“The great discovery was to think about our own behavior,” says Boyle.
In the first weeks or months of the pandemic, you probably washed your hands for a full 20 seconds each time you get home, and you wore a face mask outside. Maybe you even disinfected you groceries. But when Lockdown continued, you probably stopped some, if not all, of that behavior.
“You start taking risks over time,” Boyle says. “It was something we could all relate to. We all had stories. ‘
Boyle and Garland applied the same thinking to the world of 28 years later. Their successor follows a community living on an island on the northeastern coast of England and is connected by a single cause that floods with the tides every night. The community of Holy Island (a real place in the UK) manages to keep the anger virus completely out, and over the years they begin to explore the continent, despite the inherent dangers.
“Twenty-eight years after an infection there would be risks,” Boyle says. “There would be enormous amounts of risk-taking, because they would have worked out the parameters of how far they could go and still stay safe.”
He brings the dangers to get the virus when the blood of an infected body comes into your body: “In the original film, if you have a flurry of blood on you, you were beaten to death by your fellow survivors. While they could work in this one. It was really interesting and it came from Covid for us.”
The legacy of 28 days later
In the 22 years since Boyle’s genre-proclaiming film, Zombie Story count has changed dramatically, thanks to screenwriter Garland’s vision for fast-moving infected infected. (In interviews, Garland revealed that he was inspiring the zombie dogs in the Resident angry video games.) Subsequent films like World War Z, Zombieland Train to Busan all borrowed freely from 28 days later.
But although Boyle is proud of his influence on the zombie film landscape, he is mostly remembering the films themselves.
“I tended to stay away from them,” the director says. “I always thought it was helpful that Alex was an expert and I wasn’t. It was a good dynamic in the way we would approach the films. You must be careful to respect or avoid. They are both equally dangerous instincts. ‘
Boyle adds that he relied on Garland to warn him when 28 years later Feel too similar to another zombie movie, while acknowledging that the author has also taken inspiration from more recent additions to the genre.
“I know he’s a huge admirer of The last of us game, “says Boyle.” I actually think it was influenced by 28 days later. One hand was the other, in that respect. “
Eventually, 28 years later is just one of the many films that push the zombie genre forward through both storytelling and technological innovations. And although the guard for a proper successor was long and winding, it seems to come at the right time. If my time with Boyle ends again, I can’t help but wonder why he waited a few more years until 2031, when the title of the film would literally describe the period between the original and the overdue follow -up.
As I ask the question, Boyle’s answer reveals his unique perspective – dark, witty and unmistakably British – which made the franchise a hit all these years ago.
“It would have been cute, as the Americans say, and very neat for marketing, but I couldn’t guarantee that I would still live,” he says with a bad smile. “So we thought we should move now, just in case.”