28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE
(director: Nia DaCosta; screenwriter: Alex Garland; cinematographer: Sean Bobbitt; editor: Jake Roberts; music: Hildur Guðnadóttir; cast: Ralph Fiennes (Dr. Ian Kelson), Alfie Williams (Spike), Jack O’Connell (Jimmy Crystal), Erin Kellyman (“Jimmy Ink”), Chi Lewis-Parry (Samson), Maura Bird (Jimmy Jones), Connor Newall (Jimmy Shite); Runtime: 109; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, Peter Rice, Bernard Beliew, Andrew Macdonald; Columbia Pictures; 2026)
“Energized post-apocalyptic zombie horror film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The Brooklyn born Nia DaCosta (“Candyman”/”Hedda”) directs, and Alex Garland writes this energized post-apocalyptic zombie horror film. It’s the fourth and best pic in the franchise that began in 2003 by Brit director Danny Boyle and Brit screenwriter Alex Garland. It comes six months after the “28 Years Later” sequel and the sequel in 2007 and is the middle leg of a new trilogy.
The adolescent Spike (Alfie Williams), whose parents are dead, is saved from the zombies by the satanic cult run by the psychopathic killer Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), a religious nut who worships Old Nick (the Devil). He wears a blonde wig (as do the gang members) and has rotting teeth. After saved from the attacking zombies on the mainland by the gang Spike wins an arranged knife fight with a cult member before allowed to join the gang, called the “Fingers,” where each member takes the first name Jimmy (named after Jimmy Saville, the BBC host lauded by the government and the Pope for his charity work with children before discovered after he died in 2011 that he was a pedophile). The dangerous gang relish acting crazy and killing zombies. These uninfected humans are viewed as even more despicable than the flesh-eating zombies infected by the raging world-wide virus, who have no choice as to why they kill.
It disturbs the frightened kid that the satanic cult is so violent, cruel and immoral that they torture the uninfected and call it “charity.”
Spike is aware that Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), a grieving rational humanitarian, has created a bone temple from the deceased skulls of those killed by the zombies to honor them and lives there doing scientific work to end the virus and treat the uninfected. He just visited him with his mom, but she died peacefully when he couldn’t save her.
Spike to save his soul must find again the atheist healer in his bone temple and escape from the “Fingers.” The doctor is trying to bring peace to the world through his scientific self-treatment experiments with drugs, that has turned his skin orange.
The film is enriched by the great Christlike performance by Fiennes and by the bold performances by the heroic Alfie Williams and the villainous Jack O’Connell. It’s also enriched by the fantastic visuals, the funky music (that has Dr. Kelson dancing to Duran Duran), the sharp direction by DaCosta and her ability to make the violent sequences more palatable even though they’re gruesome, and of having Dr. Kelson getting the giant alpha zombie Samson, played by Chi Lewis-Parry, believing he could be cured with the treatment after he begins to remember things. It’s also a plus that the story was so emotionally moving-which is rare for a horror pic.
REVIEWED ON 1/18/2026 GRADE: A-
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