With 28 Days Later, director Danny Boyle and Alex Garland rewrote the principles of the zombie style. With 28 Years Later, they did it once more by rejecting the tropes they themselves had solid. Not have been zombies (or to be extra correct, contaminated individuals) merely working senseless, fueled by a ravenous rage. Some had grown good and brawny, turning into Alphas, whereas others grew sluggish and wriggled on the bottom. Not have been audiences to be consumed the grim carnage of a metropolis decimated by a rampaging virus. As an alternative, the filmmakers provided a picturesque wilderness and a touching — whereas scary as hell — coming-of age story. Now, Boyle has entrusted The Bone Temple, the second chapter of Garland’s rising 28 Years Later trilogy, with American filmmaker Nia DaCosta, who grows this saga with sensational daring and depth.
Very like “superhero film” has grow to be a nebulous idea as extra filmmakers push the boundaries on the subgenres’ expectations, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a zombie film, but in addition a lot, far more. Due to riveting performances from Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Chi Lewis-Parry, and Erin Kellyman, this horror providing — like its prequel and likewise like 2025’s different smash horror hit, Sinners — transcends the grimier facets of the style to unearth one thing gnarly and stylish.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple unfurls the thriller of Jimmy.
Credit score: Miya Mizuno / Sony
After wowing audiences with a vampire jig in Sinners, O’Connell surprised us by popping up on the finish of 28 Years Later as a doubtful savior, modeled after the Teletubbies and Jimmy Savile. He is a self-proclaimed prince with a band of manic minions, all of whom gown in his uniform of Lancelot blonde hair and a velour tracksuit. All of them name themselves Jimmy (or some variant thereof), they usually’ve taken in runaway Spike (Williams). However regardless of their large smiles and stellar abilities at slaying the contaminated, this isn’t a protected neighborhood for Spike to affix.
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We first met Jimmy originally of 28 Years Later, as a baby who watches his pastor father willingly get eaten alive by a horde of zombies. Whether or not impressed by the scene or traumatized by it (or slightly of each), grownup Jimmy has since began his personal faith — a perversion of his father’s Christian father, a model of Satanism that crowns him son of Devil.
With a twisted humorousness and an iron fist, he guidelines over not solely his Jimmy-named gang, but in addition any survivors who’ve the misfortune to cross his path. However what’s going to occur when Jimmy and his crew run into Dr. Ian Kelson (Fiennes), a seeming madman with pores and skin dyed purple by iodine and a house surrounded by human stays constructed right into a bone temple? As teased within the movie’s trailer, this turns into the central battle of the 28 Years Later sequel, creating an interesting collision of faith versus science in a post-apocalyptic panorama. However that is not all.
Garland’s script additionally plunges deeper into the minds of Kelson and his Samson (Lewis-Parry), the Alpha contaminated, who stalks like a lion by means of the fields and woods. And nonetheless past that, Spike — who’s extra a supporting character right here — tries to grasp his place in a kingdom run on insanity and blood. His solely ally appears to be Jimmy Ink (Eleanor the Nice‘s Kellyman), a sharp-eyed lady who spies the holes in her satan prince’s preaching.
The Bone Temple is gory and wonderful.
Credit score: Miya Mizuno / Sony
I hesitate to inform you extra concerning the plot of the film, as a result of the invention of it was exhilarating. Sometimes, zombie motion pictures have a fairly direct quest: Survive the evening. Even 28 Years Later tapped into that, with a primary act that offered Spike and his dad working for his or her lives as they’re tirelessly chased by an Alpha — an impressive sequence, beautiful and harrowing. As in that scene, the chilly, sensible stars shine down on a panorama of human struggling, completely detached. However this time, there are males wanting again up at them, discovering a second amid the ache and worry and surviving to inhale marvel.
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Kelson’s plotline pushes that — to steal a line from Star Trek and Station Eleven — “survival is inadequate.” Even a person who makes a temple of bones wants dialog, music, and dancing. Kelson pursues these items with an openness that’s each heart-warming and terrifying, as a result of dangers he takes of their pursuit.
