28 Days Later: parents' guide
Best for ages 17 and up. Rated R for strong violence and gore, language and nudity.
A raw, frightening survival horror film for mature older teens and adults. A man wakes from a coma to find London empty after a rage virus has turned most people into fast, frenzied killers, and he joins a small group heading north. Expect bloody attacks, shootings and an eye-gouging, frequent strong profanity, and full-frontal male nudity as he wakes. He finds his own parents dead by suicide. Late in the film, soldiers hold a woman and a teen girl captive and plan to rape them; the assault is stopped. A father is shot in front of his daughter. We suggest 17.
What's in it
Violence
StrongInfected people tear into victims and vomit blood, and survivors fight back with bats, machetes and guns, including against an infected boy. Shootings and stabbings are bloody, a man's eyes are gouged out, and soldiers threaten to rape a woman and a teen girl before the hero intervenes.
Language
StrongMovieguide counted about 70 obscenities, most of them strong. Common Sense lists f-words, s-words and the c-word, plus British terms like 'bastard,' 'arse' and 'bloody.'
Sex and nudity
StrongNo sex scenes. The hero is shown fully naked from the front and back when he wakes in a hospital, and a woman's breasts are briefly seen in a nonsexual moment. Soldiers leer at the women and force one to strip to her underwear.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
ModerateA man takes expensive whiskey from an abandoned shop, and characters, including a teen, drink. Survivors take Valium to sleep, and an adult gives the teen pills to numb her to what the soldiers intend.
Scary or intense scenes
StrongSustained dread in deserted streets, dark tunnels and a besieged mansion, with sudden attacks by screaming infected, jump scares and rotting corpses. The final act, as soldiers menace the two women, is intensely upsetting.
Sensitive topics
- Sexual assault
- Suicide
- Death of a parent
Worth talking about
The soldiers argue that civilization's rules no longer apply. Talk with your teen about what keeps people decent in a crisis, and why the hero refuses to go along.
On our lists
Similar picks around 17+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, movieguide.org, Wikipedia, the MPA. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.