A Ground-Breaking Premise Has Become Something Else Entirely Under the Weight of Franchise.

      When 28 Days Later first premiered, it was hailed as not only one of the “best” zombie films in years, but perhaps a new phase in the genre. After its success, and given that the film’s name practically invited more installments, it was only natural that it would spawn multiple sequels. After a long hiatus, the franchise returned with 2025’s 28 Years Later, followed immediately by its direct sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. While there is merit to the latest installment of the franchise, it is, in many ways, ultimately derivative of not only other zombie films and perhaps even a little silly in its efforts to stay “different.”

            At the end of 28 Years Later, young Spike is rescued from a horde of ravenous infected by a band of leaping, beached-blonde warriors. This story picks up right after that. Turns out (not a surprise), this band of blonde ravagers is less-than altruistic, and is in fact a group of roving Satan worshippers that pillage, plunder, and murder their way through life with post-apocalyptic gusto. Offered a place in their group, Spike (Alfie Williams), is forced to battle Jimmy Shite, whom he remarkably defeats, then given a tenuous place in the Fingers, as the group is called. Meanwhile, slightly mad if not still compassionate Dr. Kelson, awash in iodine, continues to build his Bone Temple and starts to befriend an Alpha-Infected, whom he names Samson, by sedating him with morphine, slowly turning the raving beast-man into a quasi-gentle giant. Naturally, the characters all converge at some point, in an odd, psychedelic rock concert in which Dr. Kelson masquerades as Old Nick (i.e. Satan) to appease the Fingers.

            Ralph Fiennes, naturally, is a standout in the picture as Dr. Kelson. Like Herschel in The Walking Dead, Dr. Kelson seeks to understand, even humanize the Infected and remember the living with his Bone Temple. Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), and the Fingers, attempt to be a 21st-century rendition of Alex and his Droogs from A Clockwork Orange (with more than a dose of the boys from Trainspotting mixed in), mostly to messy effect, and yet O’Connell has some good character moments when he and Dr. Kelson have a sort of heart-to-heart, in which Sir Jimmy describes being a child at the start of the outbreak. Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), spends most of the movie stark naked, massacring anyone he comes across, until he starts to be “civilized” by Dr. Kelson.

            Coming from someone who writes “zombie fiction,” as well as being a life-long fan, I can attest to the fact that the genre can become stale and redundant over time, and the only way to make it survive is to focus more on the people than the monsters, so the direction of the last two films, taking place decades after the outbreak, makes sense. What works less, in spite of his performances, is Fiennes’ Kelso and Lewis-Parry’s Samson, concepts that have been done before. Sir Jimmy and his psychotic, Satanic, and murderous Fingers are scary, for as anyone who loves apocalyptic stories knows, the people are the real problem, but are also rather stale and unoriginal.

            There are some intense, gory scenes, even one or two that made this old horror hound cringe, and a lot of ultra violence and lots of nudity, so put the kids to bed before you watch it. And plan ahead: they’ll probably be a … 28 Elections Later? 28 Decades Later? 28 Fiscal Years Later?