28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Review

*Editor’s note: may contain mild spoilers.

by Morgan Morris and Cineman

Cineman and Morgan were invited to an early screening of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the latest chapter in the long-running horror saga. Directed by Nia DaCosta and written by Alex Garland, the film follows on from the visceral return to the franchise that reintroduced audiences to a world still scarred by infection, collapse, and survival at any cost. Set decades after the initial outbreak, The Bone Temple pushes the mythology further, exploring how communities, belief systems, and power structures have mutated alongside the virus itself. Rather than simply revisiting familiar terror, the film interrogates what has been built in the ruins, and what it means to live, and believe, in a world that never had a moment to heal. Read on for our reviews.

MORGAN MORRIS

The zombies are in safe, competent hands

News that Danny Boyle would in 2025 return to his ‘28 Days Later’ franchise with ‘28 Years Later’ was eagerly welcomed by fans, especially after he had bowed out of its 2007 sequel, ’28 Weeks Later’, due to other commitments. What’s more, fans discovered, he would do so alongside the original film’s writer, Alex Garland, another no-show for the 2007 follow-up.

Even better news followed: Boyle and Garland’s returns would herald a whole franchise of films. With the next film in the new series, to be titled ‘28 Years Later: Bone Temple’, to come barely six months later, shot almost back to back with Boyle’s sequel. I mean really, could we ask for more.

But there must have been some trepidation – Boyle, after all, wasn’t going to direct the second of the other films in the new trilogy. The director is known for his inventively frenetic and, yes, anarchic sensibility. You can’t fake that shit.

Fortunately, ’28 Years Later: Bone Temple’, was put in good hands. Writer Garland penned the screenplay, making sure the ship is steadied and follows on easily with the conceit set up at the end of last year’s film – specifically the storylines around young Spike (Alfie Williams), choosing to explore the post-apocalyptic world rather than return to his father after the death of his mother; the bewigged, -track-suited, rotten-toothed gang of zombie killers who save him from a pack of the undead to some jamming music; and that of the initially weird but actually kindly Dr Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes, still sporting his physique from ‘The Return’, the less-celebrated take on Homer’s Odyssey than the upcoming Christopher Nolan adaptation).

And there’s plenty to occupy the viewer in ‘Bone Temple’. Spike is now captive to his saviours, actually a murderous Satanic cult known as the Jimmy (everyone’s baptised either Jimmy or some version of the name). A gang is led by the psychotic Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, enthusiastically played Jack O’Connell. Another member of the Jimmys, the less bloodlusty Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), becomes a kindly protector to young Spike. Dr Kelson, in the meantime, has befriended ‘Samson’, the alpha zombie who responds in an unexpected way to the morphine cocktail the doctor has been using to subdue him.

Garland’s writing takes the story, allowed to simmer, in interesting new directions. And while director Nia DaCosta, a rising star (she did 2021’s ‘Candyman’ and 2025’s ‘Hedda’), can’t quite match Boyle’s unique touch, she admirably manages to keep all the strands of the story – which must inevitably come together – ticking along.

And the film nicely sets up Boyle’s return to the helm for the fifth – yet unnamed – film in the series. Which is set to reunite him not with Garland, who will also write the final screenplay, but also another ’28 Days Later’ alumnus, who also makes his return at the end of ‘Bone Temple’.

The good news keeps on coming.

Morgan’s Rating: 7/10

CINEMAN

There was something quietly electrifying about returning to this world with 28 Years Later. That film felt scrappy and alive, shot on phones (even though they were rigged up), bursting with invention, and driven by both nerve-shredding horror and genuine emotional weight. It reminded us why this franchise still matters. Danny Boyle stepped back behind the camera with the confidence of someone who knows this terrain instinctively, guiding the film with a feral energy and a clear love for the chaos, humanity, and dread that define this universe.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple takes that momentum and pushes it somewhere stranger and more contemplative. The performances are a major strength. Alfie Williams returns with a performance that feels more emotionally textured, carrying the weight of a world he’s grown up inside of. Ralph Fiennes beautifully portrays a man clinging on to the last bit of hope, even though it comes in the shape of a giant monster. Jack O’Connell injects a volatile intensity into the film, playing a man shaped by the hallucination of his traumatic and violent origins.

The film is confidently directed by Nia DaCosta, who shows a strong command of tone and composition. She has a sharp eye and an assured sense of how to build atmosphere, even if the kinetic, feral energy of the earlier films never quite reaches the same pitch here. This is a more controlled, more deliberate entry, and while that restraint is often effective, it occasionally blunts the impact.

Narratively, The Bone Temple is very compelling. It expands the world in fascinating ways, subverting expectations about the infected and deepening the lore around both the outbreak and the people who’ve learned to live with it. The film provides brutal shock and gore, while exploring belief systems, power, and how meaning is constructed in the aftermath of societal collapse. The ending smartly leaves the door wide open, suggesting this world still has more places left to go and more characters to see.

Where the film falters is in the writing. The dialogue and imagery sometimes feel heavy-handed, which is surprising given Alex Garland’s usual precision. Ideas are sometimes underlined when they’d be more powerful left to breathe.

Still, this is a great, brutal follow-up. Ambitious, unsettling, and eager to expand its mythology, The Bone Temple proves this franchise is far from finished.

Cineman’s Rating: 7.5/10

Overall Team Rating: 7/10

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple releases in theatres on 30 January 2026.

Follow BTG Lifestyle on Twitter @btglifestyle and LIKE us on Facebook. Subscribe to the BTG Lifestyle movie blog for updates, and email us at info [at] btglifestyle.com if you have feedback, or would like to collaborate with us.