One of many scariest movies of the 12 months, 28 Years Later, used iPhones to movie key scenes.
Director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland reunite nearly 28 years after their groundbreaking 2002 movie 28 Days Later, delivering a gloriously horrifying cinematic expertise of their newest movie.
Assessment: ’28 Years Later’ is a triumphant return, one of many scariest movies of the 12 months
Additionally returning is cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, whose use of digital camcorders outlined 28 Days Later. Right here, Boyle and Mantle use a number of cameras, together with 20 tailored iPhone 15s, all deployed to seize Boyle’s go-to 2.76:1 widescreen side. However what impact does this produce in 28 Years Later, and what does it imply for the actors in entrance of the various lenses?
Mashable leisure editor Kristy Puchko sat down with Boyle for Mashable’s Say Extra podcast, and UK editor Shannon Connellan spoke to 28 Years Later stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, and Alfie Williams to grasp extra about making a serious horror movie utilizing iPhones.
“When someone puts an iPhone very close, it’s a bit intrusive. You feel kind of vulnerable, and you can’t hide. There’s a quality about it that just shows everything, and it meant we had to feel very present in the moment,” says Taylor-Johnson. “You got used to it very quickly, and it became such a great environment to work around.”
Credit score: Sony Photos
“Technology’s moved on, and we thought, we’ve got to move on and yet we want to respect that instinct which is to use the ordinary in some way. So it feels like it’s something that’s come from the place that the story is about. And of course, we’ve all got the phones now so we decided to use them,” Boyle says.
“They’re lightweight, they now record at 4K, but they allowed us to visit places, remote places, in the UK, with a very light footprint,” he provides. “But we used a lot of cameras. We didn’t just use the iPhones… there’s a red sequence in it that’s used this special Panasonic camera, the EU123. We used drones, which use 6K cameras. And we unified everything with a format, with a 2.76:1, which is a widescreen format, which you can do now with all these cameras.”
As for teen newcomer Williams, who performs 12-year-old Spike, the expertise of constructing movies on iPhone is fairly customary for his technology. “This was normal for me,” he says.
28 Years Later is now taking part in in theaters. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is slated for theatrical launch on Jan. 16, 2026.
