Wasting no time, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple picks things up right after the shocking conclusion to last year’s brilliant 28 Years Later. Marauding cult ‘The Jimmys’ and their intense leader Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) have just rescued teenage runaway Spike (Alfie Williams) from certain death via the hands – and likely, teeth – of the undead Rage Virus-infected hordes roaming mainland Britain.
Dressed like real-life TV presenter and notorious sex offender Jimmy Savile, the Jimmys are a ruthless bunch of psychopaths who maim and kill any uninfected survivors they come across. Spike is only allowed to join after he stabs one Jimmy and takes their place. Things only get more horrifying from there.
In the film’s most harrowing sequence, the Jimmys take a family hostage and perform acts of “charity” – a euphemism for skin-flaying torture – in a barn. Spike can hear the screams from outside, after throwing up when the gruesome acts began. There, he’s comforted by Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman) and the pair strike up an unexpected friendship that leads slowly to rebellion.
Meanwhile, former doctor Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) maintains the vast heap of skulls he keeps in tribute to the dead – the eponymous bone temple – and experiments with morphine-based sedatives on Rage-infected Alpha Samson and himself. When the two very different tribes cross paths, Sir Jimmy becomes convinced the empathetic doctor is actually his demonic father, last seen being eaten alive in a church at the start of the outbreak.
Original 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle has handed over the reins to Nia DaCosta for this bonkers, bracing addition to the game-changing series. Her excellent 2021 remake of ‘90s horror classic Candyman announced her as a filmmaker to watch, and she achieves similarly striking results here. Savage kills will keep the gore fiends sated while scorching needle drops from Duran Duran, Radiohead and Iron Maiden pepper the soundtrack between the crunch of skulls and anguished wailing. There’s rarely a predictable moment across The Bone Temple’s entire run time. A wild weirdness accompanies the constant ferocity – a morphine-induced train journey hallucination memory is particularly vivid.
DaCosta and accomplished writer Alex Garland (Warfare, Ex Machina, Civil War) delight in exploring a desolate, gruesome and lawless Britain, ignored and forgotten by the rest of the world. Some jokers might say that it sounds like a documentary but the goings-on here wouldn’t happen in your local high street. Not this week, anyway.
With a uniformly impressive cast, spectacular scenes of carnage and the unshakeable feeling that anything could happen, this zombie franchise is as thrilling as it’s ever been. It’s well worth taking a trip to The Bone Temple.
Details
- Director: Nia DaCosta
- Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams
- Release date: In UK cinemas now