28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)

Watched 1/15/25 (theater)

It’s 2026, which is scary. The Bone Temple, however—in my opinion—was not scary. Nor did it particularly hit home like the coming-of-age drama, generational tension, and familial collapse of its Danny Boyle-directed predecessor. Temple lacks the manic movement and youthful energy of that movie. It’s wholly unique both to the franchise…and blockbuster plotting, at large. No macguffins here!

I am sick of us calling movies good or bad. We either liked it or we didn’t—no one of us is smart enough or all-seeing enough to deem a movie “good” or “bad.” So, instead, I will spend this review talking about why I ENJOYED this movie, not why it’s “good.” Honestly it’s pretty bizarre so I can understand if someone’s out on this.

This Nia DaCosta vehicle played for me as one of the most idiosyncratic, operatic, crafty, dumb, and fun sequels I have seen. I had a great time at the movies, and I think the perfect in-movie quote to sum it up, from Bone Temple star Ralph Fiennes, is, and I may be paraphrasing, “Now a leap into the unknown.”

Name me another franchise that goes coming-of-age adventure movie to doctor/patient, cultist/cultee 1v1 stageplay. You probably can’t. That’s because this Garland-penned, DaCosta-directed spectacle is a wholly one-of-a-kind blend of ingredients. That first Boyle movie was a brand new vibe for the series, overlaying pop-action on top of heart-tugging family drama. I honestly enjoy that one slightly more. But enjoyment isn’t everything—fascination is half of the battle. And 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is too fascinating to ignore, with its more muted color palette, more static lense, and more traditional thriller music. And then one scene of pure elecric comedy in the form of hellish sacrament.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Spike, our hero from the first/third film here, is caught up with The Jimmy Gang, a group of tracksuit-wearing Satanists who kill in the name of their Devil; “Old Nick.” This becomes way more important than it usually would in this kind of post-apocalyptic pulp, morphing into a literal heaven-v-hell struggle as the first movie’s Dr. Ian Kelson finds himself in conflict with this Devilish crew. The good doctor can’t help but become a crucial part of the battle for humanity’s soul. And it’s on such a strikingly small scale with such large ideas. Honestly, the Garland movie it has the most in common with is Ex Machina (a succession of ambitious conversations in limited, but beautifully unique locations).

Zombie movies so often posit size and tenacity as their focuses. But not The Bone Temple. There are probably less than 10 speaking roles here. It feels like it was made at a fraction of the high-action cost of that first movie. It feels like the extremely overwritten bottle episode in between the big-budget ones. But that’s miraculously a feature, not a bug. The villain of the movie, Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, played by Jack O’Connell, turns in a memorable show as Satan’s number one fanboy. Yeah, it’s fucked up—and he does accordingly fucked-up things to decent people. Age-13-or-so Spike from the first/third movie has to participate in all of this Jimmy shit.

The Jimmy Gang kills and tortures people. They run amok of The Bone Temple. They bump into Fiennes’ Kelson. It sounds like a big battle kind of movie. But…it isn’t.

I hate to disappoint you, but there is really no action in rhis movie. I hate to disappoint me, but there is no action in this movie. Maybe a scene or two, if you’re feeling generous. But man is it a trip. Garland takes his obsession with Biblical bullshit to a whole new level, milking the most on-the-nose issues for some of the most fun movie moments I’ve seen in some time. From a doctor with a messiah complex having to go full-on Iron Maiden Devil, to a Devil who finds himself Judas-ed and crucified just as he is reaching his apex, there is no obvious length that Alex Garland won’t go to in order to prophesize his extremely literary apocalypse. It’s obviousness with great fun and intrigue; it’s refreshing to see a “blockbuster franchise movie” that trades predictable action for the clash of weighty, idealistic, symbolic philosophies.

The characters don’t feel very human, or well-explored—they’re all pretty 2D. But again, it’s unconventional in its other elements. Garland takes the zombie movie in a few directions it has never been before. A zombie begins to be cured in real time by this doctor whose life’s work is to accomplish this. Various thriller-y debates are had about who rules the land of the dead, AKA the UK. It plays out as a warped, dark fantasy that cares much more about humanity than the zombies surrounding it.

Bone Temple chooses life over death and it’s all the better for it, despite how overweight it feels with all of its quietly-forced conversations and symbolic showmanship. It’s loud and fun and features a jaw-droppingly hilarious turn from Ralph Fiennes, somehow upping the ante of his chracter in the previous film.

And what of the direction? An American, a very uninitiated American, steps into the director’s chair to replace England’s Danny Boyle, historically a great match for Garland scripts. Well, it turns out Nia DaCosta is also an awesome match for Garland scripts, turning this into a lean slab of Biblical insanity with beautifully haunting, out-of-focus, green landscapes and frequently stunning character close-up shots and shadow work that time and time again reveal new acting depths or highlight various character qualities with ease and tension. It’s enrapturing what Nia DaCosta is able to do here—and she repeats zero of the camerawork or music that Boyle fashioned for his return to the series. Just really frickin cool that we have a sequel SOOOOOO different from the movie that came before it. And so refreshing that this obeys none of the regular blockbuster movie rules—it doesn’t end in a drawn-out fight! It’s more about character and themes than it is keeping you off your phone and that’s just plain cool that the filmmakers were able to get this made with such studio support backing it up. At the moment, I love this franchise.

8.75/10