‘28 Years Later’ Cinematographer Recalls Terrifying Experience Filming Specific Chase Scene: “The Way We Shot It And Lit It Was Terrifying

Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later delivers one of the scariest movie moments of the year with a chilling chase scene across a flooded causeway. The intense sequence features Jamie, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and his son Spike, played by Alfie Williams, running from a terrifying new infected called The Alpha.

These new infected are stronger, faster, and more dangerous than before. One of them, known as Samson, is brutal enough to rip off people’s heads.

The chase begins after Jamie and Spike return from a mission to kill infected. Their only way home is across the long, water-covered road back to Holy Island. But as they make their way across, The Alpha appears. A full-speed pursuit follows, with the father and son sprinting while the Alpha closes in fast.

Speaking to Variety, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle described how the chase scene was one of the most difficult and frightening parts of the shoot. He said filming around Holy Island and other areas in North Yorkshire and Newcastle was tough, especially when looking for the perfect spot for the causeway scene.

One real location near the coast was considered, but it was too risky for the actors to run on. Dod Mantle explained, “The water could be unsafe to run in, or they could break a leg.”

They ended up using an old COVID vaccination center outside Newcastle. It had enough space to build the entire set. “It was a gigantic hall,” Dod Mantle said. They built a 450-foot-long set, filled it with water, and kept it temperature-controlled. A gate was placed in the middle, and the whole thing had to be lit to match the look of the film.

To create the right lighting, they used plates from an astronomy center to simulate the sky. The idea was to show a world with clean air, no pollution, and no artificial light. Dod Mantle said, “We assume, to a certain extent, that 28 years later, there will be no pollution, no cars, no interference.”

For the actual chase scene, the team used all kinds of camera equipment to make it feel fast and intense. There were dollies, cranes, and even a bar cam made of iPhones wrapped around the actors’ heads. Dod Mantle admitted it wasn’t easy: “It’s pretty scary. But we did it.” He said the scene took about three to four days to shoot and called it “an oddly sublime, melancholic, beautiful and yet terrifying scene.”

One big challenge was working with Alfie Williams, who was only 13 at the time. His age meant there were limits on how long he could work each day, which added pressure to get everything done quickly.

Outside of the chase scene, Dod Mantle also had concerns about how some of the kills would look on screen. The characters use bows and arrows instead of guns to fight the infected, which worried him at first. He said, “I was a bit wary and cautious. How is this going to work?” But by using the bar cam again, they slowed down the impact of each arrow, making the scenes more intense and dramatic.

A new type of creature, called the Slow-Lows, also appears in the film. These infected are slow and crawl on the ground, feeding on what’s left behind. They don’t look dangerous at first, but they add a new kind of fear. Dod Mantle explained, “No one would think of them as dangerous because they’re eating worms on the ground.” He recalled seeing the first Slow-Low prosthetics while Danny Boyle was in London. “They were made up for six hours every day, so he sent me a picture,” he said.

One of Dod Mantle’s favorite scary moments is a scene in an old church. Jamie hides there with his mother, played by Jodie Comer. In the middle of the night, a Slow-Low creeps toward them. “They can’t see, but they can smell,” he said. “That’s why the Slow-Low thinks Jamie’s shoelace is a worm, and he spits it out.” He called it a moment that mixed horror and comedy in just the right way.

But in the end, it was the causeway chase that left the strongest impact on Dod Mantle. “I was more terrified than I thought I was going to be on the causeway, because when he was pounding down behind me and pounding towards us, it was pretty terrifying,” he said. “The use of sound, and the way we shot it and lit it was terrifying.”

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