
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is directed by Nia DaCosta director of Little Woods (2018), Candyman (2021), The Marvels (2023) and Hedda (2025). The film serves as a sequel to 28 Years Later (2025) and is the fourth installment in the 28 Days Later film series.
28 Years Later brought back the franchise last year and ended up being one of the best films of the year. Bone Temple continues this momentum and delivers what can be argued to be better than its predecessor.
Like last time, the performances are absolutely fantastic. Starting with Ralph Fiennes who dives even deeper as Dr. Ian Kelson, I still believe that he is one of the best written characters from a film in the 2020s and after this film that argument grows even stronger. Especially with the final moments we get with Kelson, Fiennes has plenty of jaw dropping moments here that are truly phenomenal. Between the final act (more on this in a bit), the moment where Kelson turns Samson into a human being, or any of the interactions he has with Samson. It’s all so masterfully done and quite easily one of the best performances of the year, it’s a perfect companion version of Ian Kelson from the previous film.
Jack O’Connell as Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal is terrifying, not only is it one of the best performances so far this year but it’s one of the most terrifying. O’Connell really leans into A Clockwork Orange (1971) territory and it’s quite brutal and tense to watch, every action of Jimmy Crystal is unpredictable as you have no idea what he has planned in his head or how he’s going to react. Even if you can predict something he does, he will throw another trick at you.
O’Connell captures this portrait of a nasty and evil man yet in some ways you can understand why Jimmy became the monster he did, he’s the direct opposite of Kelson. Whereas Kelson still finds hope throughout the virus and its destruction on human life. Jimmy sees this virus as some sort of punishment from a higher power, this could drive people to insanity especially if you let that insanity take over your mind. This is why Jimmy is such an interesting character and is the perfect opposite of Kelson. This becomes incredibly clear during the film’s final act.
Other fantastic performances include Alfie Williams who does just as fantastic as he did in the previous film, this film still has that “hero’s journey” type of feel all be it in a much more darker way. Chi Lewis-Parry as Samson is a beautiful performance, as mentioned earlier his interactions with Ralph Fiennes are some of the film’s best moments. The decision to give him a lot more to do this time around was a very smart one. Erin Kellyman as Jimmy Ink/Kellie is perhaps her best performance to date, her bond with Alfie Williams is some of the biggest amount of light you are going to get in the disturbing and dangerous atmosphere so it stands out quite well.
The cinematography combined with the music is phenomenal, while it is a bit of a shame that Young Fathers did not return to do the music for this film. I do think the score we got here fits the film quite well, cinematographer Sean Bobbitt captures the absolute disturbing and dark nature of the film’s world while Hildur Guðnadóttir captures the tense and atmospheric ride of the score. When combined together they help create this dark and disturbing world that feels a lot more closed off than its predecessor, which completely fits the tone of the film.
Nia DaCosta’s direction is quite fantastic and manages to capture the spirit of this franchise while also including her own ideas, what DaCosta really excels at here is giving this film a yin and yang sort of thing with the previous film, whereas the previous film felt more adventurous and was more about what it means to be human plus life and death. This film is much more closed off and is a lot more on the darker side, questioning why this virus even started and seeking answers that are next to impossible to find. There is also a focus on brutality and the true evilness of the virus and how mad it makes certain people.
Finally there’s the last act of the film, we see the personalities of Jimmy and Ian collide. This final scene feels like you are in hell, there is a lot of craziness, Iron Maiden and chaos. Yet along with this comes the film’s most important and powerful moment, It’s when Ian Kelson says “There’s no God, there’s no devil, but there’s hope because there’s us. There’s humanity.” Not only is this the perfect final touch on Ian Kelson as a character but it’s the perfect way to describe this film. All we can count on is ourselves, look after each other and not let evilness take over. This represents Ian Kelson helping people such as Nelson, Jimmy Ink looking after Alfie and Jimmy letting evilness take over his mind to the point where he inflicts pain onto others.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is simply put one of the best films of the decade so far. It’s a brilliant film that perfectly fits with its predecessor and is a film that will almost surely leave the viewer with a long lasting impression.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is available on all VOD platforms.
10/10 A+








