‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ Review: Now that’s what I’m talking about!

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Previously, on 28 Years Later…

Synopsis

Directly after the events of the last film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple follows 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams), who has now become part of the Jimmies, a cult of Jimmy Savile-inspired psychopaths led by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell). Meanwhile, Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) continues his scientific research on the Rage virus, particularly making breakthroughs with his prime specimen, the infected “alpha” he dubs Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry).

My thoughts

28 Years Later was one of the more unconventional big-budget studio releases of 2025. It was a sequel fans of 28 Days Later had been clamoring for over two decades, but I don’t think it was the one any of them quite expected. It’s definitely a movie in the 28 Days Later universe, but director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland, creators of the original film, swung their bats in several wild directions that many found at odds with that aesthetic.

The biggest problem was that 28 Years Later wasn’t even an entire movie! It was shot back-to-back with this second part, The Bone Temple, serving as a film that practically acted as all table setting. I actually warmed up to 28 Years Later a little bit more when rewatching it before The Bone Temple. I still don’t think it’s great, but I raised my rating to a 6.5/10 as I now better understand what Danny Boyle and Alex Garland were trying to achieve. What would eventually matter is whether director Nia DaCosta would be able to carry all of these interesting ideas over the finish line.

All the rage

28 Years Later has quite possibly the most insane, off-the-wall cliffhanger in the history of movies. After losing his mother and abandoning his village (as well as his father), our young lead character Spike finds himself all out on his own in the mainland, being chased by Rage-infected individuals. He’s then saved by a gang of people dressed like Jimmy Savile (?) who perform ninja moves to kill the infected (?!), all while a heavy metal cover of the Teletubbies themes (?!?!?!) plays in the background.

This was a cliffhanger, all right. The kind where we’re gripping the edge of the most precarious cliff imaginable with a single centimeter of one finger left desperately gripping on. If the movie had ended two minutes earlier, I wouldn’t have cared where this was possibly going. Then Danny Boyle and Alex Garland throw this at me? Well, I just had to see where it went in the next installment. Maybe all the interesting ideas introduced will actually have some payoff.

While watching 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, I kept feeling like I was at the casino, hitting it big because this was paying off big time. Everything I found compelling about the last film gets proper development, exploration, and most important of all, resolution. There’s still more story to be told (a third film is in the works), but the end of the narrative here has far more finality to it than the last movie’s baffling cliffhanger.

The Bone Temple does still suffer a bit on account of it not being a complete movie. The opening scene definitely feels like we’re in the middle of a second act, but every single moment throughout is riveting. Garland’s script follows an A-plot/B-plot structure, alternating between Spike’s journey with the Jimmies and Dr. Kelson’s experiments with Samson. Now that all the set-up from the last film is out of the way, we can get right into it, with Garland keeping the pace and structure economical.

These two plotlines obviously converge at the end, but just like everything else in these movies, not in the way anyone would expect. It’s an explosive, pulse-pounding, heavy metal finale that’ll leave you begging for an encore. Even better, it all still manages to be emotionally resonant and insightful. Where the end of 28 Years Later left me feeling emotionally empty and befuddled, I was still coming down from the high of The Bone Temple on the way home from the theater.

The doctor is in

The last film had some compelling character work, particularly with Spike’s terminally ill mother, Isla, played by the excellent Jodie Comer. Overall, though, Boyle and Garland threw in too many ideas that it all got lost in the sauce. Ralph Fiennes’ Dr. Kelson was the most compelling character of all, brilliantly subverting the trope of the creepy, mysterious hermit who lives in the woods. In The Bone Temple, Dr. Kelson is essentially the protagonist, with much of the story centered around him and his experiments with Samson.

The moments between Dr. Kelson and Samson are the best scenes in the movie, and honestly, some of the best scenes of the entire series. One thing I love about Alex Garland is that he’s a true-blue science fiction and horror writer. The kind who truly examines human nature and how we would honestly react in events such as this. I love a good zombie splatterfest as much as the next guy, but Garland’s continued exploration of his zombielike Rage virus has been taken to greater depths.

It’s almost as if this is what Garland has been working towards with the Rage virus concept this entire time, with one of these scenes between Dr. Kelson and Samson genuinely moving me to tears. Chi Lewis-Parry’s performance as Samson blew me away. Really, all of the actors portraying the infected do an amazing job with their frantic, herky-jerky movements, but Samson is a legitimate character with depth here. Lewis-Parry’s performance may be non-verbal, but he communicates everything he needs to through his expressive eyes.

