28 Years Later: The Bone Temple review: a terrifying crisis of faith

Because there was a very long interval between the releases of 28 weeks later And 28 years laterit was surprising to learn that writer-director duo Alex Garland and Danny Boyle had already planned for their latest collaboration to be the first chapter in a new horror trilogy. Sony seemed keen to fast-track the couple’s idea, as 28 years later and its sequel began filming consecutively. But it also seemed like the studio wanted to bring a different type of energy to the franchise when it tapped Nia DaCosta to direct the new film.

This energy and its distinctiveness in relation to Boyle’s directorial voice are palpable in 28 years later: the Temple of Bones – a film that understands how much more powerful horror is when mixed with zany humor. While there’s no shortage of gory and stomach-churning violence, relying on comedy is one of the film’s smarter ways of illustrating what its characters are fighting for. Each of The Temple of Bones‘s jokes are a reminder of how, in a world full of flesh-eating ghouls, human connections and community are the kinds of things people are willing to die for.

The Temple of Bones resumes shortly after 28 years later to find teenager Spike (Alfie Williams) trying to make sense of his life as a newly inducted member of Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal’s (Jack O’Connell) traveling cult of wig-wearing platinum blonde droogs who all call themselves “Jimmy.” Spike may hold his own against a few infected lurking in the English wilderness, but his skills with a bow and arrow pale in comparison to the Jimmys’ ultraviolent approach to dealing with anything that crosses their path.

Murdering people – infected or not – under the orders of Jimmy Crystal has become second nature to Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), Jimmima (Emma Laird) and the rest of their demented team. Spike finds it hard to believe Jimmy Crystal’s claims that he is led by a higher, unseen power, but he knows he has no choice but to join the gang and dress like a sexual predator when they ask him to join their ranks.

It is because of the Jimmys as a unit that 28 years later begins to explore the ways in which faith can be used as a weapon to harm the very people to whom it provides psychological comfort. The Jimmys are a twisted family bonded by a genuine attachment to each other and the understanding that they are safest as a group. But the film presents their desire to follow Jimmy Crystal as born of fear and a more general gullibility brought on by the collapse of society.

One of the most striking things about O’Connell’s performance is the way in which – for all of Jimmy Crystal’s psychopathy and moments of delusion – he makes the character appear like a frightened boy trapped in the body of an unbalanced man. The film says as much through Jimmy’s frequent mentions of Teletubbies and the way he insists that his father, Satan, is whispering orders in his ear. Jimmy’s delusional ramblings are compelling to his relatively young followers, because they have grown up in a world where level-headed authority figures who can teach them fact from fiction are rare. But the cult leader’s bluster is less effective when directed at older people with more life experience and memories of the pre-plague world, like Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes).

It is thanks to Kelson that The Temple of Bones begins to ask and answer a number of fascinating questions about people infected with the plague virus, like Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), the hulking and heartbreaking Alpha introduced in 28 years later. The new film spends a lot more time with these returning characters to give us a better understanding of their lives and how they were both transformed upon meeting each other. Fiennes and Lewis-Parry are great together The Temple of Bones brings Kelson and Samson together in a surprising, alarming, and surprisingly funny way. But even if the couple brings lightness to this story, The Temple of Bones also uses them to remind you of what humanity has lost in the 28 years since the Rage contagion was unleashed.

While 28 years later felt very much like a film in conversation with zombie narratives inspired by 28 days later, The Temple of Bones draws much of its inspiration from older pieces of the undead canon. DaCosta punctuates Samson’s berserker-hunting scenes with unsettling moments of stillness and tight, nauseating shots of him splitting open skulls to destroy the brains of his victims. In the context of the film, Samson is a new type of infected – blessed with more intelligence and the ability to socialize with others like himself. But as a screen presence, the character feels very much like an homage to the dragging corpses that made George Romero a cinema icon.

Although DaCosta inherited much of this story from Boyle and Garland’s last collaboration, she makes it her own by relying on a less frenetic visual storytelling style. Some of the film’s biggest scares work because of how slowly they are revealed. But just when it seems like the film is at its most disturbing, DaCosta defuses some of that tension with a handful of perfectly placed needle drops.

It was difficult to get a sense of how 28 years later could become a compelling trilogy. But The Temple of Bones clearly shows that Boyle and Garland have been cooking with heat since the very beginning of this new chapter in the greatest franchise. DaCosta masterfully sets up a number of promising developments for the conclusion of the trilogy, which will see Boyle return to wrap things up. And if the next film manages to inject a similar level of life into the undead genre, it will have been worth it.

28 days later: the Temple of Bones also stars Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Maura Bird, Ghazi Al Ruffai, Sam Locke and Cillian Murphy. The film hits theaters on January 16.