It's called the Bone Temple, not the important temple

SPOILERS

You know, 28 days later was one of the first horror films I remember really enjoying. I think it was the second week of my film studies class back in 2016 (FUCK) and my very cool lecturer (shoutout donna) was doing a module on British horror which had many great picks, 28 Days, Dog Soldiers and even The Descent (Donna knew ball). 

When I saw 28 years later last year, you know i thought it was alright, I didn't care much for Jodie Comer or the Arron Taylor-Johnson subplots, but I really felt that the first incursion onto the mainland that first 45 minutes or so, really nailed the atmosphere of the first. That creeping tension of not wanting to make a sound and the visceral violence that followed if you did. Overall as far as sequels to years old films go it was pretty good. 

The Bone Temple is also good, kind of. 

I think I was in the minority when “the Jimmys” showed up at the end of 28 years, I was actually pretty interested in what they would do. Survivors that are expertly dispatching infected with some kind of cult-like air about them. As characters I thought they were pretty fun to watch on screen and some real quick snappy dialogue which was pretty funny at times. Of course Jack O’Connell did a great job of portraying a cult leader one who only half believes in the truth he's convinced himself of.  Erin Kellyman and Emma Laird were both particularly entertaining to watch. 

But I found myself a bit disappointed by their actual depiction. Boiled down it felt as though they were just evil people for the most part of this film, no real rhyme or reason, just crazy. Even those that end up regretting it have done some real unforgivable things. Evil for Evil's sake more than anything more material. Especially in that long drawn out scene with the other survivors, it just felt as though they wanted to pad for time, or just make me uncomfortable. 

This film even more so than the others sticks hard to its theme of people doing horrible things, especially when we learn about how the infected may be able to be treated, and that they aren't attacking people out of spite or revenge. But they do fade into the background a little too much for me, becoming more of a backdrop than involved in the story. Despite my critique of how this scenario would most likely turn out, it makes me think of survival video games like DayZ where you are much more likely to get shot by another player than mauled to death by the game's own version of infected. 

Kelson and Samson get their own little love story, which was a nice change of pace from the war crimes committed by the Jimmys. Despite it feeling a little like a retcon it was nice to have some hope in this overall very nihilistic franchise, with kelson being able to formulate a kind of cure for the infected brain. That cure, some cocktail of psychiatric and other medicines giving Samson the ability to speak and separate himself from the rage virus. It really does veer into, we ran out of ideas so we made up a cure a little bit, but its execution was not the main point of the film and with Kelson now dead it seems no one will be able to follow up on this discovery, at least for now. 

And on that, despite any issues I have with our comic book villain Jimmy and the lack of zombie tension on show here, the final act[ish] of this film is a serious highlight. After a conversion with Jimmy where he admits he's some kind of a fraud, Kelson agrees to pretend he is “old nick”, Satan in exchange for not being killed. Blasting the number of the beast and dressed all in black, Ralph Fiennes pulls off a convincing musical number, before turning the tables on Sir Jimmy and requiring his sacrifice. Chaos ensues and he is ultimately stabbed by Sir Jimmy for his cheek, before the few remaining Jimmys turn on each other with Spike (Alfie Williams) landing the final blow. As Spike (who was wearing a mask up until now) and Kelson are reunited, Erin Kellyman - the last jimmy who has taken Spike as some kind of little brother offers one final act to thank Kelson. 

We close off this chapter with Sir Jimmy nailed to an upside down cross, receiving a suitably painful death. 

Now for some unknown reason, after the 2025 movie people were frothing at the mouth for Cillian Murphy's character to come back. In this film's final final scene he does, now what does this mean for the third and final 28 years film? I don't know but I don't think I'm gonna like it. 

The bone temple was a good time kind of, a bit overly long and maybe one to many characters for my personal taste, but still entertaining enough with some creative filmmaking to keep you watching -  better than average 3 / 5

Thank you kat for the title for this post, i will continue stealing your jokes until they are not funny anymore