Jimmy and his rhythm pigs

The last film hinted at Jimmy throughout, and at the very, very end, we finally got to see him! Well, them, I should say. It’s a whole gang of folks who all go by Jimmy, led by Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell). In a dark twist, they style themselves after British children’s entertainer and notorious sexual abuser Jimmy Savile, adorned with tracksuits, blonde wigs, and all. Keep in mind that the U.K. in this movie’s world fell in 2002, well before Savile’s heinous crimes would come to light, so it tracks for a bunch of kids in this post-apocalyptic world to still idolize him.

Jack O’Connell is downright depraved as Jimmy Crystal, creating one of the most detestable and charismatic antagonists in recent horror film memory. It’s no surprise that Jimmy is so messed up, either. As a young boy, he witnessed his family get torn to pieces during the initial outbreak in 2002, including his vicar father. Jimmy’s religious upbringing makes him the perfect false prophet to lead a clan of susceptible adolescents. With no sense of moral guidance in a world filled with constant violence and fear, they operate on the same cruel mentality.

The Jimmies may be sadistic, but the fact that they’re all dressed just like Jimmy Savile and affectionately quoting shows like Teletubbies gives them a disturbing, humorous edge. In fact, The Bone Temple is far funnier than I was expecting. However, it’s just the right type of humor that all makes sense within the context of what we’re watching. There are maybe one or two quips that weren’t needed, but DaCosta does an incredible job at maintaining tension even if she’s also getting some laughs from the audience.

Spike in the backseat

Alfie Williams as Spike is just as great here as he was last time, but gets considerably less to do as the story is so heavily focused on Dr. Kelson, Samson, and Jimmy Crystal. He sort of fades into the background most of the time, yet still gives the movie some heart. He has great chemistry with Erin Kellyman, who plays one of the more kind-hearted Jimmies, adding a bit of hope and levity, so this isn’t a total misery fest. Regardless of his lack of screentime, Williams still shows he’s a young actor to watch, tackling some heavy material for a teenager and pulling it off.

No matter which plotline we’re following, we have extraordinary actors anchoring every single scene. There wasn’t a moment I wasn’t completely locked in on what was happening, whether it was because of the thematic exploration, character interactions, performances, direction, and everything in between. Just like the original 28 Days Later reinvigorated the zombie movie genre, the 28 Years Later installments feel like the first piece of zombie media in a long time that’s actually pushing things in a bold direction.

What kept taking me out of the first 28 Years Later were Danny Boyle’s odd directorial choices. For a horror film, I never felt all that viscerally freaked out or on edge from suspense, primarily because Boyle’s aesthetic wouldn’t let me. The music was especially distracting, but luckily, that’s no longer a problem with Hildur Guðnadóttir’s beautifully eerie score for The Bone Temple. I actually felt like I was watching a horror movie.

It also didn’t take long for Nia DaCosta’s direction to win me over. While Alex Garland’s script gives both films a throughline that still makes them one coherent vision, these two 28 Years Later films couldn’t be more different in terms of direction. Where Danny Boyle’s direction was far more energetic, chaotic, and shot on an iPhone (yuck), DaCosta’s direction is subdued and deliberate, featuring many long takes and close-ups. She and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt also shot it with a legitimate, Hollywood-grade digital camera and not a godforsaken telephone.

Final verdict

Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a massive step-up from Danny Boyle’s first part, released last year. Everything new about it I absolutely loved: the direction, the score, the emotional depth, the performances, the fact that it wasn’t shot on an iPhone. Even better, everything I found interesting about the last film was developed and resolved in the most surprising, yet satisfying, way possible. The fact that these bold creative choices actually paid off is nothing short of impressive.

Some may say that there’s not a whole lot of zombie action to be found in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, but this is what zombie movies should be all about: exploring the fact that even if we’re all one bite away from turning into the living dead, they’re still human beings just like us. I assure you, you’ll get plenty of gore with people still being torn to shreds. Still, Alex Garland, Danny Boyle, and Nia DaCosta were obviously trying to do something novel and more thought-provoking with their zombie epic. Did it work all the way through? Not entirely, but it certainly stuck the landing.

My rating: 8.5/10

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple will be released in theaters nationwide on Thursday, Jan. 15.

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