow compared to the cinematic nuance that came before.

Shot on a variety of cameras, from consumer to professional grade, 28 Years Later is all over the place visually. Low resolution, sub-HD cameras produce images alongside those with pristine 4K resolution, but there’s no consistency. Sometimes the image smears with noise, and then jumps back to absolute clarity seconds later. There’s visible banding to many shots, streaks that run through the frame between the noisiest bits.

Sony’s encode handles the material well. The disc handles the drop-offs and peaks without fault. It’s transparent to the source, even when that source shows artifacting or smearing.

Luxurious English scenery – fields and forests especially – produce a dazzling array of greens. When sunlight hits the leaves with a decent (if unremarkable) brightness, the contrast provides additional pop to the saturation. At times it’s near neon, and the blue skies have the same attractive properties. Black levels offer shadows with enormous weight.

A loud and boomy audio mix doesn’t try to be subtle. Speakers engage from every direction. The sound of a zombie slurping a worm while on the ground, his mouth at the top of the frame? That happens in the heights. Zombies jump out in the rears and stereos for jump scares. Inside homes, wood creaks for ambiance, and outdoors, bird calls find their home in the soundstage.

Bass thunders when it comes to animal herds or undead hordes. Range offers spectacular power and tightness. There’s variance between those bold moments and the score’s strength, which also offers beefy response.

On the Blu-ray, Sony includes five brief featurettes, the longest at seven minutes. It’s generally EPK fluff.

The following six screen shots serve as samples for our subscription-exclusive set of 47 full resolution uncompressed 4K screen shots grabbed directly from the UHD: