28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

Less a self-contained sequel and more a continuation of 28 Years Later, Bone Temple suffers from being the middle child in an ambitious three-movie cycle. The Jimmies who appeared at the tail end of the last film are the core antagonists here while the zombies move even further into the background. But it's Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) who is the real focus.

Fiennes single-handedly holds this chapter together with his deep investment in a peculiar if enigmatic figure. He is intent on finding a cure for the rage virus while befriending the Alpha he names Samson. We still don't get to know the man who built towers of bones any better, unfortunately, beyond his obsession with Duran Duran and cleaning bones.

Thanks to morphine injections, Samson's rage subsides and he can once again stare at the beauty of the night sky in wonder. There are some dare I say tender moments between the doctor and his patient that culminate in an absurd dance together. That's what zombie movies need more of, said no one. But the Alpha's journey from vicious zombie to gentle giant was cut short just as we were getting a glimpse from the other side.

Jack O'Connell's Jimmy Crystal is electric in the way only truly unhinged screen villains are, but very little exists to propel the story forward and the Jimmies are not interesting enough (nor are the silly blonde wigs) to center a movie on. Spike, the young survivor from the first movie who served as the integral emotional core, joins the Jimmies but exists only in the periphery. The satanic narrative was certainly unexpected, but cruel, merciless sadists surviving the apocalypse are fairly rote and, well, boring.

The crescendo is the big song and dance number, of course, complete with pyrotechnics, hallucinogens, and a lip sync for your life from Dr. Kelson to Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast." It is completely absurd, it is cringey, and I could not look away. Fiennes commits so totally that the scene functions as both a comedy and a genuine climax, the kind of sequence you describe to friends and watch their faces go through several emotions at once.

But where are the zombies? Bone Temple leans so far into drama that it will not satisfy genre fans, and DaCosta never quite puts her own stamp on the material the way Boyle did. The first film had its share of family melodrama but still delivered serious action. The reveal at the end brings us full circle to the 2002 original and sets up a pivotal third film. The third chapter was greenlit before Bone Temple seriously underperformed at the box office. As everyone knows, those green lights have a habit of turning red, and ending the series here would be worse than any rage virus.