28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

The fourth installment in the 28 Days Later film series and part of the double bill that is a direct continuation of 2025’s 28 Years Later, the post-apocalyptic horror film based on Alex Garland’s screenplay 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple weighs in on the bleakness, intensity, and horror twice as much as its predecessors, and it stays consistent with its artistry and craft within its world-building. Nonetheless, Garland and director Nia DaCosta (Hedda, Candyman) have managed a new film that is every bit as excellent as 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later, without losing any consistency or narrative flow. Moreover, series newcomer DaCosta keeps the vehemence and spirit alive. Danny Boyle (28 Days Later) had directed the original 28 Days Later in 2002 as well as last year’s third installment, 28 Years Later, and was expected to deliver the bleakness, an uncanny sense of dread, and madness that made the original such a monumental piece of cinema. DaCosta also brings a sense of humor to the dread, and she continues to be a rich stylist, which has been displayed before in her previous endeavors like Little Woods, Candyman (2021), and Hedda. She continues to follow these footsteps, doing her best with her directing skills to continue the post-apocalyptic madness while bringing some newfound wit, dark humor, and some keen emotional depth as well.

While Boyle and DaCosta deserve credit for skillful directing, it’s Garland that deserves high praise for his third screenplay of these increasingly desolate narratives. With many mesmeric moments, he excises all the things fans love so much about the franchise. While many franchises falter in the second or third installments, Garland and DaCosta continue the eminence in making the film still feel fresh by adding in more dynamics, wit, and distinction.

Courtesy Sony Pictures Releasing

The film gets right to the grueling horror and brutality. We begin with the psychically imposing Alpha leader (Chi Lewis-Parry) of the infected from 28 Years Later chasing a man and pulling his head right off his corpse as he eats his skull for an early lunch. He ends up being given a name by Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), who returns from the previous film as a medical practitioner who continues to memorialize the victims of the pandemic in his bone temple. Kelson continues to pay respects to the dead of the Rage Virus outbreak. He also builds holistic and powered remedies that he puts on his skin to protect himself from blood pathogens.

He ends up encountering the Alpha zombie male leader, which he has named Samson. Kelson ends up protecting himself from Sampson’s rage with a self-made blowgun that shoots out a morphine-xylazine dart that makes Sampson more sedated, calm, and peaceful. Samson ends up coming back for more, and Samson allows Kelson to drug him. This allows Kelson to experiment, and this can lead to a potential cure for the infected fast-running zombies that still chase after and eat the flesh off the living victims. It also leads to an endearing friendship between the two, and we get flashbacks on what led to Samson being infected, and he even begins to slowly speak. Their exchanges echo the dynamic of the Dr. Frankenstein and the monster trope, and it’s unexpectedly moving.

Courtesy Sony Pictures Releasing

Of course, we are looped back to the bizarre ending of 28 Years Later, where we saw Spike (Alfie Williams) being rescued from the infected by a gang called the Fingers, which recalls the Droogs in A Clockwork Orange. The gang is led by charismatic Satan worshiper Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O. Connell). Spike ends up being “invited” to the gang, where he really has no chance of saying no, as this sadistic gang has weaponry and the tenacity to kill the infected while making it look so easy. Come to find out, the gang just doesn’t kill the infected; they kill survivors as well. Jimmy and his gang, called the Fingers, end up at a farm where there are survivors. They round the survivors up in a barn, and we are introduced to Cathy (Mirren Mack), who is pregnant, and she ends up escaping. Jimmy and the Fingers end up skinning the rest of the survivors as a sacrifice to the Devil.

The two shifting narratives of Spike aiming to survive with The Fingers as Kelson attempts to live in some sort of peace to match up. Jimmy Crystal is convinced that Kelson is Satan himself, and without spoiling anything, this leads to a pyrotechnic lip sync of Ralph Fiennes performing Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast. The climax is certainly a powerhouse and certainly the most unforgettable in the franchise. This is a model of petrifying, efficacious storytelling. The performances in this grow richer, notably Ralph Fiennes, who was more of a supporting player, becomes the lead, and Jack O’Connell is mesmerizing as a villain here who certainly channels Alex from A Clockwork Orange. DaCosta employs a visually arresting visual style that captures the ambiance of the previous installments with gifted cinematographer Sean Bobbitt (Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave). DaCosta does not hold back with terrifying results here, in which humans once again end up becoming far more ominous than the infected here. The third act and the final scene of the film certainly stand alone in the series, as Danny Boyle is set to return to make the fifth and perhaps final film of the 28 Years Later series. Though Boyle has crafted the finest work of his career with 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, the next film should certainly flourish in its culmination. DaCosta has certainly contributed to this thrilling and successful journey.

GRADE B+

28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE IS NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE