28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) - 5/10

Well here we go, the crackers coda from the last film returns with a bunch of teenage misfits dressed as Jimmy Saville. There’s no explanation or point and honestly it feels like a stupid choice. They’re a ruthless blood thirsty bunch, lorded over by the satanically insane Sir Jimmy (Jack O’Connel), who attempts to indoctrinate our hero, young Spike (Alfie Williams) into the cult. Granted, 28 years after the collapse of society, some madness is likely to set in, but this forgets about the zombies. Everything has got a bit more territorial and tribal. We’ve got the Jimmys doing their psychotic thing, we’ve got the bit part brain eating zombies, lead by Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) and we’ve got Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), experimenting with the Samson, whilst listening to Duran Duran. There are still people, trying to survive everything and t’s not immediately obvious where the most danger is coming from. It’s a bit sadistically messy. The zombie bloodshed makes sense, but the Jimmys tread too close to torture porn and their purpose is completely lost. O’Connell is great, he’s vile, easily hatable and I guess if there is a purpose, that’s it, to show what animals people can be. It’s in no way entertaining though and loses the thread of the primary plot entirely. I suppose it needed to find a different direction, now we’re 4 films in, but this is a struggle. After a rather brutal first half, we get to the inevitable, Sir Jimmy and Kelson meet and the narrative finds its feet, a little. Fiennes stole the show in the first film and he does too here, but it’s a strong cast. Erin Kellyman stands out head and shoulders in the Jimmy’s and Lewis-Parry does remarkably well with little to work with as a zombie in rehab. It all looks great too and honestly, take away the stupid Saville nonsense and the needless torture, it’d be a much better film. It’s not great though and there’s not much to save it. It does have its moments, Fiennes going bonkers with the pyro whilst Maiden blares out is pretty magnificent and it does have a satisfactory finale, but it’s a disappointment.

5/10