28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)

A skull cathedral, a Satan concert, and the most gloriously unhinged sequel imaginable

Lets start by showing y’all the trailers shall?

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⚠️ CONTENT WARNING ⚠️

Before anything else, this needs to be said upfront: this movie is extremely bloody and gory. Not “standard zombie movie gore.” Not quick-cut violence. I mean prolonged, lingering, uncomfortable violence, including one sequence that goes on for a long time and is genuinely vile to watch.

This film is bloodier than 28 Years Later, which honestly feels appropriate for a zombie movie, but it is also completely unexpected if you’re only familiar with the previous film. If you’re squeamish, or if you think this is going to be a toned-down sequel, you need to be warned now.


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🎬 Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

The trailers made it clear immediately that this was not going to be a “normal” sequel. Bone monuments. Cult imagery. Ralph Fiennes looking like a man who hasn’t seen sanity in decades. Jack O’Connell radiating cult leader menace. Sony even released the trailer song — Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast — on YouTube, which should’ve been the biggest warning sign of all.

This movie was advertising chaos, and for once, it didn’t lie.


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🎥 Before We Get Ourselves in a Frenzy: The Director

If Nia DaCosta sounds familiar, that’s because she directed Candyman (2021) and The Marvels.

I’ll say this clearly: I actually really like Candyman (2021). I know that movie is unpopular with a lot of people, but I thought it was atmospheric, uncomfortable, and effective.

As for The Marvels, I don’t blame her for that movie at all. She has gone on record saying that film was not the movie she pitched to Disney, which tells me everything I need to know about studio interference. When a director openly says that, I’m not pinning the failure on them.

Watching The Bone Temple, you can feel how much creative freedom she had here. This movie feels authored. Risky. Personal. Unfiltered. And honestly, I’m bummed we probably won’t get her directing the third film.


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🧟‍♂️ Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

The Bone Temple picks up directly after 28 Years Later and follows Spike, a kid who ends up trapped inside a roaming cult known as The Fingers, led by the deeply disturbing Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell).

This cult doesn’t just survive the apocalypse — they turn it into belief. Pain is charity. Death is ritual. Obedience is law. Basically a fucked up way of thinking.

Running parallel is Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), a solitary doctor living among towering skull monuments known as the Bone Temple. While the rest of the world sees the infected as monsters, Ian treats them as patients. He believes sickness is still sickness, even at the end of the world.

These two philosophies eventually collide, and the movie escalates into something completely unhinged.

And for anyone still arguing semantics: the movie explicitly uses the word “zombies” in dialogue. This is a zombie movie.


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🧍 Character Rundown

Spike (Alfie Williams) is the emotional core of the film. This is his first acting role ever, and he absolutely carries it. He feels like a real kid stuck in an unreal situation.

Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) is one of the most hateable characters I’ve seen in this franchise. You despise him, but you can’t look away. Jack O’Connell brings a specific charisma that makes it terrifyingly believable why people follow this man.

Also yes his design is heavily inspired by the real world UK pedophile named Jimmy Savile, if you dont know who he is, either look him up (although I dont recommend doing so) or read my reveiw on 28 years later.

Jimmy Ink aka Kelly (Erin Kellyman)

Jimmy Ink is one of the more quietly fascinating characters in The Bone Temple, because she exists in this uncomfortable middle space between belief and doubt.

On the surface, she looks like every other member of the Fingers. She wears the blonde wig, the jumpsuit, the cult look. She calls herself a “Jimmy.” She knows the rules. She plays along. If you just glance at her, you’d assume she’s fully bought in.

But she isn’t.

What sets Jimmy Ink apart is that she’s observant. She watches people more than she talks. You can tell she’s constantly reading the room, reading Jimmy Crystal, reading Spike. She doesn’t perform belief the way the others do — she doesn’t grandstand, doesn’t sermonize, doesn’t act euphoric about the violence. She’s present, but detached in a way that feels intentional.

She comes off like someone who joined the cult young, stayed because survival demanded it, and has been telling herself for a long time that this is “just how things are now.” There’s a weariness to her that contrasts hard with the theatrical cruelty of the rest of the group.

Her dynamic with Spike is especially important to her characterization. She never treats him like a recruit or a warrior-in-training. She treats him like what he actually is: a kid who’s terrified and in way over his head. Even when she’s repeating cult logic out loud, you can hear that she doesn’t fully believe it herself. It feels rehearsed — like something she’s been forced to say enough times that it’s lost meaning.

