“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” is a Miracle (Review)

In any great trilogy, the second installment is where things can get a little strange. By design, it occupies the second act of a three-act narrative, a position that comes with both freedom and risk. The first film is tasked with establishing the world, the characters, the stakes, and the rules of engagement, while the final chapter must bring everything to a satisfying close. That leaves the middle film room to do the heavy lifting: digging into the real substance of the story, challenging its characters in more complex ways, and cutting directly to the thematic core of what the trilogy is trying to say.

Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is one of the most unapologetically second-act sequels I’ve seen in years, and it’s all the stronger for it. As the follow-up to Danny Boyle’s excellent 28 Years Later and the second chapter in the sequel trilogy from Boyle and Alex Garland, the film wastes no time picking up the narrative and thematic threads left behind and pushing them into bold new territory. For a movie that is, on paper, essentially 28 Days Later part four, The Bone Temple feels consistently inventive and invigorating. It’s a ferocious horror film, a scrappy, apocalyptic western of sorts, and, most importantly, an absolute blast at the movies.

TOP FIVE THINGS ABOUT “28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE”

5. A True Second Act Sequel

Over the course of the first 28 Years Later, the audience is guided from a familiar, established post-apocalyptic landscape into deeper, uncharted territory, both literally and metaphorically. That journey works in lockstep with the film’s narrative and thematic ambitions. The Bone Temple takes those ideas and pushes them even further, opening in the existential, almost esoteric space where the previous film left off and allowing the story to bloom outward from there.

The result is a genuinely delirious sequel, one that balances sharply juxtaposed tones with remarkable precision. It’s a film that refuses to hold the audience’s hand, plunging headfirst into its world and trusting viewers to keep pace as it barrels forward.

4. Visually Gorgeous

Danny Boyle’s original 28 Days Later from 2002 established a striking and unmistakable visual language, using early digital cameras to create an aesthetic that felt both visceral and invasive. With last year’s 28 Years Later, Boyle and returning cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle rewrote the visual rules of their own franchise, blending modern digital tools with a more classical filmmaking sensibility. With The Bone Temple, Nia DaCosta and her frequent collaborator, cinematographer Sean Bobbitt, build directly on that visual vernacular, evolving it in deeply compelling ways.

The result is a film that feels intensely tactile, boldly lit, and visually stunning on its own terms. I was particularly taken with how DaCosta and Bobbitt manipulate the ebb and flow of natural light throughout the film, as well as how they deploy modern digital techniques to sharpen and reinforce some of its most crucial ideas. It’s confident, expressive filmmaking, and genuinely fantastic to watch.

3. Alex Garland’s Script

I think Alex Garland is a phenomenally talented writer and filmmaker in his own right, particularly when it comes to science fiction. One of the primary reasons The Bone Temple works so effectively as an expansion into increasingly uncharted territory is that it gives Garland the space to further deepen and explore this world. At the same time, the film is driven by the kind of sharp, purposeful thematic work that defines his strongest projects, Annihilation included. For all its scale and ambition, the film can ultimately be distilled into a strikingly potent piece of religious allegory, one that’s enriched by its place within the larger franchise and, in turn, adds weight to the series as a whole.

As I mentioned in my review of the previous film, at a time when so many filmmakers are returning to established IP as a safe bet, content to mine familiar ground, Garland and his collaborators are using the franchise framework as a vehicle for genuinely new ideas. That approach not only feels refreshing, it rules.

2. Nia DaCosta’s Direction

I’m a huge fan of Nia DaCosta. Little Woods rules, Candyman is great, and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is her strongest film yet. From its very first moments, the movie announces itself as a cohesive, exacting, and meticulously sculpted piece of work. In fact, even before a single image appears onscreen, the sheer audacity of the black screen, swelling sound design, and opening title card makes a powerful impression.

Once underway, the film often plays like a collision between Bride of Frankenstein and a classic Jacques Tourneur RKO picture, something in the lineage of Cat People or I Walked with a Zombie, and it’s all to its benefit. As Alex Garland’s script delves deeper into the peculiarities of this world, DaCosta meets it with a confident, assured, and endlessly precise directorial touch, giving each beat the cinematic weight and texture it needs to resonate.

And when the film leans into its larger set pieces, it goes completely off the rails in the best way possible. The tension is ratcheted to absurd heights, with every action beat landing as impactful and deliberate. That intensity is no accident; it’s the result of DaCosta’s impeccable staging and her razor-sharp command of suspense.

1. The Lead Performances

Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell deliver two of my favorite performances of the decade here, each chewing up the scenery in their own, equally electric way. On top of that, the young Alfie Williams continues to impress as Spike, while Chi Lewis-Parry shines in his expanded role as Samson. The result is a film bursting at the seams with remarkable performances, many of which feel like they could have gone disastrously wrong in lesser hands. Instead, the combination of these fearless actors, DaCosta’s cohesive direction, and Jake Roberts’ fluid yet forceful editing coalesces into something genuinely special.

You don’t typically walk into the fourth installment of a long-running horror franchise expecting some of the most striking, tender, and empathetic performances of the year, but 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple delivers exactly that.

RGM GRADE

(A)

Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is nothing short of astounding. It’s not only a great sequel, but a remarkable work in its own right. I genuinely believe it will be held in high esteem by genre fans for years to come. There’s something profoundly magnetic about the film. It lit up the theater from its very first moments, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. All of that speaks to just how satisfying, enriching, and deeply affecting the experience truly is.