“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” (2026)
“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” picks up right where last year’s “28 Years Later” leaves off, following Spike (Alfie Williams) as he has an encounter with a dangerous group of thugs known as the Jimmys, led by the OG Jimmy (Jack O’Connell).
We also follow the continuing adventures of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) and his medical experiments in this zombie-infested world.
After Spike is cruelly inducted into the Jimmy gang, he befriends one of the female Jimmys (Erin Kellyman), who appears to have more autonomy than the rest of the OG Jimmy’s underlings.
“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” explores how the best of and worst of humanity might collide in this post-apocalyptic setting. It is honestly my favorite of all of the sequels to “28 Days Later,” and I think Nia DaCosta‘s direction plays a big part in it.
She moved away from some of the frenetic, chaotic visuals and editing that are landmarks of Danny Boyle’s filmmaking to tell a story that delivers all the zombie horror subgenre touchpoints (i.e. gore, wild kills) while saving some of the most grotesque sequences for the human-on-human violence in “Bone Temple.”
This is truly a standout role for Fiennes, and “28 Years Later” was just a taste of what he has cooked up here in “Bone Temple.” There is a sequence involving an Iron Maiden song that will likely hold up all year long as one of the best sequences put to film in 2026.
O’Connell continues to dazzle as another devilish villain after last year’s turn as the big bad in “Sinners,” and he is a joy to watch as the charismatic, manipulative and deeply sinister leader of the Jimmys.
On top of these two lads, Kellyman really gave her supporting Jimmy role her all. I was also impressed with her in last year’s “Eleanor the Great,” so I cannot wait to see what she does next.
If you’re a fan of anyone involved with “The Bone Temple” and/or a big fan of this franchise, you should definitely give it a watch. I do not recommend going into this as a standalone film, though. At the very least, you need to have seen “28 Years Later” for this to fully make sense.