Movie Review – 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

Director Nia DaCosta and writer Alex Garland have given us another brilliantly watchable horror film set in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later universe. The second film in a new trilogy and fourth film in the series follows Dr. Kelson as he befriends and tries to cure an infected Alpha and Spike as he joins a mini-cult whose leader believes he can hear Old Nick (Satan) telling him to do terrible things to people.

Ralph Fiennes puts in an empathetic performance keeping him inline with the previous film while he drugs the Alpha with morphine, which dulls the effects of the infection so the Alpha calms itself. This give the doctor the idea for a cure, a way to treat the infection in the same way you treat psychosis. How it took 28 years for someone to ask what the infected were actually seeing when they attacked people I’ll never know, but I love that it gets asked here.

Spike finds himself in an untenable situation. This group of people have no redeeming qualities safe for one of them. The kill unrelentingly and torture without guilt. They are the real monsters of this film. The infected have no control over their actions. This group of “Jimmys” though have become so disturbingly mentally ill during life isolated on the island that they are unwilling to see that their actions are awful. Their loss of humanity and innocence having grown up in such an environment is a real tragedy.

When these characters come together at the end of the film, Dr. Kelson puts on a show for them at the request of the cult leader. Under threat of death, Kelson breaks out an Iron Maiden album and pretends to be Satan. Best use of Iron Maiden ever. Pyrotechnics are put on display. Ralph Fiennes pulls out all the stops in his performance curing this scene. Truly one of my favorite moments in a horror movie.

Give Nia DaCosta, Alex Garland, and Ralph Fiennes all the horror movies if this is what they give us. A great addition to the series and the genre as a whole.

4 out of 5 stars.