She’s also one of the few characters who questions without openly rebelling. She doesn’t challenge Jimmy Crystal directly. She doesn’t undermine him in public. Instead, her doubt shows up in hesitation, in restraint, in small mercies. In a cult built on spectacle and cruelty, her refusal to fully indulge in either is what makes her stand out.

There’s also a clear intelligence to her. She’s not naïve. She understands how dangerous Jimmy Crystal is, understands how quickly dissent gets you killed, and understands that survival sometimes means playing a role until the moment you can stop pretending. That makes her feel grounded in a way most characters in this movie deliberately are not.

Visually and tonally, she’s a counterweight. Where Jimmy Crystal is loud, manic, and performative, Jimmy Ink is quiet, controlled, and inward. Where the cult thrives on chaos, she moves carefully. Where others seem intoxicated by belief, she seems burdened by it.

In a film full of extremes — extreme gore, extreme ideology, extreme performances — Jimmy Ink feels human. And that’s exactly why she matters.

She’s not the cult’s heart.
She’s the cult’s fracture.

And you can feel it long before anything actually breaks.

Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) is the heart of the movie. He looks like a madman, but he isn’t. He treats the infected as sick people, not monsters. He is tragic, philosophical, and deeply human.

Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) is the Alpha infected. He is completely nude, towering, muscular, covered in grime and blood, with long hair, a wild beard, scars, and disturbing awareness. He moves fast, violently, and intelligently. Heavy prosthetics, full commitment.

And for anyone worried the movie censored him because of the skirt seen in marketing — don’t worry. Nothing is censored. Everything is visible. Oh boy, it’s visible.

Erin Kellyman’s character is a cult member whose belief begins to fracture. She sees Spike as a kid, not a tool, and that choice matters.


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⏱️ Pacing / Film Flow

This movie is linear. Unlike 28 Years Later, which felt messy and scattered, The Bone Temple always knows where it’s going. Even when it goes completely insane, you always know where you are in the story.


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✅ Pros

Ralph Fiennes steals the movie.
Jack O’Connell is revolting in the best way.
The Bone Temple imagery is unforgettable.
Samson’s arc is emotional and tragic.
The cult is genuinely disturbing.

And I am so glad this movie does not have the stupid bullet-time headshot freeze-frames or the random medieval / Robin Hood footage that plagued 28 Years Later. This movie is artsy, yes — but not that kind of artsy.

There’s also a very deliberate callback to 28 Days Later rules here — blood in the mouth equals infection. During the chaos and slaughter, blood sprays into someone’s mouth and eyes, and just like the original film, that’s all it takes. No bite. No delay. Just instant rage infection. It’s a small detail, but it matters, because it reminds you that underneath all the cult insanity and skull monuments, this is still operating on the same brutal rules Danny Boyle established in the first movie.

Also this film feels linier, it focuses on 2 specific stories that meet up at the end.

I will say this the Dr. Ian moments are such pallet cleansers. Because on the other hand we got the Jimmy cult who are heinous people, yes the Dr. Ian moments are extremely bizarre but they are also comedic. Which we need to balance out cruelty and Satanism. Because trust me ur gonns leave this movie feeling sick to the stomach after seeing the things the Jimmy cult does in this film.

Also I guess minor nitpick, I still don’t know how I feel about the fact the Jimmy cult is still inspired by a real world UK pedophile, who have their cult named the fingers and what do they do in this film? Try to indoctrinate a kid into their group, uh huh. Do what you will with that, because I think theres a level of discomfort there.

Btw why are they called the fingers? Because hes the right hand of Satan and his group are called fingers so he closes them up and it creates a fist, hence Satan’s right hand man, not a con just a fact for the day.


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❌ Cons

I really only have one.

Spoilers!

This is not on me. I did not spoil this. The director and studio publicly revealed this long before release, which completely undercut what should’ve been a powerful surprise. It genuinely feels like the studio had no faith and decided to spoil the hook early, which is wild because this movie is actually great.

The ending, specifically the return of Jim (Cillian Murphy), feels tacked on — and worse, it was spoiled months in advance.



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🤔 Final Thoughts

This movie is off the rails, and I mean that as a compliment. Not confused. Not sloppy. Deliberately unhinged. I walked out thinking, “What did I just watch?” and then immediately thought, “I kind of loved that they went there.”

Also if ur an atheist I will say this film mifht annoy you, because its very heavy handed with is religious angle, but its used for purpose. Its not indulging in it, its not pro religion or anti religion, its just there.

Do I think this is the best film in this franchise? No (that still goes to 28 Days Later) but however this is the best in the franchise ever since the first film, so ppz go check this film out even if u like me hated 28 yesrs later.

