- Comer terrified during filming experience
- “I felt like I was actually running for my life”
- No sympathy from director Danny Boyle
We’ve all imagined what it might be like to be on the run from zombies (haven’t we?), but for Jodie Comer it was as real as it gets during the filming for 28 Years Later.
Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland’s much anticipated zombie-thriller threequel is set nearly three decades after the first virus outbreak (2002’s 28 Days Later).
What’s the story in 28 Years Later?
The film’s focus is on a group of survivors secluded on an island that have found a way to exist under the threat of zombie infection. The island is connected to mainland Britain via a heavily-defended causeway.
One group, though, sets out to the mainland on a mission and discovers secrets and horrors reflecting how the virus has mutated not only the infected but also the surviving humans.
Ralph Fiennes, who plays Dr Kelson, revealed in an interview with IndieWire, “it centers on a young boy who wants to find a doctor to help his dying mother. He leads his mother through this beautiful northern English terrain. But of course, around them hiding in forests and hills and woods are the infected. But he finds a doctor who is a man we might think is going to be weird and odd, but actually is a force for good.”
Read more: Who is in the cast of 28 Years Later?
Comer plays a survivor called Isla, who is raising her son, Spike (played by Alfie Williams), on the island, alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character.
Despite knowing she was on a film set, Comer told Empire about the genuine terror she experienced while filming scenes.
“The thing about our stunt performers playing the infected is they really don’t take the speed off for you. They chase you. There were so many moments where I felt like I was actually running for my life!”
Whereas Comer was perhaps really running for her life, director and horror-enthusiast Boyle was lapping up the performance.
Read more: Cillian Murphy isn’t in 28 Years Later
Comer continued, “He just said, ‘I love this stuff,'” I said, ‘Why?’ ‘Because you just have to go there. You can’t fake it. You have to really go there in order for the audience to be with you.'”
When is it released?
28 Years Later will hit theaters across the US, Canada and United Kingdom on 20 June, 2025.
There is talk that this is the beginning of a new trilogy, with sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple already confirmed for release in 2026, so you can expect a lot more ravenous zombie action yet from Boyle.
