'28 Years Later' Is Totally Nuts

At the heart of Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later stands an eerie monument, a slender tower of skulls serving as a memorial to the dead. It’s a grim sight, surrounded by trees covered in bones, but one designed to stir compassion as well. “There are so many dead, infected and uninfected alike — because they are alike,” says its apparent creator, Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), who in the years following Britain’s transformation into a zombie-filled hellscape became a gruff, buff, and somewhat daffy hermit single-handedly holding off armies of monsters with a mixture of weapons, guile, and medical know-how. When someone dies, Kelson burns off their skin, polishes their skull, and places it on the tower. This memorial speaks to the constant presence of death in these films, but it also asks us to stop and consider the immense loss these humans have endured. “Every skull is a set of thoughts,” Kelson says. “These sockets saw, and these jaws swallowed.” Most people seem to think he’s a lunatic, but maybe you have to be a little mad to hold onto your humanity in a world like this.