Trust me this one is worth it, this movie is truly a bizarre ride from beginning to end. You will question sometimes what are u even watching. But you will find urself enjoying this, or you wont, depends on what y’all test is in for a zombie


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🎯 Rating

9/10

Unapologetically unhinged — and I loved it for that.


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⚠️ SPOILER WARNING ⚠️

Full spoilers ahead.
Again: this was spoiled publicly months ago. That is not on me.


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🧟‍♂️ Spoilers

For anyone who needs a reminder of what happens in 28 years later, well let me remind y’all.

The movie opens with children watching Teletubbies as infected break into their home. One child survives and escapes to a church, where his father, a priest, gives him a golden cross before being killed. That kid grows up to become Jimmy Crystal.

Flash forward 28 years. Spike lives on a quarantined island — what’s left of Britain — where boys prove themselves by going to the mainland to kill their first zombie. Spike’s father Jamie takes him across, where Spike kills a bloated infected and encounters Samson, the Alpha. Samson is fast, nude, terrifying, and strong enough to rip a deer’s head and spine off Mortal Kombat-style and mount it on a tree. This already starts pushing the movie into “what am I watching” territory.

Spike is traumatized and says he never wants to go back out there. Immediately after, the movie contradicts itself by having him escort his barely mobile mother through infected land like he’s suddenly Rambo, which makes zero character sense.

Spike eventually runs away and is taken in by The Fingers, a cult led by Jimmy Crystal. They wear clean, colorful jumpsuits, blonde wigs, grills, and crosses. They call pain “charity.” They skin people alive. There is an extended barn torture sequence that is genuinely vile and goes on for a long time. Good we just did a recap of 28 years later in case y’all forgot.

Granted idk how because the film only came out under a year ago. But theres ur retro reminder of how that film ended, now back to our daily content.

But this reminder is necessary because thos film picks up right after the ending of that film.

Anyways, Spike is forced to fight another cult member. He accidentally stabs him in the femoral artery. The man pulls the knife out, and blood erupts like a fountain. Jimmy Crystal doesn’t care. He mocks him as he dies.

Which leads us to the most horrific scene in this film

The barn sequence is where The Bone Temple stops flirting with cruelty and fully commits to it. This is the moment the film dares you to look away.
A small family is captured and dragged into a gated barn under the cult’s fake pretense of “charity.” Jimmy Crystal plays it calm and conversational, smiling, polite, almost friendly, which somehow makes it worse. Once inside, the tone flips. The doors close. Masks go on. The cult members—still in their clean jumpsuits and blonde wigs—transform the barn into a ritual slaughterhouse.
The victims are restrained and hoisted up while the cult treats the entire thing like a ceremony. There’s no rush. No mercy. The violence is methodical. We hear screaming that doesn’t cut away quickly, doesn’t get stylized, doesn’t get softened by music. It just keeps going. The sound design makes it feel endless—raw panic, pain, and begging echoing through the barn.
This is where Spike breaks. He runs out, collapses, and starts vomiting. He physically cannot process what he’s being forced to witness. And instead of dragging him back in, Jimmy Ink stays outside with him. They sit there together while the screaming continues in the background. That choice—staying with him instead of participating—says everything about who she really is and how wrong this cult is.
Inside the barn, the cruelty escalates into spectacle. One cult member is selected to “prove” themselves through combat, while others treat mutilation as entertainment. The film makes you sit with the implications rather than cutting away. This isn’t quick violence; it’s prolonged, ritualized, and deliberately exhausting.
At one point, blood sprays into someone’s mouth and eyes—an explicit callback to 28 Days Later rules—and the infection happens instantly. No bite. No delay. Just blood exposure and immediate transformation. It’s one of the few grounding moments in an otherwise insane sequence, reminding you that beneath all the cult theatrics, the Rage Virus still obeys its original rules.
The barn ultimately erupts into chaos—fire, screaming, cult members panicking as their own ceremony collapses—but the damage is already done. The scene leaves you shaken, angry, and drained. It’s the emotional and moral low point of the film, and it’s absolutely intentional.
This is the scene people should be warned about. It’s not just gory—it’s vile, prolonged, and psychologically punishing. And the movie knows it.

Anwyays, Dr. Ian is introduced living alone in the Bone Temple, washing skulls and stacking them as memorials. He uses a chemical called Oxadien to protect himself. He tranquilizes Samson with morphine, treating him like a patient. Samson begins remembering his life as a human, saying his first word — “moon” — just as Ian is about to euthanize him.

