
Watching 28 Years Later in a post-COVID world
Social Sharing
It's been over two decades since the release of 28 Days Later, the horror film that reimagined what a zombie thriller could be. Now, the franchise is back with a third installment, 28 Years Later. But in a post-Brexit, post-COVID world, are fans ready to return to a survival story about a rage virus spreading across the U.K.?
Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud speaks with Vulture film critic Alison Willmore about the franchise's new film and how it lands in this current cultural moment.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
Irish rap group Kneecap plays at Glastonbury despite criticism
Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, aka Mo Chara, right, a member of the Irish language band Kneecap, leaves Westminster Magistrates Court London, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, where he is charged with a terrorism offence relating to displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah during a performance with the band in November 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) PILTON, England — Irish-language rap group Kneecap performed to tens of thousands of people Saturday at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November. He's on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. 'Glastonbury, I'm a free man!" Ó hAnnaidh shouted as Kneecap took the stage at Glastonbury's West Holts field, which holds about 30,000 people. A scattering of Palestinian flags flew in the capacity crowd before the show, which opened with an audio montage of news clips referring to the band's critics and legal woes. The Belfast trio has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland, but also criticized for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references, and for political statements. The band draws, often satirically, on the language and imagery of the Irish republican movement and Northern Ireland's decades of violence. It has faced criticism since videos emerged allegedly showing the band shouting 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah' and calling on people to kill lawmakers. Members of the group say they don't support Hezbollah or Hamas, nor condone violence, and Ó hAnnaidh says he picked up a flag that was thrown onto the stage without knowing what it represented. Kneecap has accused critics of trying to silence the band, because of its support for the Palestinian cause throughout the war in Gaza. Several Kneecap gigs have been canceled as a result of the controversy. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, when asked by a journalist, that it wouldn't be 'appropriate' for the festival to give Kneecap a platform. Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the publicly funded BBC shouldn't broadcast 'Kneecap propaganda.' The BBC, which airs many hours of Glastonbury performances, said it wouldn't show Kneecap's set live, but would 'look to make an on-demand version of Kneecap's performance available on our digital platforms' afterward. About 200,000 ticket holders have gathered at Worthy Farm in southwest England for Britain's most prestigious summer music festival, which features almost 4,000 performers on 120 stages. Headline acts performing over three days ending Sunday include Neil Young, Charli XCX, Rod Stewart, Busta Rhymes, Olivia Rodrigo and Doechii. Glastonbury highlights on Friday included a performance from U.K. rockers The 1975, an unannounced set by New Zealand singer Lorde, a raucous reception for Gen X icon Alanis Morissette and an emotional return for Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, two years after he took a break from touring to adjust to the impact of the neurological condition Tourette syndrome. Louise Dixon, The Associated Press


CBC
2 days ago
- CBC
How queer people shaped reality TV
Social Sharing From RuPaul's Drag Race to The Real World, what would reality TV be without queer people? That's one of the questions that journalist Mel Woods gets into in their new podcast, Get Queer, which explores reality TV's queer history. Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud sits down with Woods to talk about how queer people helped make reality TV the powerhouse that it is and how the genre has also shaped the queer community. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: Since the birth of reality TV, queer and trans people have been fixtures in the genre as characters, but also as fans. And I think there is something going on about this consistently here. Why do you think queer and trans people have historically been so drawn to this genre? Mel: We've been there from the beginning. You look at what a lot of people say as being the first reality TV show, An American Family, way back in the '70s, and there was the gay son, Lance Loud, right there. Or on The Real World, we had Pedro Zamora, who was kind of disclosing his HIV status. And when you think about modern reality TV, I think there's a natural overlap between the camp, the performativity, the excess, the extra with queer culture. There's a reason gay people like housewives flipping tables and spilling their wine on each other because that's very fun. And I think that plays to a lot of the cultural history associated with performance and camp and excess that queer and trans communities have for ourselves. Elamin: You've been working on the show [ Get Queer ] for some time. Why did you want to talk about queer people and trans people in reality TV right now, in this specific moment? Mel: Yeah, I was born in 1995. I turned 30 last week. I like to say that I've grown up alongside reality TV as a genre. It is a very distinctly 21st century medium. I think we forget about that because it's so pervasive in our lives today. And it's really interesting when I thought back on my life over the last three decades and seeing these wins in progress in the public perception of queer and trans people over that same period of time. I grew up just outside Red Deer, Alberta, so for a lot people in middle Canada, middle America, who maybe think that they don't know a queer or trans person in their real life, reality TV might be the first place that they had been seeing a real person — not a character written by somebody — but a real queer or trans person on TV. And that can be really impactful, both for allies who don't know their allies yet or people who are building empathy for the real life queer and trans people in their lives. But also, of course, for young people coming up and seeing themselves or seeing possibility models for themselves reflected on there. So the show [ Get Queer ], it's a contained, six-episode thing…. It looks at that history and traces those parallel paths that we see between some of these movements of representation and visibility, and how these different shows and properties open those doors, or close some doors, or whatnot, along the way.


CTV News
3 days ago
- CTV News
The Duke of Edinburgh meets with cadets on Prince Edward Island
Britain's Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, speaks to guests attending a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, London, Wednesday May 8, 2024. (Jordan Pettitt/Pool via AP)