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Star Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, and Chi Lewis-Parry
Director: Nia DaCosta
What’s Good: The script clashes themes and philosophies, making each event feel relevant to the story.
What’s Bad: There are still traces of Boyle’s style, and they are the worst parts of the film.
Loo Break: Fortunately, this sequel is more compact than the previous film, which makes it better from a pacing angle.
Watch or Not?: Yes, even if you didn’t watch the previous one, this is a great zombie film.
Language: English (with subtitles).
Available On: Theaters
Runtime: 109 Minutes.
User Rating:
Opening:
Shooting films back-to-back is not a very common practice, but when it is done, it can lead to some pretty exciting times, especially in a world where sequels seem to be taking longer and longer between installments, especially on television, thus making people forget the reasons they want to keep watching the story in the first place. This new installment of the famous zombie series comes exactly 28 weeks later than the previous film, and the results are great.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Movie Review: Script Analysis
The first 28 Years Later was definitely just the first part of a longer tale, one depicting the survivors of the rage virus from a new point of view, but also the first film suffered from feeling aimless, and overlong, too much runtime for very few substantial developments, but The Bone Temple feels like what the first film should have been as well, clashing the characters’ philosophies in ways that feel meaningful and just fun, this is why Alex Garland is famous for.
The first film has a reason for existing, for sure, but after seeing this one, the entire first film could have been just a 30-minute opening to this one, creating just one big film. And so, while The Bone Temple encapsulates the climax of all the ideas and concepts that have been introduced so far, it also lacks a proper beginning. This was definitely a script divided into two, or possibly three, now that we know a third installment is coming soon.
Garland spent the entirety of the first film with Spike, a young kid living in this zombie world, and in The Bone Temple, he spends the time following two other characters whose stories end up clashing with each other in a very satisfying fashion, however, this structure might make the film feel more like an anthology than a proper continuous film. It is a minor thing, but it essentially makes the film feel smaller.
Nevertheless, the ideas and characters developed here are quite interesting and will definitely leave room for thought while also adding new concepts to the zombie genre in general, which is pretty cool. It would be nice if some of these ideas were adopted more widely in the years to come.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Movie Review: Star Performance
If something really feels top-level in The Bone Temple, it’s the performances. Alfie Williams, who played Spike in the first film, makes a return, but his role is much smaller, as the film focuses on the legendary Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Kelson and Jack O’Connell as Jimmy Crystal, and they deliver the most fantastic performances, worth deserving performances in fact, which is truly amazing and really elevates the story to a new level.
The rest of the cast does really well, with Kellyman really standing out within the group of characters she is in, and Chi Lewis-Parry kills it with a very unorthodox performance that ends up being vital to the story. It is really cool to see new talent like these getting their chance to shine.
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28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Movie Review: Direction, Music
Danny Boyle handled the direction on the previous film and at least for me, there were several choices that made the film look ugly and just plain weird, but Nia DaCosta comes with a different approach, one that is more conventional but not less fitting for the zombie film that The Bone Temple is supposed to be, and the result is a film with a stronger visual palette, a better pacing, and a better sense of tension, thus making it absolutely superior to the previous, film, I can only hope that Nia DaCosta returns for the next film and that Boyle remains in the background as a producer.
The soundtrack is filled with great needle drops, including one from Iron Maiden that really spoke to my metalhead side.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Movie Review: The Last Word
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple serves as a fantastic sequel to last year’s film and basically improves on that film in every single possible way, delivering one of the best zombie films of the last decades and elevating the horror genre to a new level. It has its issues, but these are very small in comparison to all the great things that the film has to offer, including just looking like a proper film, something the previous installment didn’t achieve.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Trailer
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple released on 16 January, 2026.
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