Sony PicturesEnvisioning how British culture might react to its own demise, director Danny Boyle introduces a world shaped by nostalgia, opening with a quasi-medieval village interspersed with patriotic clips from Laurence Olivier’s 1940s adaptation of Henry V.Quarantined by a kind of turbo-charged, involuntary Brexit, the survivors in 28 Years Later aren’t just nostalgic for the Before Times — they’re modeling their lives on the distant past. With its historical reference points and deceptively picturesque rural setting, the film disrupts our expectations for a legacy sequel, often feeling closer to The Wicker Man than the urban survival horror of the original 28 Days Later.A generation on from the Rage Virus outbreak, we meet a community who have settled on the tidal island of Lindisfarne. Their subsistence lifestyle appears to be working out for them, but the film drops hints that this isn’t exactly a forward-thinking culture.During the opening act, our 12-year-old protagonist Spike is pressured by his father to embark on a perilous coming-of-age ritual, traveling to the zombie-infested mainland. Armed with a bow and arrow, he’s being trained for a tough life of hunting and chopping wood to provide for his community. There’s a strong suggestion that this is a man’s job, with girls learning different roles within the village. Not quite as dystopian as the misogynist hellscape of Mad Max: Fury Road (or the enclave that Christopher Eccleston’s character tried to build in 28 Days Later), but certainly not the egalitarian post-apocalyptic commune of Station 11 either.When Spike and his father return, they’re welcomed back with a raucous party, complete with homemade beer and a rendition of the Newcastle folk song “Blaydon Races” — a song rooted in the old world, full of incomprehensible 19th century references. It’s obvious by now that this community is obsessed with the past, whether it’s in their choice of music, art (a portrait of the presumably long-dead Queen Elizabeth), or social structure. Here is where 28 Years Later reveals its secret identity as a folk horror movie.Spike and his father flee back to the village after completing his coming-of-age ritual on the mainland. | Sony PicturesIt’s easy to draw parallels between this village and the Scottish island cultists in The Wicker Man, the most influential work of the folk horror genre. Like Spike’s hometown, The Wicker Man’s Summerisle is insular and unsettling, resembling a historical time capsule. Faced with an existential threat, its inhabitants look back to a skewed interpretation of ancient traditions, hoping that pagan rituals will prevent another failed harvest.With their strictly enforced societal roles, all-white population and creepy brand of nostalgia, both communities double as a grim satire of British small-town conservatism — a recurring theme in British folk horror. Merciless border control is also a core tenet of the Lindisfarne village’s ideology, leaving people to perish if they can’t make their own way home before high tide — a rule that mirrors the NATO zone around the British Isles.Between scenes of brutality in the original 28 Days Later, we’re treated to a whimsical moment where the main characters see a group of wild horses galloping through a field. It’s a reminder that while human society has collapsed, the natural ecosystem lives on. In the sequel, this imagery becomes a key element of the post-apocalyptic landscape, where herds of deer run unchecked alongside hordes of the Infected. Reminiscent of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Britain’s wildlife is flourishing.Judging by the extensive deforestation around Lindisfarne however, Spike’s community have not learned to live in tune with the land. Like the people of Summerisle, their lifestyle may not be as sustainable as they hope.Spike meets Dr. Kelso and realizes that the villagers have been wrong about him this entire time. | Sony PicturesIn the second half of the film, Spike runs away from home, hoping to find a doctor who lives on the mainland. This mysterious stranger, Dr Kelson, represents Spike’s last chance to save his mother from an undiagnosed illness — a quest that his father Jamie dismisses out of hand.Years ago, Jamie witnessed Kelson collecting human bodies and burning them. Since then, the entire community have shunned Kelson as a dangerous outsider, refusing to investigate any further. But by this point in the story, we’re primed to distrust Jamie’s kneejerk assumptions, which are founded in an aggressive resistance to new ideas. His anecdote might describe an act of corpse desecration, but Kelson could also have been performing some sort of experiment, trying to learn about the Infected. By refusing to even ask what Kelson was doing, the villagers have cut themselves off from the only doctor in the area.When Spike does finally meet Kelson, he learns that he’s an eccentric but gentle man; a hermit who has developed a unique spiritual response to the apocalypse. Accepting that the Infected are now a part of the ecosystem, he’s devised nonviolent ways to protect himself, while dedicating his time to an epic, ritualistic art project.Working alone, Kelson has built a colossal temple from human bones, paying tribute to the dead and embracing the idea that infected and uninfected humans deserve equal respect. So while he can’t save Spike’s mother from her terminal illness, he still has something to offer, introducing Spike to a new philosophy. Instead of closing himself off from reality like the villagers, Kelson has processed his trauma through a kind of experimental paganism, understanding that while older generations are still grieving what they’ve lost, survivors must adapt to a new world.28 Years Later is now streaming on Netflix.