Avid horror fans are probably familiar with ’28 Days Later’ from 2001, one of the earlier films by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle with the then unknown actor Cillian Murphy, who has now won an Oscar himself. There’s not much to the plot: a virus breaks out in Britain, turning the infected into raging zombies. Six years later came “28 Weeks Later,” which tells a very different story but is based on the same pandemic and notably features a cast of more then-unknowns like Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne and Idris Elba (Boyle did not direct, but served as executive producer).
The franchise remained dormant for 18 years until last summer’s “28 Years Later,” which put Boyle back in the director’s chair and Murphy as executive producer. It’s quite a departure from the first two films, as it leaned more towards artsy rather than scary.
That brings us to ’28 years later: the bone temple’.
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Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) in Columbia Pictures’ “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.” (© 2026 CTMG, Inc. All rights reserved.)
While it wouldn’t hurt for viewers to see the three predecessors, it would be quite helpful to at least see “28 Years Later” since the events of “The Bone Temple” take place immediately afterwards and involve some of the same characters.
“The Bone Temple” tells two stories that ultimately collide in the third act. The first follows adolescent Spike (Alfie Williams), who leaves his safe and isolated island village to make his own way to the mainland – until he meets Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), a Satanist cult leader who offers him protection in exchange for loyalty. The film begins with Spike’s initiation into becoming one of his ‘Seven Fingers’, his followers who wear blonde wigs and tracksuits and also adopt the name Jimmy.
The test: kill another Jimmy, something that the good-hearted Spike strongly hesitates to do.
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Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) with the Jimmies in Columbia Pictures’ “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.” (© 2026 CTMG, Inc. All rights reserved)
The second follows the mild-mannered Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), who we also meet in the previous episode. Before the outbreak, he was a doctor in normal society. Now isolated from human interaction, he has taken up the hobby of building a fortress built entirely on skeletal remains (hence the title). When he’s not listening to Duran Duran or Iron Maiden on his record player in an underground bunker, he’s trying to develop a cure for the virus.
His test subject is quite unexpected: a Hulk-like zombie called an “alpha” in the previous episode (played by 6’9 Chi Lewis-Parry), who Ian affectionately begins to call Samson. You’d think Ian is crazy to embrace an alpha zombie for his experiment, especially since Samson can rip a head off a body more easily than I can open a glass jar (that’s because Ian is a little crazy. But lo and behold, he starts making progress on the monstrous figure.
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“The Bone Temple” feels like you’re watching two different movies. The first is similar to 2008’s ‘The Strangers’, which follows a group of Jimmys as they torment and brutally torture a group of innocent non-zombies on their farm, leaving Spike feeling like a hostage himself. The second is similar to “Young Frankenstein,” in which Ian and Samson form a buddy-comedy dynamic as the alpha zombie slowly remembers what being human is like. And like the late greats Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle, they both make great dance partners!
Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) in Columbia Pictures’ ’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about ‘The Bone Temple’ is the lack of horror despite being a horror film, which is also what ’28 Years Later’ experienced. While there are a few jump scares and plenty of gore, we as an audience don’t necessarily feel scared during the film, like many of us did in ’28 Days’ and ’28 Weeks Later’. That’s not to say that ‘The Bone Temple’ is boring – far from it.
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Fiennes, who has a delayed introduction in the last film, gets a lot of screen time here playing the delightfully mad doctor who provides levity to “The Bone Temple.” O’Connell gives a lively performance as the deranged, religiously inclined homicidal maniac whose self-confidence and dark sense of humor delight his impressionable young followers. Williams gives a sympathetic performance, although he shines much more in the previous film as Spike goes through a coming-of-age arc. Erin Kellyman also deserves a shout out as one of Jimmy’s “Jimmys,” who plays mind games with Spike (and the audience) about whether she can be trusted.
Nia DaCosta takes over for Boyle in the director’s chair. The up-and-coming filmmaker has dabbled in horror before with her commendable “Candyman” remake, but the direction here feels like a milder version of Boyle’s vision in the previous film. Alex Garland, who wrote “28 Days” and “28 Years Later,” returned to write the screenplay for “The Bone Temple.”
Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) in Columbia Pictures’ “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.”
The verdict:
While seven months may seem too early to release a sequel, ‘The Bone Temple’ manages to differentiate itself enough from its immediate predecessor to justify the quick turnaround. Believers of the “28” franchise will welcome the fourth chapter, but this film may have a hard time catering to anyone else. Nevertheless, “The Bone Temple” is an interesting chapter in this zombie verse.
★★★ — STREAM IT LATER
“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” is rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, graphic nudity, language and brief drug use. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes. Now in cinemas.
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