THE ORIGINAL FILM SCARED THE LIFE OUT OF US ALL — AND KICK-STARTED A WHOLE NEW WAVE OF SKIN-ROTTING HORROR. NOW, WITH 28 YEARS L ATER, DIRECTOR DANNY BOYLE AND WRITER ALEX GARLAND HAVE RETURNED WITH A VENGEANCE. FANCY A BITE?

WORDS OLLY RICHARDS

Clockwise from main: The chase is on;

Crowds can be unsettling. Squeezing through throngs of London’s Christmas shoppers, all brimming with a combustible mix of festive cheer and tetchy frustration, Empire’s eye is caught by a TV in the lobby of a glass office building. A news channel displays the chyron, “Lab-made ‘mirror bacteria’ could endanger all life on Earth.” We don’t hear the details — it’s probably fine? — but it feels unwelcomely ominous, given who we’re on our way to meet.

A few minutes later, thoroughly jostled, we’re sitting down at Empire HQ with Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, a duo who collectively scared cinemagoers half daft in 2002. 28 Days Later, written by Garland and directed by Boyle, began with a rage-inducing virus escaping a medical facility and ended with the UK overrun by infected cannibals looking for throats to rip out. ‘Zombie’ movies had been out of fashion since the 1970s, until 28 Days Later came along with its sprinting monsters, daylit horror, and social commentary. It was a hit, launched Garland’s film career, and inspired countless imitators. It seemed like it should be the start of a major horror franchise, yet somehow, after one solid sequel, it keeled over, apparently never to rise again.

“We used to have grievance meetings where we talked about how much money people were making by copying us,” laughs Boyle. Movies like World War Z, TV shows like The Walking Dead and games like The Last Of Us rode the new wave of ‘zombie’ popularity they’d started.

It’s taken more than two decades, but Boyle and Garland are finally making a very belated return to the world they created. With 28 Years Later they’re hoping to redefine the genre once more with not just one film, but a trilogy that will both explore their original concept in a completely new way, and treat horror with a grandeur it’s rarely granted.

Getting here, though, took blood, sweat and an almost ruined friendship.

In 2000, Alex Garland pitched28 Days Laterto producer Andrew Macdonald over pizza in Fitzrovia. Macdonald and Danny Boyle had just madeThe Beach, based on Garland’s novel. After many conversations on that film, Macdonald says “it was clear Alex wanted to try and write films. He said, ‘I’ve got this idea. It’s post-apocalyptic. There are zombies who aren’t zombies — they’re infected. They run fast.

It takes place in daylight. And it’s bloody terrifying.’ I said, ‘Yep. Okay. Great.’” Within two years, 28 Days Later was in cinemas and on its way to $85 million at the box office, on a budget of around $8.4 million (£6 million).

Director Danny Boyle with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams;

Mum Isla (Jodie Comer) with Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes);

The doctor will see you now.