28 years later: The Bone Temple Review: a thrilling and horrific sequel

When I saw Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later” in early 2025, I was impressed…at first. Returning to the series they began with “28 Days Later,” Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland developed a script surprisingly moving horror saga which focused on the inevitability of death and grief. “28 Years Later” unleashed a lot of blood and terror, but it was also uniquely reflective and hauntingly beautiful in its own way.

And then the crazy ending almost ruined everything.

In its final minutes, “28 Years Later” dramatically changed its tone and unleashed a gang of idiots dressed like a notorious British media personality and accused of sex offenders. Jimmy Savile. These characters clashed terribly with everything that had come before them, doing backflips and karate kicks and feeling like they had been teleported from a completely different movie. This is not the case enough destroying everything that came before it, but this came really close. “Oh no,” I thought. “If this is to set up the next movie, I’m not sure I’ll be interested in the next movie.”

Well, the next movie, “28 Years Later: The Temple of Bones,” is here, and I’m happy to admit that my worries were for nothing. Replacing Boyle, director Nia DaCosta (working with another Garland script) has created a violent, energetic and impressive sequel that takes the story to unexpected places. It’s not enough as thoughtful as what Boyle and Garland pulled off in “28 Years Later,” but it’s really a lot of fun. Although there is so much unabashed brutality and gore, “fun” might not be the right word. Again, there is a scene where Ralph Fiennes dances to an Iron Maiden song. What is this, if not fun?

In “28 Years Later” we met Spike (Alfie Williams), a teenager who has lived in quarantine his entire life while the zombie-like infected still roam the UK (the film implied the outbreak was contained to the UK). while the rest of the world moved on). After losing his beloved mother and meeting the strange but kind Dr. Ian Kelson (Fiennes), Spike decided to venture out into the wilderness alone and explore. He didn’t get very far before encountering this gang of Saville impersonators led by Sir Jimmy Crystal, played with appropriately idiotic menace by Jack O’Connell.

“The Bone Temple” picks up almost immediately after this finale, with Spike being inducted into Jimmy’s gang. All members must change their name to “Jimmy” and don tracksuits and ratty blonde wigs. They must Also follow Sir Jimmy’s lead as he causes them to wander and brutally murder the survivors in the name of Satan. Sir Jimmy blames the infected apocalypse on the devil himself and sees it as his unholy mission to torture and kill any unlucky soul his band of ultra-violent miscreants comes across. They’re like the Droogs in “A Clockwork Orange”, but ten times worse.

Like countless zombie stories before, “The Bone Temple” wants to remind us that the infected are not the only ones. real monsters: it is human beings who cause the most horror. Indeed, while the infected may be bloodthirsty ghouls, they are essentially blameless for their actions; they have little or no control. Jimmy and his gang, in stark contrast, are a truly vile and loathsome group, and the only redeeming members are Spike, who is constantly horrified by the group’s actions, and the sympathetic Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), who takes a liking to Spike and tries to protect him from the incessant horrors.

O’Connell played the memorable vampire Remmick in last year’s “Sinners,” and with his work in “The Bone Temple,” he confirms he’s very good at playing bad guys. The fact that Jimmy feels like a completely different character from Remmick is also a testament to O’Connell’s skills; he doesn’t just recycle material, he creates something new. Jimmy was just a child when the outbreak began, and he grew into a childish adult. He’s also clearly a psychopath with delusions of grandeur. O’Connell plays him with just the right amount of sadism and childish innocence. Jimmy is not innocent, of course, but thanks to O’Connell’s chilling performance, we get plenty of insight into his evil mind.

As Spike struggles to adjust to his new blood-filled life, Dr. Kelson finds an unlikely way to connect with Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), the imposing (and often naked) Alpha leader of the local infected. While Samson, with his muscular physique and swing, is particularly deadly (we are reintroduced to him in a gruesome scene where he rips off some unlucky man’s head and begins feasting on his brain), some experimentation has allowed Kelson and Samson to bond.

Fiennes is just as good here as in the first film, bringing customary warmth and kindness to this post-apocalyptic landscape, and Lewis-Parry manages to make Samson one of the best characters in the entire series with almost no dialogue (notice I said “almost”). There’s a long section of “The Bone Temple” where Kelson and Samson just hang out together in peace and solitude, and honestly I would have been fine if that had been the whole movie.

But of course it is not the whole movie. Eventually, Jimmy and his gang will cross paths with Kelson, and from what we know about Jimmy, it’s obvious that this is going to lead to some sort of problem. But Garland’s script is pleasantly casual in unveiling his conflict; he is more interested in the quiet moments of the characters than in the advancement of the plot. This is not to say that “The Bone Temple” is slow. DaCosta keeps things moving at a steady pace, and the filmmaker creates a handful of truly grisly moments of brutal violence that are sure to make even the most hardy audience members squirm. This series has never shied away from blood and guts, but “The Bone Temple” is the bloodiest entry yet.

All this blood appears as if in service of a larger story, in which characters grapple with questions of faith and unrelenting horror. If there’s one recurring theme in all of these films – beyond the zombie-style mayhem – it’s that humanity will claw and fight until its last breath. Even when things seem completely hopeless, human beings will find a way to adapt to some sort of normalcy. Are we naive? Delusional? Are we in denial? Or are we so conditioned to survive that we have no choice but to keep stumbling until we can no longer move?

“28 Years Later” came across as a bit more thoughtful and meditative when it came to these details, while “The Bone Temple” is a pulpier, nastier sequel; a sort of European comic-style answer to a more intellectual question. But there are moments here that feel fresh, original, and invigorating, which is no small feat in a subgenre that’s been beaten to death over and over again.

I left “28 Years Later” nervous about what might come next. After “The Temple of Bones,” I’m excited about the prospect of where this story could go. This is what I call progress.

/Film rating: 8 out of 10

“28 Years Later: The Temple of Bones” hits theaters on January 16, 2026.