28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)

I felt let down and disappointed by 28 Years Later on its release last summer, there's no question about it. The trailer, which had been teased for months had me in a state of great excitement; a return to the world of 28 Days Later (2002) directed by Danny Boyle- and it looked terrifying. The end product was something of a damp squib. There were interesting ideas, but mostly I had to spend a huge amount of time with people I didn't really care about with Boyle asking you to become emotionally engaged with what was unfurling. It didn't help that Ralph Fiennes was only on screen for a small portion of the film. The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta, was a sequel I didn't particularly want or felt I needed. DaCosta's Candyman sequel was my only reference point for her film making, and whilst she did a fine job with her direction the film was extremely lacklustre despite huge critical praise. In fact, I thought it was one of the worst films of 2021. So, what an excellent surprise to report that The Bone Temple is an absolute blast. At the end of the previous film we saw young Spike (Alfie Williams) going off into the wilderness on his own, only to be confronted by Jack O'Connell's Jimmy Crystal and his gang of Jimmies, all sporting Jimmy Saville wigs. It was a bizarre end to what had become a somewhat tedious film, but The Bone Temple immediately throws you in at the deep end. Quite literally in fact, as the gang take Spike to an abandoned indoor swimming complex and force him to fight one of the gang to death. Which he does, with a bit luck. It's never fully explained why the gang choose such an individual to model their looks on, and perhaps that's for the best. There's been plenty of explanations outside of the film but it's actually better to go into the film and accept the insaneness of it all. Ralph Fiennes is back as Dr. Ian Kelson, who is attempting to tame an alpha zombie that's rampaging around near his titular bone temple and who he's named Samson. We flit from Kelson to Spike and the gang for much of the film until they all meet in the film's final quarter. The Jimmies go about their work horribly; O'Connell's Jimmy has made it his goal to serve Satan and exact some pretty horrendous atrocities on unsuspecting survivors of the plague as well as the infected themselves. O'Connell and Fiennes steal the film from all around them. It doesn't help that despite young Alfie Williams's best efforts, he's playing a character who I simply do not care about. All I was interested in was going back and forth between O'Connell and Fiennes; concomitantly producing hell and some sort of heaven amidst a backdrop of a savaged and bare United Kingdom. Much has been made of Fiennes incredible physical performance as he gives his own dance number to Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast, and it is indeed impressive. But the sequence feels at odds with the shocking violence and brutality that's come before it, and adds some utterly unneeded black comedy to proceedings. If such a sequence had been asked of any other actor, you feel it may have sunk the film; Fiennes manages to get away with it. And speaking of Kelson's music taste, it's nice that he still is able to listen to records in his little abode- but once we see a vinyl copy of Duran Duran's album Rio in his collection, it's then pretty irritating to hear three of Duran Duran's biggest hits pumped out -Rio, Ordinary World and Girls on Film- the latter two being on two separate albums to Rio. You'd think after over twenty years since the virus hit, he'd be sick of their most overplayed songs. Anyway, I digress. The zombies (or infected) are almost completely redundant in The Bone Temple, playing a tiny role in comparison to previous instalments. This actually makes for a far more interesting film, and the theology and religion which permeate the film- queried by the characters themselves- leave lingering questions. The Bone Temple is a nasty film. It's not an easy watch, but this doesn't have you looking away in disgust, it has you hanging on as it throttles along at breakneck speed. DaCosta's film, despite its flaws, ironically breathes new life into a franchise in what is its darkest film by some stretch. Satanism, atheism, and humanity all combine to offer you something that is thoroughly entertaining and sometimes excellent; aided by two superb turns from O'Connell and Fiennes. It's no masterpiece, and lacks the tense panic of the first two films (Days, Weeks)- and also provides a final scene that feels far too inevitable, yet not unwelcome. But most importantly, it had me looking forward to a fifth offering- that's a hugely impressive achievement. 7.4/10