The Samson / Dr. Ian Subplot — Why It’s So Weird (and Why It Works)
Yes, the review does cover that Dr. Ian:
repeatedly tranquilizes Samson
uses morphine to calm him
talks to him while he’s drugged
treats him like a human patient instead of a zombie
believes he’s curing, not controlling
But the core of the subplot — the thing that makes it unsettling — is this:
👉 Dr. Ian isn’t doing this out of heroism. He’s doing it out of loneliness.
That’s the part that has to land.
Ian lives alone in a bone monument, surrounded by skulls, with no fences, no guards, no community, no human contact. The infected don’t attack him because of the Oxadien and because he doesn’t behave like prey — but they also don’t connect with him.
Samson is the first being in 28 years who:
comes back voluntarily
responds to his presence
calms down instead of attacking
listens, even if imperfectly
speaks (“moon”)
So when Ian talks to Samson, dances with him, sits near him while he’s drugged — it’s not science anymore. It’s a man trying desperately not to be alone at the end of the world.
That’s why the subplot feels:
intimate
awkward
sad
ethically murky
borderline disturbing
Because it’s not framed as “mad scientist with a monster.”
It’s framed as two broken survivors forming the strangest bond imaginable.
Why It Feels So Uncomfortable (and Why That’s Intentional)
You’re absolutely right that this subplot feels weird as hell.
A naked Alpha zombie
a tranquilizer dart
a man soaked in chemicals
slow conversations
dancing
memory flashes
Samson choosing berries instead of humans
Samson coming back for more
That’s not normal horror logic. That’s art-horror mixed with grief.
And the movie wants you to be uneasy, because you’re watching:
a cure that might be real
achieved through drugs
mixed with emotional dependency
in a world where no ethics committee exists anymore
It’s tender and wrong at the same time.

Samson starts eating berries instead of people. He covers himself. He remembers a train ride from childhood. He wanders into an abandoned train car, relives his trauma, then snaps back to reality surrounded by infected and kills them off-screen.

The cult believes Dr. Ian is Satan, “Old Nick.” Erin Kellyman’s character scouts the Bone Temple and misinterprets what she sees. Jimmy Crystal demands to meet “his father.”

JIMMY CRYSTAL MEETS DR. IAN (THE “SATAN” SCENE) ⚠️

When Jimmy Crystal finally approaches the Bone Temple, the movie slows down in a way that feels deliberate and ominous. From a distance, the temple looks exactly like what Jimmy wants it to be: a religious sign, a demonic monument, proof that Satan—or “Old Nick,” as he keeps calling him—has been watching, approving, waiting. Jimmy peers at it through binoculars, visibly shaken but also thrilled. This is supposed to be confirmation. Validation. Destiny.

Jimmy asks if that’s Old Nick. He laughs nervously, half-convincing himself that it must be. When doubts creep in, he brushes them aside, claiming that Satan works in mysterious ways. If he didn’t recognize him at first, that’s only because Satan chose to appear differently. Faith, to Jimmy, isn’t about truth—it’s about bending reality until it agrees with him.

Jimmy tells the rest of the cult to stay behind and walks down to the Bone Temple alone. Inside, he finds Dr. Ian Kelso sitting calmly among the skulls, surrounded by candles, soaked in Oxadien, looking more like a medieval monk than a devil.

The conversation starts almost comically.

Jimmy asks Ian outright if he’s Old Nick.

Ian, completely confused, says he doesn’t know anyone by that name.

Jimmy presses him. Everyone knows Old Nick, he says. Ian still doesn’t understand. Then Jimmy clarifies: Satan. The devil.

Ian gently explains that he’s not Satan. He’s a doctor.

Jimmy gestures to the bone monuments, the red-stained skin, the candles, the skulls stacked like towers. Why would a doctor do this?

Ian explains calmly, clinically. The bones are cleaned and stacked as a sign of respect. The Oxadien oxidizes the skin and helps keep the virus at bay. The candles are practical. Everything has a reason. Nothing is religious.

Jimmy almost laughs.

He asks Ian if all these bones are his patients.

That line lands like a joke, but it isn’t funny.

The conversation turns philosophical. Jimmy insists the infected are Satan’s army. Ian says they’re sick people suffering from a virus. Jimmy scoffs at the idea of science. Ian counters with reason. That’s when Ian delivers the line that perfectly defines their dynamic:

“So I’m the atheist… and you’re the satanist.”

Jimmy claps, delighted. He genuinely thinks this is clever. Like they’ve solved a puzzle together.

