'28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' review: Horror sequel is gruesomely good
Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) in Columbia Pictures' "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple." Credit: Columbia Pictures via Sony Pictures/Miya Mizuno
PLOT In a zombie-plagued world, a young boy enters a satanic cult.
CAST Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams
RATED R (extreme violence and gore)
LENGTH 1:48
WHERE Area theaters
BOTTOM LINE The revived horror franchise keeps kicking with this gruesomely good fourth entry.
A zombie-movie sequel in early January seems an unlikely place to witness a command performance from Ralph Fiennes, but here we are. Even after multiple Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, a Tony Award, a BAFTA and an eight-film run as the iconic “Harry Potter” villain Voldemort, Fiennes delivers one of his craziest and most charismatic performances yet in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.”
As one of the film’s younger actors says after witnessing Fiennes cut loose: “You put on a good show.”
The whole movie is a surprise, in fact. “28 Days Later,” the 2002 film by director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, is one of those pop-culture classics (it popularized the fast-moving zombie) that has been tarnished by weak sequels. Last summer’s “28 Years Later” struggled under Boyle’s overly stylized direction (it was filmed on iPhones) but did give us Fiennes as Dr. Ian Kelson, a mournful post-pandemic figure seen puttering around a sculpture garden of skulls and femurs. “The Bone Temple,” written by Garland, brings Fiennes back under director Nia DaCosta who, following 2023’s disastrous “The Marvels,” seems perfectly content to let this gold-plated actor run away with her movie.
Fiennes' Kelson isn’t the only returning character. Jack O’Connell (“Sinners”) also nearly steals the show as the cult leader Jimmy Crystal, whose shaggy blond hair, velour tracksuit and dime-store bling conjure up a skater-punk Charles Manson. When we re-meet him, he has corralled the young orphan Spike (once again played by Alfie Williams) into his gang of giggling sadists, all of them also called Jimmy. Little Spike is too tender for this work: When the Jimmys carve up a hapless family for fun, he promptly vomits (as might you).
Meanwhile, Kelson continues his risky but moving relationship with Samson, a towering zombie played with both fury and real feeling by MMA fighter Chi Lewis-Parry. Kelson thinks he can tap into Samson’s vestigial humanity and get him to converse. Or, at the very least, dance to Duran Duran.
How all these figures will converge is best kept secret. Suffice it to say that Fiennes’ overall performance is not just captivating but marvelously inventive: a combination of Shakespearean theater, something like Japanese Butoh dance and a massive dose of Ozzy Osbourne. At the screening I attended, his climactic scene earned a burst of applause.
“The Bone Temple” ends with a brief appearance from a familiar face (no spoilers, but longtime fans will surely guess) and the promise of at least one more film. Boyle has agreed to direct, according to reports, and Garland has already written the script. Like the enigmatic zombie Samson, there’s life in this franchise yet.
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