Ralph Fiennes anchors 28 Years Later that finds fear not in monsters but in people
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is an unexpectedly thoughtful film and a confident follow-up. Where last year’s entry leaned hard into panic and momentum this one turns inward. It is more psychological more patient and far more interested in what people become after the world ends than how loudly it can scream.
Stepping out of Danny Boyle’s shadow
Director Nia DaCosta and writer Alex Garland clearly centre the film around Ralph Fiennes’s Dr Ian Kelson and it pays off. Kelson is the emotional spine of the film and his relationship with the infected alpha whom he names Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) is something the genre has never really attempted before.
DaCosta wisely avoids mimicking Danny Boyle’s very specific visual language. The camera work and editing here are more straightforward and far less anxiety-inducing than the first 28 Years Later. Some viewers may not even notice that the film drops the iPhone shooting gimmick and the heavy letterboxing used previously. That restraint works in its favour. This is a cleaner, calmer film that lets its ideas breathe.
Rather than feeling like a traditional sequel The Bone Temple plays more like a chapter 1.5. It feels closer to an expansion than a full reset, which is not a complaint. It adds texture, depth and context to the previous film and strengthens the entire 28 Days franchise rather than trying to outdo it.
Kelson and Samson change the rules
Without getting into heavy spoilers, the bond that forms between Kelson and Samson is strange unsettling and oddly tender. Their shared reliance on morphine darts gives them both a sense of peace and the film uses this to quietly flip perspective. For the first time in the franchise, we are shown how the infected see the world. Others are just as frightening to them as they are to us. It is a simple idea but one with massive implications and the kind that makes you immediately impatient for the third instalment.
Jimmy Crystal is pure malice
The standout antagonist this time is Jack O’Connell as the cult leader Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal. If he felt like a force of nature as the vampire Remmick in Sinners (2025), here he is pure malice. The character is clearly shaped by trauma and arrested development stemming from the horrifying opening of 28 Years Later.
Everything he does feels like a warped callback to the day of the outbreak. The number of gang members mirrors the sisters he lost. His humour is frozen in childhood through references to children shows such as Teletubbies. Even his satanic worldview traces back to a vicar father who lost his mind inside a church during the initial outbreak.
The atrocities committed by Jimmy and his gang are among the most foul seen in recent blockbusters and they linger long after the credits roll. The group is also clearly modelled on disgraced radio presenter Jimmy Savile, whose posthumous exposure in 2011 revealed hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse. That parallel adds another layer of depravity and reinforces how the 28 Years Later world feels trapped in time.
Spike loses his footing
Alfie Williams’s Spike takes a backseat here. Any sense that he had grown into a hardened survivor by the end of the previous film is stripped away. Spike is frightened, timid and subjected to physical and psychological abuse under Jimmy Crystal and The Fingers. Shooting the films back to back clearly helped as Williams’s growth spurt now puts him on par height wise with much of the cast
Fiennes owns the film
Still this is very much Fiennes’s film. Kelson is gentle, caring and deeply human even in the middle of all the madness. When the film asks him to command the screen he does so effortlessly especially during an unhinged ritual sequence set to Iron Maiden that is equal parts horrifying, theatrical and unforgettable. It is pure showmanship.
When humans are worser than monsters.
Interestingly the infected feel less like obstacles this time. They fade slightly into the background with most of the tension coming from human cruelty rather than viral rage. Aside from Samson there is little focus on variants seen previously and none on infected children or the crawling slow-lows.
More expansion than sequel
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple also completely sidesteps Spike’s home on Holy Island and avoids any mention of the zombie-born Isla or his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) that makes this chapter feel deliberately narrow in scope.
That focus is a strength and a limitation. Visually The Bone Temple is simpler than its predecessor. There are striking moments but nothing as formally daring as Boyle’s work. Still it stands confidently on its own. DaCosta proves herself a talented filmmaker with a clear voice and while there is hope Boyle returns for the final chapter this film never feels like a placeholder.
Confident step forward for franchise
Overall 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is an excellent addition to the lore with huge implications for where the franchise is heading especially for fans of the original 28 Days Later film. It deepens the world rather than repeating it and makes bold strange choices that mostly land.
The only real question left is whether the series will ever acknowledge 28 Weeks Later (2007) again or quietly leave it behind. Either way the future set up here is impossible not to be excited about.