Then the tone shifts.

Jimmy admits the problem: his followers believe Old Nick is here. They expect proof. They expect a sign. And now Jimmy is losing control. Faith is fragile, and if Ian doesn’t help him maintain it, Jimmy will lose his power.

This is when the threat becomes explicit.

Jimmy calmly explains that if Ian refuses to help, he’ll be gutted and forced to watch his own insides spill out before choking to death. He says it like he’s negotiating terms, not issuing a death sentence.

Ian is visibly frightened—but still thinking.

Jimmy proposes the solution: Ian will pretend to be Satan. A performance. A spectacle. Something convincing enough to keep the cult loyal and obedient. Jimmy doesn’t need truth. He needs theater.

Ian points out the irony. Making a deal with the devil, he says, when he isn’t the devil at all.

Jimmy smiles. He likes that.

They agree on the plan. Ian will put on a show. One night. One performance. Enough to restore Jimmy’s authority.

What follows is one of the most unhinged sequences in the film.

Ian prepares the Bone Temple like a stage. Candles are lit. A massive upside-down cross is erected. Torches are planted. Gasoline is poured in a massive circular pattern around the field, forming a fiery symbol visible from above. Speakers are set up. A record player is placed carefully at the center.

Ian coats himself in makeup—white face, dark eyes—and dresses in black robes and leather like some corrupted prophet. When the cult arrives, the music starts: Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden.

Ian doesn’t just act like Satan—he commits. He dances, sings, screams, hurls metal dust into the air like hallucinogenic ash. He climbs the bone towers. He disappears and reappears wielding flaming poles, sparks flying everywhere. The whole thing looks less like a religious ritual and more like a heavy metal concert staged by a man who’s completely lost any remaining fear of looking insane.

Btw apparently this scene caused a lot of theatres to applaud at this scene, not my theaatre room I was in. Idk what was wrong with them but my thought i had was “what are y’all lobotomized or something?”

The cult is entranced.

Jimmy Crystal watches in awe. This is exactly what he wanted.

Ian, still pretending to be Satan, delivers commandments to Jimmy. He tells him to expand the cult. To grow it. To spread suffering. To ensure his followers never question him. Jimmy repeats these orders loudly, asserting dominance, drunk on validation.

And then Ian adds one more command.

Jimmy, thinking it’s another blessing, leans in eagerly.

Ian invokes the story of God and Jesus—God’s only son, sacrificed to achieve divine power. Then he twists it. If Jimmy wants true power, true faith, he must follow the same path.

He must be sacrificed.

Jimmy freezes.

He laughs nervously. Then panics. Then backs away.

The cult stares at him. The authority he worked so hard to build turns on him instantly. Jimmy realizes too late that belief is a weapon—and once you hand it to someone else, you don’t control where it swings.

Jimmy lashes out, stabbing Ian in the stomach, screaming that he’s just a man. Just a doctor.

And he’s right.

But it’s already too late.

The cult doesn’t know who to believe anymore.

And that confusion is what finally destroys them.

Dr. Ian stages a full Satan performance using candles, gasoline, torches, hallucination dust, a giant upside-down cross, and Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast blasting like a metal concert. He dances, screams, vanishes, reappears wielding flaming poles, sparks flying everywhere. It looks like a music video.

Jimmy Crystal believes it completely. Dr. Ian gives him “rules” — grow the cult, spread pain, never let your followers question you.

Then Ian sees Spike in the crowd and snaps. He demands one more order: Jimmy must be crucified like Christ to fully ascend.

Jimmy panics. He doesn’t believe in sacrifice when it applies to him.

He stabs Dr. Ian in the stomach. Erin turns on the cult, kills members, punches Jimmy, and orders him crucified anyway.

Samson arrives, covered in blood, red-skinned. Jimmy believes Samson is Satan and screams “Father, why have you forsaken me?”

Samson ignores him.

Samson goes to Dr. Ian.

“Ian.”
“Samson.”
“Thank you.”

Samson carries Ian’s body away.

Jimmy is left screaming “Papa” as infected tear him apart.

Then the movie cuts to a quiet house. A girl studying history. Her father talks about dictators, monarchs, and how history repeats itself.

That father is Jim.

Cillian Murphy returns.

Spike and Erin are seen fleeing infected in the distance. The girl asks if they should help them.

Jim says, “Of course we help them.”

Cut to black.

That’s the setup for the next film.


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Anyways hope y’all enjoy todays reveiw, I really hope Nia DaCosta comes back to direct the next film. Plz dont bring back the original directors.