Cliff Notes – Jodie Comer discusses her character’s agonising journey in unseen 28 Years Later clip
- Jodie Comer portrays Isla, a mother grappling with an undiagnosed illness in a post-apocalyptic setting, as revealed in a new min-trailer.
- The narrative follows Isla and her son Spike as they venture from their confined home to the dangerous mainland in search of help.
- The film, directed by Danny Boyle, aims to blend horror with emotional depth, while establishing itself as a standalone sequel within the 28 Days Later trilogy.
Jodie Comer discusses her character’s agonising journey in unseen 28 Years Later clip
Jodie Comer has given insight into the struggles of her ‘confined’ 28 Years Later character in a new min-trailer with gruesome flashes of the film’s Infected.
The 32-year-old actress plays Isla, a mother who is trying to cope with an undiagnosed and debilitating illness during the unforgiving landscape of the highly anticipated sequel to classic 2002 British horror film 28 Days Later.
In a clip shared exclusively with Metro, Comer teases a little more about how Isla fits into the narrative, which is also set in the same post-apocalyptic world as 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, but is not a direct follow-up.
‘Twenty-eight years ago, this infection infiltrated its way into these people’s lives,’ Comer explains on set, as we see graves and a wooden barricade on the beach while some Infected storm a house, attacking in a violent frenzy while their victims scream, with blood pouring from their eyes.
‘My character Isla lives in a small community, but she’s been confined to the walls of her home.
‘Her son Spike makes the choice to take her off the island onto the mainland, which is the most dangerous place, to find help,’ she adds.
Isla is shown lying in bed, disoriented and knocking over a glass as Spike, played by newcomer Alfie Williams, asks: ‘What’s really wrong with her?’
Throughout the promo clip there is also a terrifying glimpse at the pockmarked back of a stalking Infected – who now appear to crawl along the ground alongside their creepy, stilted run from the previous films.
Glowing eyes lurk in the dark of a red, night-vision shot, while Ralph Fiennes as another survivor, Dr Kelson, is seen in a graveyard of bones with Spike and Isla, who in another flash is briefly seen holding a baby.
However, Free Guy and The Bikeriders star Comer also insists that there’s ‘a real thread through it of humanity and emotion’ as she and her onscreen son fiercely embrace in a fiery inferno.
The latest clip still has more horrors in store though for fans thanks to a decomposing hand reaching out and the blistered and scarred yowling face of an Infected.
28 Years Later also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Alfie’s father Jamie, as well as Jack O’Connell.
The movie, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, was shot back to back with its sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which has been helmed by Nia DaCosta and is scheduled for release early next year.
Discussing plans for how the new films link to the previous ones, Boyle explained in a Reddit AMA: ‘The new film is a standalone film, as we hope all of the films in the trilogy will be, but also we want all to be seen satisfyingly as a trilogy.
‘The central character of Jim will be there as a theme through them all. All the actors though are new, are different, and will bring their fans with them. We want people to hear the reputation of the films and discover it in their own way.’
Jim is the part original star Cillian Murphy played in 28 Days Later, a bicycle courier who wakes up in a hospital bed after an accident to discover a deserted London.
While he has been in a coma, the accidental release of a highly contagious, aggression-inducing virus has caused the breakdown of society.
Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston and Brendan Gleeson also starred.
28 Years Later is out in UK cinemas on Thursday June 19.
