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 cast. Not had been zombies (or to be extra correct, contaminated individuals) merely operating senseless, fueled by a ravenous rage. Some had grown sensible and brawny, turning into Alphas, whereas others grew sluggish and wriggled on the bottom. Not had been audiences to be consumed the grim carnage of a metropolis decimated by a rampaging virus. As a substitute, the filmmakers supplied 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 turn out 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 additionally 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 extensive smiles and stellar abilities at slaying the contaminated, this isn’t a secure neighborhood for Spike to affix.
Don’t miss out on our newest tales: Add Mashable as a trusted information supply in Google.
We first met Jimmy originally of 28 Years Later, as a toddler 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 somewhat 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 additionally any survivors who’ve the misfortune to cross his path. However what is going to occur when Jimmy and his crew run into Dr. Ian Kelson (Fiennes), a seeming madman with pores and skin dyed crimson 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 via 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 woman 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 films have a reasonably direct quest: Survive the evening. Even 28 Years Later tapped into that, with a primary act that introduced Spike and his dad operating for his or her lives as they’re tirelessly chased by an Alpha — a powerful sequence, beautiful and harrowing. As in that scene, the chilly, good stars shine down on a panorama of human struggling, completely detached. However this time, there are males trying again up at them, discovering a second amid the ache and concern and surviving to inhale surprise.
Mashable High Tales
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 this stuff with an openness that’s each heart-warming and terrifying, because of the dangers he takes of their pursuit.
Like Coogler did with Sinners, DaCosta unites horror and track and dance to an incredible impact in The Bone Temple. Certain, 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 considered one of dance. It was a rare shock, and the joys 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 appears like pop rocks.”
Nia DaCosta makes her greatest film but with The Bone Temple.
Credit score: Miya Mizuno / Sony
DaCosta began out sturdy 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 tasks, her thumbprint was muddied, and the critiques had been blended. However then got here Hedda, an attractive 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 hearth that sparked in Little Woods, fueling it together with her recurring main girl, 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 choose up the place Boyle left off, increasing his world with out shedding themselves to it. The warmth of emotion that swelled and strategically overwhelms in Hedda burns on right here. The music swarms to emphasise mounting concern, fury, and even bliss. But this isn’t the one music that can feed the hearth of The Bone Temple. A treasured document participant warbles acquainted tunes diegetically that tackle a sharper which means in a world gone mad. And so maybe we are able to relate, listening to songs from seemingly easier occasions with a nostalgia that’s addictive.
Jack O’Connell is menacing and marvelous in The Bone Temple.
Credit score: Courtesy of Sony Footage
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 appears like a humiliation of riches for horror followers. That O’Connell units the display screen 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’t 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 somewhat boy adrift in a giant, dangerous world. Kellyman, nonetheless, is extraordinary as a sensible woman 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 may count on 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 certain 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 am unable to wait to go once more.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple opens in theaters Jan. 16.
