By Michael Boyle

Copyright slashfilm

Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later,” the third movie in the groundbreaking zombie apocalypse franchise, will reportedly be available on Netflix this weekend, starting September 20. This is big news because Netflix has a tendency of helping the popularity of previously released shows and movies; “Breaking Bad” fans, for instance, can certainly attest to how much Netflix helped boost the show’s profile.

Not only will the “28” franchise likely receive a wave of new viewers this weekend, but it will actually deserve that wave. “28 Years Later” is a great movie, one of the best in the whole horror genre to release this year. It’s a riveting film with a talented leading child actor, and a directing technique that’s both innovative and true to the series’ roots. (There’s also an inexplicably hung zombie thrown in there, much to the amusement and bafflement of plenty of theatergoers this past June.)

The most impressive part of “28 Years Later” is how it expands on the world established in the first two movies. The first film gave us a zombie outbreak (sorry, an infected outbreak) that only affected the United Kingdom. Because the UK is an island and the infected can’t swim, this creates a fun situation in “28 Years Later” where the UK has devolved into an isolated, quasi-medieval society while the other countries still enjoy all the little luxuries we have in the real world today.

The second movie in the series, “28 Weeks Later,” ends with the infected spreading into France. It’s a storyline that (if followed through on) would’ve killed the most unique dynamic this franchise has going for it. Luckily, “28 Years Later” quickly and efficiently cleans up that misstep, telling the audience in the opening sequence that the virus was “driven back” from mainland Europe. Maybe some fans wanted more of an explanation than what this movie’s willing to give, but most should be happy to fill in the blanks on their own.