28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Starring Alfie Williams, Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell
MA15+
4.5/5
Directed by Nia DaCosta, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is an even better sequel to one of my favourite films of last year.
In a postapocalyptic UK, Spike (Alfie Williams), the protagonist of 28 Years Later, is forcefully inducted into a roving gang of killers, and Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) develops a relationship with a powerful zombie he names Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry).
A triumph of tension and character growth, The Bone Temple is a film of contrasts: nastier and yet more whimsical than its predecessor, and with the central themes of empathy and sadism.
Fiennes is clearly having a blast as Kelson, a dedicated, compassionate doctor with a love of theatrics and classic British pop, and Lewis-Parry is enthralling as a towering monster whose rage slowly subsides under Kelson’s care. Jack O’Connell is utterly chilling as Sir Jimmy Crystal, who leads his Fingers gang (modelled after Jimmy Saville) with sadistic charisma.
Like with the soldiers in the original 28 Days Later from 2002, you fear the humans more than the zombies: The Bone Temple’s second act juxtaposes Kelson and Samson’s fascinating, even amusing bond with a stomach-churning torture scene, contrasting Samson’s potentially curable savagery with Jimmy’s completely lucid cruelty. Jimmy and Kelson’s brilliantly-written confrontation also considers how faith and delusion react when colliding with reality.
28 Years Later had several stylised dream sequences and scenes of makeshift bullet-time (or arrow-time), but The Bone Temple has a more grounded presentation that some viewers may prefer. That being said, The Bone Temple’s tightly-woven plot builds to a pyrotechnics-laden climax featuring hallucinogens and Iron Maiden, and it’s glorious.
A more fun, touching and disturbing elevation of an outstanding foundation, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is playing in most Victorian cinemas.
