Yes …  “28 Years Later” is another zombie horror picture, continuing screenwriter Alex Garland & director Danny Boyle’s allegorical, apocalyptic concept of “28 Days Later” (2002) in which a primate virus morphs into a fatal blood-borne ‘rage’ psychosis.

Filled with dread and foreboding, this graphically violent yet character-driven story revolves around 12 year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) who lives with his macho father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and ailing mother, Ilsa (Jodie Comer). 

As part of a strictly-enforced quarantine, their rugged, tight-knit, secluded community is crossbow-fortified and barricaded on Holy Island, separated by a long, tidal causeway that leads to the northeast coast of England.

As part of a tribal coming-of-age ritual, Spike sets out on a grisly, gory walkabout with his father to hunt and kill naked ‘infected’ hominids with bows and arrows. “Once you walk onto the mainland, there’s no rescue,” he’s warned.

Venturing through verdant woodlands, they first encounter easy targets like ‘slow-lows,’ a nickname for the corpulent crawlers who gobble worms, but then they’re threatened by feral, fast-moving, frenzied savages, particularly ‘alphas,’ who are far more dangerous.

“The more you kill, the easier it gets,” Jamie assures sensitive Spike.

Having endured that first foray, Spike is determined to venture further inland, in search of fabled Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) in hopes of curing his beloved mother.  En route, they’re joined by Erik (Edvin Ryding), a Swedish Navy officer whose patrol ship sank off Scotland …“Scotch-on-the-rocks,” he jokes.

Perhaps the most memorable interlude takes place on an abandoned train, where Isla helps an ‘infected’ pregnant woman deliver a healthy baby girl. An enigmatic harbinger of a follow-up – “The Bone Temple” – set for a January 16, 2026, release.

Kudos to cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle who utilized a special rig outfitted with multitude of iPhone 15 Pro Maxes, simultaneously filming multiple angles, freeze-frames and fragmented quick cuts of the same grainy image…and editor Jon Harris who splices in glimpses of archival footage and relevant historical happenings.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “28 Years Later” is a speculative, suspenseful, survivalist 7, playing in theaters.

It was inevitable that “Succession” writer/director Jesse Armstrong would have more to say about how power corrupts – which is why he made “Mountainhead” – a satire in which four nihilistic Silicon Valley tech titans meet to decide the fate of the world.

This summit takes place at the palatial glass-and-steel vacation home belonging to Hugo Van Yalk (Jason Schwartzman), nicknamed ‘Soupy’ – a.k.a. ‘Soup Kitchen’ – because he’s a lowly, insecure millionaire hosting three billionaires.

The ‘Papa Bear’ eldest is venture capitalist ‘Randall’ (Steve Carell), who mocks his physician’s dire cancer diagnosis; then there’s manic social media titan ‘Venis’ (Cory Michael Smith), the richest man in the world; and ‘Jeff’ (Ramy Youssef), who controls an AI ‘moderation system’ to block phony AI-generated images..

The plot unfolds just after arrogant, entitled Venis (rhymes with ‘menace,’ evoking Elon Musk) releases content tools that allow users to create ‘deep fakes’ of ordinary people, flooding the Internet with disinformation. As the world plunges into chaos, violence erupts, markets collapse and governments fall.

Apparently, Jesse Armstrong hatched this idea while researching crypto-fascist tech-bro culture after reviewing Michael Lewis’s book about Sam Bankman-Fried for the Times Literary Supplement in 2023.

Armstrong began writing the script after Donald Trump won the Presidential election in 2024, and this is his directorial debut. Significantly, President Trump’s current “big, beautiful bill” contains a 10-year moratorium on state A.I. regulations.

Unfortunately, what eventually emerges are four reprehensible, almost-cartoon-like, tediously talking heads, speaking in a pretentious patois filled with ‘insider’ references, profanity and computer allusions. 

On the plus side, kudos to location manager Paul Eskenazi for finding the lavish, modernist, 21,000-square-foot ski chalet perched on a peak in Deer Valley, Utah. Designed by architect Michael Upwall, it has seven bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, a basketball court, bowling alley, rock-climbing wall, steam room and sauna.

“The house didn’t just support the story,” Eskenazi told the New York Times. “It became part of it.”

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Mountainhead” is a trivial, frightening 4, streaming on HBO/Max.

Catch up with Susan Granger’s latest reviews here:

• “The Phoenician Scheme” and “Nonnas”
• “Your Friends and Neighbors” and “La Palma”
• “Last Breath” and “Sirens”
• “Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning” and “Death of a Unicorn”

Susan Granger

^{_{Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in Journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has appeared on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie critic for many years. Read all her reviews at susangranger.com.}}