28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – Dir: Nia DaCosta (13th Floor Film Review)
In a year destined to be filled with sequels, Bone Temple starts 2026 off by setting the bar wonderfully high.
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, Chi Lewis-Parry
We need to start this review with a caveat. If you haven’t seen 28 Years Later yet, go see it and then come back. Ok, you’re back? It was amazing right? And yeah, it was a bit sneaky of Danny Boyle to leave us hanging on that wonderful cliff hanger back in early 2025 but I have good news; Bone Temple was worth the wait.
At last count, 2026 has about 30 sequels lined up for us (and lets just assume there’s still more to be announced) so you’d be forgiven for not wanting to kick off your year with one. But if you’re a fan of this franchise and can handle some next level gore, it’d be remiss of you not to experience this in the theatre.
Boyle hands over the directing reins to Nia DaCosta which I’ll admit raised red flags for me. I loathed The Marvels and her Candyman remake left me a little cold but maybe she just needed a gaggle of great producers (including Boyle) supporting her as she made something incredibly unique and powerful here. It’s very different, visually, from it’s predecessor, which makes sense given the crew is almost entirely replaced, and yet it fits tonally like a glove.
The film starts within hours of where 28 Years Later left off with Spikes unpleasant initiation into Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal’s cult of Satanists. Unlike the first film, this isn’t really about his journey though and you’re spending much of the time exploring the arc of other characters (some old, some new). Thankfully, one of those characters is the permanently iodine soaked Dr. Ian Kelson played to absolute perfection by Ralph Fiennes. This is the doctor we all want! Kind, wise, equanimous in the face of everything and offering up some much needed humour amongst all the cruelty. We needed this guy on our TV’s every night when we were in the throws of Covid.
And there’s no shortage of cruelty. Forget the infected – they take a back seat to the chilling, affable Jack O’Connell’s performance as Jimmy (and his Jimmy’s). His ability to raise the tension, through graceful but menacing delivery of lines made me think of Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction and his famous “Say what again” scene. You so desperately want his victims to say the right thing; to find the right words that will magically make him let them go but fully aware that the whole time, he’s really just playing with his food. This personification of everything inhumane in the world will certainly put some viewers off, so a word of caution – probably don’t take your elderly Mum to this.
There’s a lot to spoil with this film so I’ll say no more about the story but if, like me, one of the ways you measure how good a film is, is by how lost you get in it, this really delivers. Whatever’s going on your life, bad day at work, car troubles, a world on fire, you’ll leave it at the door and get fully immersed in this world. Even some of the slower moments capture the viewer through wonderfully written dialogue. There’s no cartoon archetypes of villains or hero’s to roll your eyes at here and have you taken out of the film either. All the characters feel grounded in reality despite that reality being somewhat heightened. This offers real escape for a couple of hours and trust me, whatever shit you’ve got going on in your life; it won’t seem so bad after what befalls the folks in The Bone Temple.
Have to mention the music. The score is great but it’s the soundtrack that may be one of the most memorable in recent history (for reasons that become apparent fairly early on). Iron Maiden fans – rejoice!! Your moment has arrived and in a packed theatre, that moment roars! A song I was never really a fan of has been on repeat since the screening.
You could argue that there’s some pretty strong themes playing out regarding atheism and religion but they’re there to serve the story rather than the other way around and that’s exactly what I wanted from this instalment in the franchise. What you get is a solid night out at the movies, best enjoyed with a group of friends. Up to you whether you want to spend a few hours afterwards debating whether it’s an exploration into religion being a major source of mans inhumanity to man or just play the “I loved that moment when…” game. So many great moments. Howzat.
Matthew Rice
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is in cinemas now. Click here for tickets and showtimes.
