28 Years Later: Temple of Bones Review: A Terrifying Crisis of Faith

Because there is a long gap between versions After 28 weeks and After 28 yearsIt was surprising to hear that writer-director duo Alex Garland and Danny Boyle already had plans for their latest collaboration to be… The first chapter of the new horror trilogy. Sony seemed keen to fast-track the duo’s idea After 28 years The film’s sequel has begun filming back to back. But it also seemed like the studio wanted to bring a different kind of energy to the series when it chose Nia DaCosta to direct the new film.

That energy and its distinction from Boyle’s directorial voice is clear 28 years later: Temple of Bones – A film that understands how powerful horror can be when it’s filled with goofy humor. Although there’s no shortage of gory, nauseating violence, the penchant for comedy is one of the film’s smarter ways of illustrating what its characters are fighting for. All of Temple of BonesThe joke is a reminder that, in a world full of carnivorous ghouls, human connection and community are things people are willing to die for.

Temple of Bones Pick up soon after After 28 years to find teenager Spike (Alfie Williams) trying to make sense of his life as a newly inducted member of Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal’s (Jack O’Connell) roving cult of platinum-blonde wig-wearing drifters who all go by the name ‘Jimmy’. Spike can handle himself pretty well against a couple of infected lurking in the English wilderness, but his skills with a bow and arrow are no match for the Jimmys’ violent way of dealing with anything that comes their way.

Killing people – infected or not – at the behest of Jimmy Crystal has become the norm for Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), Jemima (Emma Laird) and the rest of their demented crew. Spike finds it hard to believe Jimmy Crystal’s claims that he is being talked to and guided by an unseen higher power, but he knows he has no choice but to join the gang and… Dress like a sexual predator When they ask him to join their ranks.

It’s through the Jimmys as a unit After 28 years He begins to explore the ways in which faith can be used as a weapon to harm the very people to whom it provides psychological comfort. The Jimmys are a quirky family bound together by a genuine fondness for each other and an understanding that they are safer as a group. But the film presents their desire to follow Jimmy Crystal as born of fear and general naivety brought about by the collapse of society.

One of the most surprising things about O’Connell’s performance is how – for all of Jimmy Crystal’s psychopathy and moments of delusion – he makes the character come across as a frightened boy trapped inside the body of a troubled man. The film says a lot through Jimmy’s recurring character mentions who Teletubbies And the way he insists that his father, the devil, whisper orders in his ear. Jimmy’s delusional statements are compelling to his relatively young followers because they have grown up in a world where level-headed authority figures who can teach them fact from fiction are few and far between. But the cult leader’s threat is less effective when aimed at older people with more life experience and memories of the pre-plague world, such as Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes).

It’s through Kelson that Temple of Bones It begins by asking and answering a number of fascinating questions about those infected with the plague virus, such as Samson (Che Louis Barry), the hulking, spine-tingling alpha introduced in After 28 years. The new film spends much more time with these returning characters to give us a better understanding of what their lives were like and how they were changed by meeting each other. Finneas and Louis Barry are great together Temple of Bones Kelson and Samson grow closer in ways that are surprising, disturbing, and unexpectedly funny. But as much wit as this duo brings to this story, Temple of Bones He also uses it to remind you of what humanity has lost in the 28 years since the Rage Contagion spread.

while After 28 years It felt like a movie that was in conversation with the zombie novels it was inspired by After 28 days, Temple of Bones It draws much of its inspiration from older pieces of the undead canon. DaCosta intersperses scenes of Samson’s rampaging hunt for flesh with disturbing moments of stillness and tight, nauseating shots of him cracking skulls open to cover his victims’ brains. In the context of the film, Samson is a new type of infected – one with greater intelligence and the ability to socialize with others like him. But as a screen presence, the character seems like a tribute to the decrepit corpses that made George Romero a cinematic icon.

Although DaCosta inherited much of this story from Boyle and Garland’s recent collaboration, she made it her own by leaning toward a less frenetic style of visual storytelling. Some of the biggest horror stories in film succeed because they are slowly revealed. But just when the film seems to be at its most unsettling, DaCosta strips away some of that tension with a handful of perfectly placed needle drops.

It was difficult to get an idea of ​​how to do this After 28 years It could grow into a compelling trilogy. but Temple of Bones It shows that Boyle and Garland have been cooking with heat since the beginning of this new chapter of the larger franchise. DaCosta brilliantly sets up a number of promising developments to conclude the trilogy, which will see Boyle return to wrap things up. If the next film can inject a similar level of life into the zombie genre, it will be worth the wait.

28 days later: Temple of Bones It also stars Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Maura Bird, Ghazi Al-Rifai, Sam Luke, and Cillian Murphy. The film comes to theaters on January 16.