28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – Movie Reviews by Ry!

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – Hope with RAGE / Hopeless with Humanity

Through the sowing of intrigue, one marks the path through chance and circumstance.  As we embark on this path, a place of complexity and worth can become something more.  Stories bred in these things can showcase a sense of character strength through more than just another recycled tale.  If done right, it will be a great experience.  In this review, I look at the latest chapter of horror/suspense to hit the big screen.  From dire moments to vile misfits, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is the next great chapter in the franchise, a showcase of what it means to survive the horrors of humanity.

As the next chapter of survival begins, the psyche of those living in quarantine start to unravel, bringing a new perspective of what it means to be human or zombie.  The great thing that comes from a genre like horror is the risk in pushing limits.  With the 28 (days/years) franchise, it attacks the genre through a retrospective of survival of an untold nightmare.  In this latest chapter, we pick up in the fall out from the previous entry (28 Years Later), where there are two parallel plot lines: Spike (Alfie Williams) being inducted into a cultist group led by Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) still seeking some way to ‘cure the world’ by forming an unlikely bond with an infected he calls Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry).  With a simple focus on two narratives, we move through a methodical journey that puts a lens on the characters pursuit of life and survival, but (like previous entries) builds it through a deeper complexion of what it means to be human.

The Heart of Humanity

As Dr. Kelson works through the cumbersome nature of the RAGE virus, his steadfast focus on what it means to live drives the connection between him and Samson.  With their uneasy kind of friendship, it puts a new spin on the zombie trope.  Watching him tackle the realities of this world through his own medical expertise, it imbues a layered perspective to the circumstances of both there lives, adding a questionable attitude towards the living and the undead.  Through odd character moments to quirky scenes, it provides a sense of brevity that becomes a great contrast to the vile acts that are happening with the parallel plot with Sir Jimmy’s cult and Spike.

The Horrors of Life

For all the subtlety and hopeful sections driven by Dr. Nelson’s perspective, we are reminded of the horrors of this world with Spike’s innocence conflicting with Sir Jimmy’s Cultist vision.  From their visceral actions to blindness and gullibility, it puts humanity and morality at a crossroads.  There is an abrasiveness towards right and wrong with this group, where torture becomes their form of emotional grip to living.  In the soulless drive of death and horror, these moments spent with this plotline creates an extreme that adds to that question of being human, but also puts a firm ‘antagonist’ tag on Sir Jimmy Crystal. 

With these two perspectives driving the journey, the overall connection of human worth creates that tonal depth that provides worth in the contrast of hope and hopelessness.  Moments feel jarring (at times), but the methodical direction alludes to a light at the end of the tunnel.  When the two plot lines collide, we head into a third act that showcases the strength of the property, bringing the audience to a gratifying climax and epilogue.  28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a great next chapter in the franchise.  If you are a fan of horror or this franchise, you will have a great time.  I believe this film is worth seeing on the big screen.

Full Score – 4 out of 5 (Full Price)