28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) Columbia/Horror RT: 109 minutes Rated R (strong bloody violence, gore, graphic nudity, language throughout, brief drug use) Director: Nia DaCosta Screenplay: Alex Garland Music: Hildur Gudnadottir Cinematography: Sean Bobbitt Release date: January 16, 2026 (US) Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, Chi Lewis-Parry, Emma Laird, Sam Locke, Robert Rhodes, Ghazi Al Ruffai, Maura Bird, Connor Newell, Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Mirren Mack, David Sterne.
Rating: ***
Who’d have thunk it? Duran Duran (their music anyway) will survive the end of the world. Wow, I always thought it would be Keith Richards.
The zombie apocalypse continues in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, a direct continuation of last year’s 28 Years Later, the belated follow-up to 28 Days Later (2003) and 28 Weeks Later (2007). It literally picks up just moments after the previous one ends with young Spike (Williams) fighting for a place in a quasi-Satanic cult led by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (O’Connell, Sinners), a charismatic but depraved dude modeled after British TV show host Jimmy Savile (if you know, you know). Decked out in track suits and blonde wigs, he leads his followers [aka The Fingers, all with variations of the name Jimmy] to believe he’s the son of “Old Nick” [aka Satan]. They’re a f***ed up family unit.
Elsewhere in the ravaged wasteland that was once Great Britain, Dr. Ian Kelson (Fiennes, Conclave) maintains his daily routine of caring for his memorial to those who died as a result of the rage virus [aka “The Bone Temple”] and hanging out with an Alpha he named Samson (Parry, Gladiator II). He keeps Samson from attacking him by sedating him with morphine delivered by blow darts. He observes that the Alpha becomes more lucid while drugged. It leads to something of a breakthrough in dealing with the virus.
Directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman), 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple starts off strong with a couple of nifty gnarly scenes like Spike’s fight for position in the Fingers. It’s a duel to the death in an empty pool in a long-abandoned water park. You have to love the irony of setting this scene in a place where children used to have fun. Now it’s a place of suffering for a 12YO boy fighting for his life. No spoiler, Spike defeats his larger, stronger opponent (by severing his femoral) earning something he doesn’t really want. If you know anything about anatomy, you know about femoral arteries and what happens when they’re severed. It’s a bloody mess.
A little later, we watch Samson tear a guy’s head off, crack it open and dine on his brains. I thought “YEAH! This is going to be great!” Then the movie tapers off in terms of gore and grisly content. It drags a bit in the middle section. But then it picks back up when Sir Jimmy and Kelson finally cross paths after one of the Fingers, the rational Jimmy Ink (Kellyman, Eleanor the Great), spots the iodine-stained doctor dancing and communing with Samson at the Bone Temple. It all leads up to a scene where Kelson, at Sir Jimmy’s request, plays the part of Old Nick, dancing wildly to Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” while the Fingers look on in drugged awe. It’s wonderfully bonkers.
What’s interesting about 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and its predecessor is how it changes the tone of the series. Days is a serious and somewhat somber affair dealing with the aftermath of a world-ending catastrophe. Weeks takes the more familiar route into action movie territory. 28 Years Later is a grim, bloodier version of the coming-of-age kid adventures of the 80s (i.e. Stand by Me) with Spike getting a crash course in bleak reality while trying to help his terminally ill mother. The Bone Temple, to quote a Spinal Tap line used by Kelson at one point, takes it to 11 with the blood, violence and insanity. It’s overtly nihilistic with non-subtle religious themes. It causes the viewer to question why God would allow the world he created to turn into a nightmarish hellscape. Is this how it all ends? Is this hell on earth?
At the same time, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple never feels heavy-handed or overly self-serious. Sure, it contains horrific images and unimaginable acts of sadistic violence, but it feels like Da Costa is trying to have fun with it. O’Connell seems to be having a blast playing the evil leader of a killer cult, kind of a post-apocalyptic Charles Manson who goads his “family” to do his bidding. The scene where they grab a group of survivors and skin them alive is suitably disturbing. But O’Connell comes off as a live-action cartoon with his appearance and obsession with the Teletubbies. He’s no less dangerous though. He’s a very bad guy who does very bad things. It’s a tricky balance, but O’Connell manages it with great aplomb.
Fiennes is also great as the atheistic doctor, a shockingly laid back dude who prefers to chill in his bunker listening to Duran Duran records and hanging out with his best bud Samson. It’s nice to see him step away from the serious roles he usually plays (e.g. Schindler’s List, The English Patient) and get into a different kind of character, a guy just trying to survive in a world gone savage but taking it all in stride, even coming up with something that might be a total game changer. Parry is pretty good as Samson, but I would have liked to see more of his backstory than his memory of being on a train. Kellyman is equal parts spunk, grit and decency as the only Finger with a conscience. Williams nails it perfectly as a child robbed of his innocence by a violent world order. He’s a kid forced to be an adult when his brain hasn’t matured to that level yet.
The gore effects in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple are very good. It’s actually the bloodiest one yet. I just wish there were more gory scenes. Garland’s screenplay is a blend of intelligent and insane while Sean Bobbitt’s cinematography brilliantly captures a hellish landscape filled with zombies and others out for blood. The soundtrack is totally rad with three songs by DD- “Girls on Film”, “Ordinary World” and “Rio”.
Despite some pacing issues, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a good horror movie. It has thrills and it’s unsettling in parts. Then there’s the final scene. It’s good. I’m sure most of you have already heard a familiar character makes a return appearance. It’s a neat set-up for another movie. I really hope it happens.
