Review | 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple movie review – Ralph Fiennes leads savage sequel

Fiennes plays a bigger role alongside Jack O’Connell in this unsettling follow-up that sets the franchise up for a grandstand finish

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Ralph Fiennes in a still from 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (category III), co-starring Jack O’Connell and Alfie Williams and directed by Nia DaCosta.

Published: 5:00am, 14 Jan 2026

4/5 stars

Shot virtually back-to-back with 28 Years Later, last year’s hit revival of the zombie horror franchise that began with 2002’s 28 Days Later, this stomach-churning sequel is a deeply unsettling ride, although not for the reasons you might think.

Here, the enemy is not those infected with the so-called Rage virus. Rather, the true threat comes from the uninfected – those left to survive who have lost their moral compass.

Picking up immediately where the previous film ended, The Bone Temple sees young Spike (Alfie Williams) cornered by the Jimmys, a gang led by Jack O’Connell’s heartless fiend.

Urged to fight for his life, Spike wants no part of their ritualistic violence, but has little choice. Savagery, it seems, is the natural order in this post-apocalyptic landscape.

The film is directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman), who does an excellent job of expanding the work Danny Boyle did in the previous film, and is once again scripted by Alex Garland, who draws from such disparate influences as Androcles and the Lion and the story of the Crucifixion.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Fiennes plays a bigger role alongside Jack O’Connell in this unsettling follow-up that sets the franchise up for a grandstand finish

Fiennes plays a bigger role alongside Jack O’Connell in this unsettling follow-up that sets the franchise up for a grandstand finish