2026 | rated R | starring Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams | directed by Nia DaCosta | 1 hr 49 mins | 3 1/2 out of 5 |
Season 9 Finale
We started around 28 Years Later, and we’re ending with it.
Spike (Alfie Williams) having ventured out on his own at the end of 28 Years Later, has been taken in by the Jimmies, a group of survivalists and Satan worshippers lead by psychopathic, Teletubbie-loving preacher’s son, Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell, very different than his turn in Sinners last year). Meanwhile, Dr. Kelso (Ralph Fiennes) continues his experiments on the infected to try to reverse the rage virus and find a cure for humanity.
It’s been a trope since the original 28 Days Later that the real threat in a rage zombie apocalypse would be man itself, how we would lash out against each other fueled by fear, paranoia and scare resources. The Bone Temple, however, is this first of this series, now 4 films deep, to completely punt any pretext of zombie survival and lean entirely on the human horror. In this case, mostly, fueled by superstition. Director Nia DaCosta (Candyman 2021) and writer Alex Garland mostly pick up at the bewildering ending of last year’s 28 Years Later, in which Spike is introduced to the Jimmies. It was a bizarre tonal switch that sent viewers out of scratching their heads and it turns out that switch was all for not, as we plunge immediately right back into Garland’s usually zombie world of darkness and madness.
But this isn’t a zombie or even a survival movie. It’s a horror movie to be sure. There are some horrific things in it, but it’s a character-centered thriller about a little cult, it’s followers and the leader desperately trying to keep control of his little “Fingers”. Picking up several threads left hanging from Years, we follow Jimmy’s cult, Kelso’s experiments and the inevitable intersection of the two. It’s telling that zombies have moved in their symbolic horror from representing a fear of disease and death to simply being an apocalypse catalyst to explore the human monster as the real threat. A story as old as The Twilight Zone and as beaten to death as The Walking Dead. Bone Temple is very much a Humans are the Real Virus movie. But it’s rich cast of oddball characters and watching it pick up so many threads from Years Later keep the movie rich and interesting.
Jimmy’s cult is psychopathic and director Nia DaCosta doesn’t shy away from his body-mutilating sadism. The film’s driver is Ralph Fiennes’ Doctor who stole the show in Years and does so again here. He is the most interesting guy Fiennes has played in a while: fundamentally a do-gooder, but also so strange that even the psychos who inherited the ruined world don’t want to mess with him. Kelso wants to cure the world and reverse the virus, befriending the Alpha from the first film and turning the movie into a buddy picture as he muses, dances and experiments with the lumbering, well-endowed giant.
And despite its eviscerations, Bone Temple is almost a comedy of errors including a very clever game of telephone for Satanic and Saint Nick and a third act that is more theatrical performance than any high stakes adventure. Some may be disappointed they didn’t get another zombie movie and some may find it completely refreshing. You can’t rehash the same battles 5 films deep in your series. The low-stakes, character focused 28 Years Later entry is a welcome pallet cleanser that retroactively gives the first film a bit more substance – though I still prefer it. Now, let’s see where we go from here.