Like Coogler did with Sinners, DaCosta unites horror and tune and dance to an amazing impact in The Bone Temple. Positive, there are scenes of zombie carnage and human depravity, in line with the franchise’s toll of blood. And these are deeply unnerving. But the sequence that had the viewers in my screening not solely awestruck throughout, however then applauding and cheering afterwards, was one in every of dance. It was a rare shock, and the fun of it nonetheless surges in my coronary heart and stings my eyes with tears for the sheer pleasure. Afterwards, my response on Letterboxd was, “My mind looks like pop rocks.”
Nia DaCosta makes her finest film but with The Bone Temple.
Credit score: Miya Mizuno / Sony
DaCosta began out robust with the indie thriller Little Woods. Then, she took on one daring follow-up after one other, reviving Candyman with a daring sequel, then helming the superheroine ensemble journey The Marvels. Admittedly, amid these studio initiatives, her thumbprint was muddied, and the evaluations have been combined. However then got here Hedda, a horny and pulsating interpretation of Anton Chekhov’s Hedda Gabler that reimagines the traditional anti-heroine as gifted, Black, queer, and freshly livid about being thwarted.
With Hedda, DaCosta reignited the fireplace that sparked in Little Woods, fueling it along with her recurring main woman, Tessa Thompson, who delivers a scorching efficiency bolstered by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s seething rating, made up of orchestrated human moans and gasps. Guðnadóttir reteams with DaCosta for The Bone Temple. Seamlessly, these artists decide up the place Boyle left off, increasing his world with out dropping themselves to it. The warmth of emotion that swelled and strategically overwhelms in Hedda burns on right here. The music swarms to emphasise mounting worry, fury, and even bliss. But this isn’t the one music that may feed the fireplace of The Bone Temple. A valuable report participant warbles acquainted tunes diegetically that tackle a sharper that means in a world gone mad. And so maybe we will relate, listening to songs from seemingly easier instances with a nostalgia that’s addictive.
Jack O’Connell is menacing and marvelous in The Bone Temple.
Credit score: Courtesy of Sony Photos
All of this, and O’Connell too. That Sinners, 28 Years Later, and 28 Years: The Bone Temple ought to all be launched inside 12 months of one another looks like a humiliation of riches for horror followers. That O’Connell units the display ablaze in all of them is simply extraordinary.
He delivers on the promise of Jimmy’s mesmerizing intro in 28 Years Later with a portrait of a power-hungry idiot whose ego is dangerously fragile. Removed from flatly scary or just deranged, O’Connell brews Jimmy with curiosity, charisma, and a terrifying spontaneity. At any second, Jimmy appears able to any mad demand. And so we shiver, however can not look away.
His tingling depth makes for a bewildering chemistry reverse Fiennes’ serene physician. After which into this combine is younger, candy Spike and the enigmatic Jimmy Ink. Williams is as soon as extra transferring as slightly boy adrift in an enormous, unhealthy world. Kellyman, nonetheless, is extraordinary as a sensible lady who’s discovered the ability of viciousness and strategic submission. Then. Lewis-Parry brings new depths to the Alpha Samson, making for scenes terrifying and super.
Now, as you would possibly anticipate from the second movie of a trilogy, The Bone Temple will not tie up all these threads. Fortunately, what’s left to dangle is not irritating. This movie tells a satisfying story, then guarantees one other chapter — with a reveal that is positive to make followers of 28 Days Later shriek with delight.
Finally, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is an outstanding movie. As a sequel, it builds the saga of Spike with out retreading its predecessor’s steps. As a zombie film, it delivers scenes of gut-churning violence and haunting loss. As a horror movie, it’s chic, beautiful, wealthy in visible splendor, surging with feeling, and intoxicating in its sudden twists. Merely put, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple fucking guidelines. I left the theater rattled and elated. I can not wait to go once more.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple opens in theaters Jan. 16.
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