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28 Years Later: Danny Boyle On Drones And Exploring New Tech In Horror

28 Years Later director Danny Boyle got to utilize a new type of drone on set, and he explains why he thinks horror is such a good place to experiment.

When it comes to making movies, there is plenty of room to talk about the story and character decisions that were made in the film. However, there is just as much room to talk about the technology that the directors and the teams they are working with employ throughout the shoot. F1: The Movie has spent a decent portion of its marketing time talking about the cameras, but we've also heard about some of the new tech that director Danny Boyle used while filming 28 Years Later. Most of that coverage has focused on the massive iPhone rig, but we love getting into the weeds of tech, and when we got to speak to Boyle and Garland last week, we asked Boyle if there was a new piece of tech he got to play with, and Boyle replied with, "Oh yeah, there's a drone called a howler." We asked him if he wanted to elaborate, and Boyle excitedly told us all about the drone he got to utilize during this shoot.

"I don't know what it's actually technically called; we called it the howler because it makes a lot of noise," Boyle explained. "But it is safe because the problem with drones is, increasingly it meets the edifice of health and safety, that says 'oh now you can't fly there because that'll be above these people and if it should by chance fall it might hit someone,' you know, all this kind of stuff. So they invented these things called the howlers, which are tiny drones that you can fly around the room like you're in now. They might bump into you, but they won't hurt you when they bump into you. They're just more like a big, very big blue bottle — boff! — that bumps into you. But you do get extraordinary moments out of them. They're kind of like an experiment, you know?

"But we do use drones a lot, actually," Boyle continued. "And I think that they have a reputation of being separate from the production, you know, that you'll get your big wide shot with a drone. But I think that's going to compress that distance between regular footage and drone footage. And actors are going to pick them up, and then let them go. They'll interface much more with the regular coverage that you make. So, it was very exciting to use some of that material. Quite a few of the shots, nobody would ever know they were done on a drone, I think. So yeah, that was very exciting. It's lovely. Horror gives you a chance. You know, you can take these risks with horror. It's a lovely, freeing environment, technically. You can challenge conventions, resolution, and format. We used a very unusual format on it, a very wide screen format, 276 [2.76:1 aspect ratio]. That was lovely to do, it was a lovely world to be in, technically."

When you stop and think about it, horror does feel like the perfect place to experiment and push the boundaries with everything from film technology to special effects makeup to even what you can get away with and keep an R-rating. For a genre that is so often looked down on, so much innovation has come and continues to come from horror. Garland and Boyle clearly have a lot of respect for the genre, and also believe that horror is political, judging by an earlier conversation we had with them about 28 Years Later, but it was fun to see how excited Boyle got to explain how this drone helped bring his vision to life.

28 Years Later: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Academy Award®-winning director Danny Boyle and Academy Award®-nominated writer Alex Garland reunite for 28 Years Later, a terrifying new "auteur horror" story set in the world created by 28 Days Later. It's been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.

28 Years Later, directed by Danny Boyle, stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Williams, and Ralph Fiennes. It will be released on June 20, 2025.

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