Sony Pictures
Picking up directly where Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later left off, Nia DaCosta takes over the director mantle with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
Settling into a steadier pace than its predecessor, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple shifts its focus away from Spike (Alfie Williams) to two characters that left audiences intrigued once the previous film concluded.
On one hand, we finally get to know what Jack O’Connell’s Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal – a ruthless and unpredictable cult leader of a gang of ultra-violent, Jimmy Savile-looking devotees – is all about, and O’Connell delivers a menacing performance, cementing his knack for portraying villainous characters with richly nuanced layers.
With Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal being at once both ignorant and conniving, O’Connell effortlessly shifts between unsettling subtleties and unhinged maliciousness, making the character deeply unnerving and sincerely threatening.
On the other hand, Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) was a character that left audiences wanting to know more about this enigmatic individual who seemed to persevere in solitude without having lost any of his humanity nor sanity.
Examining Dr. Kelson further, Fiennes yet again proves why he is one of the finest actors of his generation, delivering a charismatic performance brimming with heart, humanity, and a sly undercurrent of humor and warmth.
The pacing being gentler this time around does not mean the film pulls its punches, however, as the gore is gut-wrenching and unpleasant, all the while never losing sight of its narrative purpose.
And the narrative is indeed what takes charge over experimental filmmaking techniques compared to its predecessor, the proceedings being competently lead by O’Connell and Fiennes to create an ever-escalating story where the stakes keep increasing as the film goes on and conflict creeps ever closer.
Those who found 28 Years Later too frenetic and disjointed for their liking will likely appreciate the more conventional approach to the storytelling here, all the while still getting an outstanding addition to the horror genre in general and the 28 franchise in particular.
However, this is not to say that 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple plays it safe, as the film adds substantially to not only the franchise’s lore, but also to how the post-apocalyptic and zombie genres are approached, making it a well-realized and engaging horror drama in its own right.
As a result, this sequel is a reassuring and well-balanced ebb to its predecessor’s flow, carving out new paths for where this franchise may go next, and leaving ample space for the third film in this new trilogy to provide a hopefully memorable crescendo to a new line of films no one asked for, yet these new franchise entries have nonetheless managed to enrich the horror genre as well as the wider cinematic landscape of late.
Extras include featurettes, bloopers, and deleted scenes.
Verdict: 8 out of 10.
