The Parking lot

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has finally hit theaters, the long awaited sequel to 28 Years Later and the fourth movie in the 28 Days Later franchise (although I try to erase 28 Weeks Later from my memory). Continuing the story following the young protagonist Spike, we dive deeper into who the blonde ninjas are that we met at the end of the previous film (called The Jimmies), and learn more about the iodine covered Dr. Ian Kelson. The movie relies on very little fan service and nostalgia, which is a breath of fresh air when it comes to reviving a franchise.

Don’t worry, I will mark when the spoilers begin so you can click away if you have not seen the movie yet.

If you enjoyed the new path that the story took with 28 Years Later, you are going to adore The Bone Temple. The world continues to be explored through two main paths: Spike’s journey with The Jimmies, and Dr. Ian Kelson’s struggle with understanding the Rage virus and how it impacts the infected bodies. If you were missing the human vs human elements prevalent in 28 Days Later, which were not as heavy in 28 Years Later, then you cannot miss The Bone Temple movie. It gets back to the roots of seeing how compassion and charity are flipped on their head once the structured rules of society fall away.

There is a perfect balance of infected violence as well, with plenty of flesh ripping, bloody gore that zombie flicks are known for. But what is unique about The Bone Temple is that the Rage virus is quite different from what we have seen in other zombie media. And this movie does a fantastic job of explaining what we know about Rage as an audience, and what Kelson understands of the virus from his twenty eight years surviving in the world.

And now, the spoilers will begin. Only venture forth if you have seen the movie, otherwise major plot points will be spoiled. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This film did an amazing job with providing more lore and explanation to the Rage virus, while still making it feel fresh. We were given a glimpse of what the infected see when they look upon someone who is healthy, where the Alpha saw a demonic, crazed expression on a man in the early moments of the movie, just before the Alpha freed the man’s head from his shoulders. Could it be that the Alpha was seeing a “rival” they had to kill in order to protect their flock? The pack dynamic of the Alphas and the rest of the group of infected, where the Alpha was eating the brain matter and sitting alone, while the pack was tearing the rest of the body apart is great world building. It showed the animalistic nature of those afflicted, which is the basis of Kelson’s research on the Rage virus, making it much more believable when we see Kelson and the Alpha interact later in the film.

The way that Kelson approached the virus in the film was perfect. Yes, he is a little crazy, since not many sane people would spend decades constructing a massive monument to death from the bones of the dead and infected. But we see time and time again how Kelson is compassionate, and understands that death is not something to be afraid of, but is something inevitable and freeing for those who are in great pain. He treats the infected with respect, and believes that Rage is impacting them psychologically more than anything else. Seeing Kelson documenting his discoveries and slowly work with the Alpha, trusting it to not rip off his head in his sleep or dancing with the naked, heavily drugged behemoth was a perfect way to show instead of tell. And it was the perfect build up to the Alpha saying moon, where it didn’t feel like a random, forced moment to progress the story. There was a slow burn full of successes and failures that culminated in that moment, and I know I had to pick my jaw up from the floor afterwards.

Watching the Alpha slowly reform and become human again was incredibly well done. The changes in the camera effects and motions, from the jarring motions and blurry lens while he was an Alpha compared to the soft and clear shots once the infection had been quelled was a great juxtaposition. We saw the Alpha slowly gain consciousness, with the train sounds becoming more clear as the Rage subsided, culminating in quite a brutally violent scene on the train. The fact that anti-psychotics were able to lift the veil of the virus and seemingly cure him of ever being infected again will be a fun story line to see in the next film. Samson was bit and had blood spewed in his face, which was more than enough to cause previous humans to become infected, so does Samson has immunity to the Rage virus after he was cured?

The Jimmies are monsters. Modeling Jimmy and his Fingers after Jimmy Saville is a perfect metaphor to how they seem kind on the surface, but have a sick and twisted way of providing charity to those they come across. The Rage virus would have taken over before it was widely known that Saville was a pedophile and demon, but as a kid, Jimmy would have thought Saville was a saint. The influence of Saville and of the Teletubbies (the show that was on the television in the opening scene of the 28 Years Later) on The Jimmies was absolutely brilliant, with each of the Fingers dressing in a different colored track suit, mirroring the Teletubbies. It also provided great comedic relief during the meal scene with The Jimmies and the poor souls who shared their food with them.

The tension was palpable every time Jimmy and the Fingers were on the screen, which the opening scene of the movie was a fight to the death between Spike and a Finger helped, setting the tone for who The Jimmies were. While they were an unsettling group at the end of 28 Years Later, they truly became horrific once we learned more about them. The use of charity (which Saville was known for unfortunately) as a metaphor for death, and the idea of taking off an article of clothing meaning that they would skin that area of a person, sends a chill down my spine. But it also showed the primal, childish state that Jimmy was stuck in, since he was only eight years old when the infection started. We saw this through the toddler-like dances from Jimmima, who also wore fairy wings from a child’s Halloween costume, as well as the use of the binoculars, where they only leveraged one lens as though it was a pirate telescope you would see in Peter Pan.

The fugue state that Jimmy had over his Fingers, where they lost all sense of individuality and where forced to wear blonde wigs and colorful tracksuits and had to follow Jimmy blindly was a good parallel to the infected packs that formed around Alphas. But the cracks in Jimmy’s facade that were seen by Jimmy Ink, and when we see her still holding on to her previous name when carving “K” into the tree, made her revenge on Jimmy and being his demise quite poetic. It seemed that she was the longest follower of Jimmy, with her opinion well respected and convincing Jimmy to not kill Spike when Spike did not return with the pregnant woman, but Kelly’s demeanor did not change when she had an infected barreling towards her. Whether or not she fully believed in Saint Nick and the devil is up in the air, but her compassion for Spike throughout the movie showed she still had some humanity left.

Spike and Kelly stumbling across Jim’s cottage, and the fact he and Selena had a child who they named Sam (not sure if the name is a reference to another character within the franchise or not) was such a great continuation of the 28 Days Later story. While it is unfortunate that Jim and Selena were not able to escape from the cottage after signaling to the plane that flew over, the bright and peaceful country side seems to be as good of a spot in the zombie apocalypse as you can find. Providing another view from someone who was alive and old enough to remember what is was like before the infection, it will be very interesting to see how Sam interacts with both Kelly and Spike, who all three have a different perspective of what it is like to grow up in a world ravaged by the Rage virus. We did not see Selena in the cottage, but there were no grave sites or any major tells that she was dead, so that begs the question: where was she?

There was not a single moment wasted throughout the film. The short scenes, like when the Alpha wipes his hand after eating the berry, said so much with so little. And the longer scenes, such as Kelson dancing to Iron Maiden while The Jimmies stare in awe, was an explosive outlet for creative expression that was incredibly entertaining. Every character was complex and meaningful, not to mention incredibly well acted. Just like at the end of 28 Years Later, the end of The Bone Temple has me begging for the next movie to be released. I could watch a hundred hours of the world that has been created within this franchise, and I am excited to see how it continues.

Sure, it was disappointing that we did not see anything from the island and the baby birthed by an infected woman from 28 Years Later or Jamie (Spike’s father) searching for Spike. But it was a smart choice to only focus on Spike and Kelson. Otherwise there would have been to much jumping around and to many loose ends to tie up before the ending of the film. The Bone Temple was dissecting the world after almost three decades of the virus running rampant, and how the living had to push forward through the adversity. And Spike, someone who had been born into this world of chaos, being one perspective while the other being Kelson, who had vague memories of before the blight, was the perfect pair.

Let me know what your thoughts about the movie were in the comments below!