by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, Chi Lewis-Parry, Emma Laird
Intro:
… propulsive, engaging and surprising.
On a list of all the weirdest and wildest cinematic experiences in recent times, 28 Years Later has got to be up there. Made over two decades after the original, Years took the familiar zombie flick tropes it arguably formalised back in 2002 and turned them on their head. And then bunged on a silly wig. And did a little dance.
Buoyed considerably by frenetic, often surreal direction from Danny Boyle and a solid script from Alex Garland (Civil War, Warfare), the film remains a highwater mark for the genre and a bloody great time to boot. However, 28 Years Later was always intended to be part of a trilogy and now the second part, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is here.
This time around, Boyle has been swapped out for American director Nia DaCosta, whose previous work has included the limp 2021 Candyman reboot and the much-lambasted 2023 box office stinker The Marvels. Not exactly an encouraging pedigree, to be honest, but does Bone Temple succeed despite the stepdown at the helm?
Honestly, it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty damn solid!
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple continues a couple of threads from the previous film. There’s poor bloody Spike (Alfie Williams), a young tacker who has been forced to join a gang of Jimmy Saville coded satanic savages known as “The Jimmys” led by one Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell). Then there’s Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), the iodine slathered former GP who is slowly going mad, building spectacular structures out of human and animal bones, and is attempting to forge some kind of human connection with the beastly Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), the enormous-donged Alpha infected. These two strands inform much of the action of the film, which ranges from the hilarious to the genuinely disturbing, and culminates in a jaw-dropping climax that will have most audience members clamouring for the next (and final) flick.
Jack O’Connell (who gave us another very memorable villain turn in last year’s Sinners) is absolutely superb as the hyper, vicious Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, both despicable and charismatic in equal measure. Some of his scenes that describe the Jimmys’ “charity” are genuinely shocking, giving even the most hardened of gore hounds reason to wince. Ralph Fiennes also does stellar work, completely believable as an eccentric man searching for meaning amidst the literal bones of the past. Also, there’s a sequence involving a certain Iron Maiden tune that literally needs to be seen to be believed. Also props to Chi Lewis-Parry, who actually manages to imbue Samson with more than a sense of menace and a gargantuan prosthetic tockley. His subplot has been attempted before, by the likes of the great George Romero (in Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead), but it’s executed remarkably well here and in a way that feels very human. The pace does sag a little in the second act, and the lack of much epic infected vs human action will annoy some, but this is a more thoughtful, introspective film with heady themes of belief, religion and what we need to carry on.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple isn’t quite as good as the previous entry, and DaCosta’s direction, while solid, isn’t the equal of Boyle’s (although not being as good as one of our greatest living directors is hardly a crime!), however this is a film that is propulsive, engaging and surprising. Unpredictable and with plenty of heart, The Bone Temple is a strong middle chapter in a trilogy that consistently defies expectation and frequently beggars belief.
