28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Review

When 28 Years Later was released in June last year, I was extremely excited thanks to one of the best and most memorable trailers in recent years, and the film lived up to that hype. It had fantastic horror moments mixed with great moments of seriousness and humour, and plenty of Danny Boyle style to match. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple was filmed immediately after production of 28 Years Later (hence why they were able to put out a sequel 6 months later, the main difference being a change of director from Danny Boyle handing it over to Nia DaCosta (Candyman, The Marvels, Hedda).

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple picks up directly after the events of 28 Years Later, as Spike (Alfie Williams) is forced to join Jimmy’s gang and partake in their crimes, meanwhile Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) is making a discovery about the rage virus.

Early reviews had given this film rave reviews, and it’s still tracking to land a high score on both Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd, amongst fans and critics alike. I remember seeing one early screening praising how scary it was, and I was excited for that, I was ready for a full on horror. This film is not that. It’s actually the least scary film of the series so far, in my opinion, the zombies are almost an after thought (aside from 1 specific one). It reminded me of The Walking Dead episodes where there was such a focus on the humans, you almost forget about the rest of the world.

Part of what I like about 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later particularly is not just that they’re made by Danny Boyle and that they have his style on the film. But also how much they feel especially like a classic British horror. 28 Weeks Later still had it but not as much, almost had a Hollywood sheen to it. I found this film particularly lacking moments, that would even give it any particular style. It felt even more jarring because it takes place directly after the previous one. It does have moments where it works perfectly, and that’s when I felt the film might push on and nail it, but it ends up, and the film does get stronger when it gets to a specific point, but it just could’ve been so much more.

Nia DaCosta has had an interesting directorial career so far, having had decent success with Candyman (2021) which was a decent film just flopped the ending, The Marvels which bombed hard at the box office and gets more hate than it deserves, and the recent Hedda which had some award season but hasn’t seemed to pick up any nominations in major award shows. I think she’s a really interesting choice to direct this one, with Candyman likely being the film that got her the job. I think she directs horror and chaos really well, but those quieter moments are where the film dragged a little for me.

Ralph Fiennes continues his fantastic performance from the last one and brings that through to this one as well. He is an incredible addition to this franchise, and fully commits to his character, and you long for him to be back on screen whenever it cuts to the Jimmy Gang. He brings such weight to the film, and probably had the most difficult job.

Jack O’Connell’s star is heavily on the rise after having a strong 2025, appearing in Sinners and 28 Years Later, and I’m extremely glad, I’ve been a fan of him since Skins, and always felt like he could one of the ones to push on have a great career much like Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel and Daniel Kaluuya. He is also set to appear in Danny Boyle’s next film, Ink as well, and makes it into one of the biggest franchises when he appears in Godzilla x Kong: Supernova.

Overall, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a good entry into this series of films, but I wish it had gone more onto it’s straight up horror roots rather than being a thriller. The film has some fantastic moments, led by fantastic performances from Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell. The sets up another entry to round of the 28 Years Later trilogy, which is likely to be directed by Danny Boyle again.

What did you think of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple?

I did a double bill at the cinema today, and will post the review of the second film I watched tomorrow. So, to be sure that you don’t miss that review full on social media @floodersfilms or via the buttons below.