28 Years Later – The Bone Temple – 2026

The Bone temple is a film that I’ve waited a long time for. Not because I was particularly fond of the first film – 28 Years Later, which in turn of course is a continuation of the 28 Days Later and 28 Months Later. It’s in some way movies connected to zombie culture. Although I feel that both The Bone Temple and 28 Years Later are more postapocalyptic than zombie driven.

The Bone Temple takes place after 28 Years Later and is the second part in a trilogy where the third film is yet to be released. It takes place sometimes in the future where, let’s call it a plague, has infested some people and turned them into something zombie-like. I would say, they might be more like wild animals than zombies really but that might just be the semantics talking. 

Anyway, we get to follow this gang led by Jimmy Crystal, where each of the members is also given the name Jimmy or Jimmima if you happen to be female. It’s a gruesome  gang and they’re set out for doing mischief rather than just surviving in the grim world The Bone Temple is set in. Mischief? Well, that’s thay they’re freaking sadistic and take great pleasure in capturing and torture people. Of course, they call it charity, but you can call it whatever you like, It’s still painful and sadistic torture.

In fact, the ways they conduct this must have been conceived by a really deranged mind. It’s absolutely terrifying. Jimmy Crystal himself is under the impression that he is actually the son of Satan, or “old Nick” as they call him. And therefore justified his actions. The gore is really nice and almost gruesome. It looks authentic and just below the over-the-top rams if you know what I mean?

At the same time the focus is also on Dr Kelson who still lives in his ossuary, where the pyramid of skulls still stands tall. There he continues his experiments and tries to find a cure. In this process he starts to befriend an alfa. He names him Samson because of his size and his hair. A nice nod mentioning the hair I think. At first there is a real tension but after a while they actually start to connect in some way and there’s no longer anything to be scared of anymore, from either side.

So you could say that there is chaos and violence and sadism on one side, and kindness, tranquility and peace on the other. A contrast that, of course, eventually clashes with each other. And I must say, that I’, glad that it did because up to that point it’s a rather dull film, despite the violent and horrifying torture. The pace is just way too low and it quickly gets boring. I would almost call it a disaster if there weren’t this one scene towards the end where they in some way redeem the rest of the boredom. And that’s about the sole reason I’ll give The Bone Temple such a high rating. I’m not sure it deserves it but I do think it was actually somewhat better than the first film in the trilogy.