28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is an unhinged and exhilarating sequel

There's a scene in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple where Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) gets high with an alpha zombie he's dubbed Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry). This is one of many unhinged and unpredictable moments in the sequel. In lesser hands than Nia DaCosta's direction and Alex Garland's script, this sequence and a few others that are equally as bonkers wouldn't have worked. This film, however, manages to pull off a heck of a lot. It's the best in the franchise since the original because of its wild swings.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple picks off directly where last year's 28 Years Later left off. The young Spike (Alfie Williams) travels with a gang of violent Satanists, led by Jack O'Connell's ruthless, yet hilarious St. Jimmy Crystal. He somehow convinced his followers, which he's named the Jimmies, that he's the son of St. Nick, aka Satan. The group loves ritual, gruesome sacrifice, and the Teletubbies. Spike wants to escape, but he can't. Doing so would risk his own life, so he watches on, often vomiting, as they inflict sadistic torment upon other survivors. He does find an ally in Jimmy Ink, played by Erin Kellyman. In time, she starts to question whether St. Jimmy is actually Satan's son, or if he's feeding his followers a lot of crap.

This sequel is a character-driven and dialogue-heavy middle chapter to the new trilogy, to the point that the infected largely take a backseat. The film focuses on high-stakes relationships among the characters, including between Spike and Jimmy Ink, St. Jimmy and his followers, and Dr. Kelson and Samson. Because of this, DaCosta and Garland are able to push the franchise in exciting new directions and open up the world beyond previous installments. Through his relationship with Samson, for example, Dr. Kelson lands a medical breakthrough that ignites bold possibilities for the next film.

That said, much of the film is the St. Jimmy show. Fresh off his performance as the Irish vampire Remmick in Sinners, O'Connell delivers another great horror villain, this time based on British media host and sexual predator Jimmy Saville. The film uses his same track suit, gold chains, and blonde hair. St. Jimmy watches his followers unleash brutality upon helpless victims with a gleeful grin, while pontificating about how he's the son of Satan and they need to do what he says. While St. Jimmy is terrifying, he's also quite funny and oddly charming, and again, this is largely due to O'Connell's performance. He simply makes one heck of a horror big bad, be it as St. Jimmy or Remmick.

Fiennes' performance is equally as captivating and feels unrestrained. He spins records and dances around to Duran Duran, Radiohead, and perhaps my favorite sequence in the film, Iron Maiden. Who says you can't have a little fun, despite a zombie apocalypse? That said, like in the last film, Fiennes' character maintains humanity in the face of unspeakable cruelty. He's a counterbalance to St. Jimmy and his cult.

Though the film contains plenty of dark humor and a soundtrack that slaps, it's peppered with gruesome sequences. In this case, however, most of the violence happens at the hands of the living. This isn't a new concept in zombie media. In Romero's Night of the Living Dead, it's a vigilante mob that shoots our anti-hero Ben (Duane Jones) at the end of the movie. In The Walking Dead, characters like the Governor and Negan often posed a greater threat than the zombies. Here, it's the Jimmies and their bloodlust that are the true baddies. St. Jimmy is a snake oil salesman who commands his followers with an iron fist.

Of the Jimmies, Kellyman's Jimmy Ink is the breakout star. She kicks butt, and I can't wait to see what happens to her storyline in the next film, especially regarding Spike. Though she's willing to kill and quite good at it, she shows a mothering instinct and a glimmer of humanity that all of the other Jimmies lack.

If there's one flaw in this movie, it's that it's a middle chapter. DaCosta can't quite make this her own film because it's part of a trilogy. She had to follow the previous entry and leave intriguing storylines to be resolved in the next chapter. That said, this is her strongest film to date and shows her growth as a filmmaker. Hopefully, we see more genre films from her.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple reminds us that humans are often worse than the monsters and to always be leery of false prophets. O'Connell and Fiennes give knockout and phenomenal performances, while DaCosta and Garland show how much is possible within this franchise. Overall, the movie serves up a devilish good time with lots of gore and a banger soundtrack. This is the first great theatrical release of 2026.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is currently playing in theaters.