“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” is the second film in a new trilogy spinoff of director Danny Boyle’s horror flick “28 Days Later” released back in 2002.
It was the chilling story of a London man (Cillian Murphy) who awakens from a 28-day coma only to discover that while he was unconscious, a bizarre virus has turned a large part of the population into zombie-like, flesh-eating monsters, turning the city into a deserted, decimated war zone.
The movie became a cult classic. Fans clamored for more, setting the stage for last year’s long-awaited sequel “28 Years Later.” Boyle was back in the director’s chair, working again from a script by Alex Garland, whose other writing credits include “Ex Machina” (2014), “Annihilation” (2018) and “Civil War” (2024).
It earned an impressive $151 million worldwide. There was so much confidence in its success that the second instalment of the trilogy “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” was shot simultaneously. It was a bold move, but one that was carefully planned and brilliantly executed.
While movie sequels sometimes diminish in quality, “The Bone Temple” is the rare exception. It picks up where “28 Years Later” ended and extends the story in a surprisingly well-charted, highly entertaining direction.
Granted, we’re talking about a “zombie character theme” with all the blood and gore that the genre is expected to deliver. Blame the late George Romero for all that, when he released his groundbreaking, cult classic “Night of the Living Dead” back in 1968 — a low-budget, independent movie that forever redefined the genre, with the inclusion of disturbing taboo elements (like a young girl stabbing her mother to death with a garden trowel) and the never-before-seen graphic images of zombies devouring bloody body parts and gross-out human entrails, photographed in cold, stark, 16mm black-and-white.
As they say in show business, it was a hard act to follow, but Hollywood certainly tried, with the production of increasingly graphic violence and gore over the years. The special effects got better, creating a cottage industry of effects shops that turned people like Tom Savini into household names. The gory effects often became the real stars of the movie, overshadowing cheesy storylines and ridiculous premises and plots.
“The Bone Temple” wastes no time delivering the shock quotient, evidenced in an early knife fight that leaves the loser with a deep gash in his inner thigh, profusely bleeding out on the floor of a grungy, abandoned swimming pool. It’s ugly, and painful to watch, but it sets the stage for the grim horror that follows.
There are scenes of zombies ripping the heads off their victims and eating the contents of their skulls. “The Bone Temple” is not for the faint of heart. It goes beyond shocking to the level of being deeply disturbing.
A satanic band of young murderers captures and tortures the members of a farm family who are strung up and eviscerated in a barn. The scene is reflective of the relatively recent trend of what has been called “Torture Porn.” We live in an age when brutality and inhumanity have become popular entertainment. As long as people pay to see it, Hollywood studios are all too happy to raise the bar and continue to crank it out. It’s part of an age-old business model.
Watch: 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE - Official Trailer
To be sure, “The Bone Temple” isn’t a movie for everyone. That said, fans of the genre and this franchise will embrace this installment of the series. It should be noted that this movie really requires the viewing of the last year’s film “28 Years Later” to fully understand the story and characters. It’s complicated, but in a good way. Humanity tries to deal with a new world order that involves the last vestiges of ordinary people trying to survive the onslaught of ravenous, roving monsters.
Hope lies in the work of an eccentric, reclusive doctor (played wonderfully by Ralph Fiennes) who struggles to find a way of reversing the effect of the virus that threatens mankind. His desperate experiments involve a large, menacing (and often naked) Neanderthal of a man who he has named Samson, because of his strength and appearance. Their developing relationship is not what you expect in a movie like this. Other surprises include the depth of the writing, stellar performances and tight direction by Nia DaCosta.
In many ways, “28 Years Larter: The Bone Temple” eclipses the previous installment with a knockout biblical twist of an ending and a surprise cameo appearance guaranteed to have the die-hard fans marking their calendars for the upcoming final installment featuring the return of Boyle, back in the blood-spattered director’s chair.
Drew’s Take:
The legacy of Pittsburgh’s George Romero and Tom Savini and their 1968 groundbreaking cult classic “Night of the Living Dead” lives on in the zombie gore-fest “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.”
Be First to Comment