It would be easy enough to assume the worst out of an immediate sequel to 28 Years Later that released in January. With Danny Boyle stepping from directorial duties, now passing them over to Nia DaCosta, it would fit to expect a drastic change in storytelling style with Boyle’s own style remaining unmatched. As a fairly big fan of 28 Years Later, I also remembered thinking that I couldn’t be too sure what to expect from a direct sequel that weren’t going to be helmed by Boyle. Though, suffice to say, Nia DaCosta ended up surpassing my expectations. With Boyle having paved the way for a new direction in this series, DaCosta keeps us in for a good time all around – perhaps maybe to a more conventional degree. That doesn’t make it any less entertaining, so I can’t really complain.
Right where 28 Years Later ended, The Bone Temple follows up with Spike (Alfie Williams) now taken in by the Fingers, a gang of survivors stylized like Jimmy Savile led by Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell). Now renamed “Jimmy,” he’s found himself in strange company, perhaps because he’s expected to be a more sadistic hunter just as his father had planned for him in the preceding film. In the meantime, Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) has continued to build up the Bone Temple, taking interest in an Alpha Infected he named Samson (Chi-Lewis Parry), who has frequently visited him for morphine. This leads to another discovery about the Infected, in which a cure could very well be healed, and this apocalypse could potentially meet its end.
A noticeable shift in style can be felt, not just with the change in directors, but in cinematographer too. Where Danny Boyle and Anthony Dod Mantle created a distinctive hellscape through iPhone photography, DaCosta and Sean Bobbitt perhaps create a more slick look. In spite of this, that only feels fitting after we’d found ourselves growing accustomed to the apocalyptic look Boyle had accomplished prior. DaCosta’s shift is one that feels welcome, owing to how she’s allowed herself to remain immersed within this world of the United Kingdom following global collapse. Perhaps as a follow-up to the grimy look that Boyle creates, it’s welcome, because it indicates how people have gotten themselves used to living in a world where what remained of a former civilization no longer stands. As such, everyone’s created their own rules for survival: both humans and the Infected alike.
We’ve seen evidence of this through Ralph Fiennes’s Dr. Ian Kelson. He’s always carried a peculiar presence within the preceding film when he first appears, with his skin coloured orange, but Fiennes remains a great joy to watch, if only because he exists as an anomaly. It’s hard enough to imagine any other scenario where he would only come across as an oddity, especially in relation to the horrific ordeal Spike had gone through in order to reach him prior. And yet, it’s also why his optimism sticks with you, particularly when he takes fascination with an Alpha Infected named Samson, who might open up the possibility that there is a means to reverse the effect of the Rage Virus. To that point, Chi Lewis-Parry brings great humanity to a performance that may not speak much; reminding you of what once existed before these people were infected with the Rage Virus in 28 Days Later.
Being a bridge between a first and third instalment of a trilogy, you sense that Nia DaCosta isn’t trying to follow up Danny Boyle’s style with an imitation. Perhaps the most we feel this drastic shift in tone is in scenes that focus on Ian Kelson, but especially in how they exist in relation to the scenes focusing on Spike trying to survive alongside the Fingers. Where Spike’s journey is now exposing the young boy to a more upfront horror, Kelson’s scenes perhaps offer a glimmer of hope – especially when everything seems all but gone, as the world he’d known has gone mad. The contrast works, though maybe I find myself less taken in with Spike’s journey this time around, only because it circles back to a familiar messaging, regarding the innate monstrosity within human beings.
Given how The Bone Temple ends, we’re left in a good spot to prepare for the closing chapter. With Spike’s own coming-of-age within an apocalyptic world driving 28 Years Later, The Bone Temple perhaps offers a form of respite. It doesn’t quite leave you with the same emotional impact that Danny Boyle’s film did, although given that this one picks up immediately after said film, it’s hard to imagine the same impact being retained. Yet, there’s still a great deal of fun to be had, only because DaCosta finds a perfect opportunity to ground the action in this world where it seems civilization has all but gone away. And I think all you need to see is Ralph Fiennes performing a dance number to Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” to see where it all can go from there.
Watch the trailer right here.
All images via Sony.
Directed by Nia DaCosta
Screenplay by Alex Garland
Produced by Andrew Macdonald, Peter Rice, Bernie Bellew, Danny Boyle, Alex Garland
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, Chi Lewis-Parry
Premiere Date: January 13, 2026
Running Time: 109 minutes
Cinema from the Spectrum 
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