“I was actually running for my life” – Jodie Comer on being genuinely terrified while filming 28 Years Later

It’s sounding like no matter how scary 28 Years Later might be, no one will be more afraid than one of its stars, Jodie Comer.

The original 28 Days Later might look a touch dated thanks to the fact it was mostly shot in a digital camera, but it definitely still brought the scares. Its versions of zombies, which were quite different from the kind you might typically think of, were fast, aggressive, and scary looking, and now a good 23 years later Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are back with 28 Years Later to try and capture some of that again. And according to an interview with Empire, for Jodie Comer, that certainly seems to have worked. Comer told Empire of her experience working on the film, in particular noting how genuinely terrifying being chased by the stunt performers was.

“The thing about our stunt performers playing the infected is they really don’t take the speed off for you,” she said. “They chase you. There were so many moments where I felt like I was actually running for my life!” For director Boyle, though, this was where the movie magic happened. “He just said, ‘I love this stuff.’ I said, ‘Why?’ ‘Because you just have to go there. You can’t fake it. You have to really go there in order for the audience to be with you.'”

Presumably we’ll be seeing some of that actual, real-life fear from Comer on screen when the long-awaited third film comes to cinemas later this year, where she’ll be appearing alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, and more. The first trailer actually arrived last month, and so far it’s looking like Boyle still knows how to make a good zombie flick. It’s also technically part of a new trilogy, with director Nia DaCosta following this one up with The Bone Temple, before Boyle jumps back into the director’s chair for the third and final entry.