When last we left young Spike (Alfie Williams) in 28 Years Later (2025), he had been chased by a group of infected people (think zombies, but with way more energy), only to be saved by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and his band of satan worshippers.  Who all these people are will become clear in the synopsis to come.  I am discussing these things now in order to contextualize where 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple begins.  This newest film in the franchise gives no kind of flashback to orient oneself, so I consider this a service.  Hopefully, it will be more of a service by giving you a Catholic perspective on why you should not watch this movie.  There are plenty of moments for me to focus on from this perspective, but the sum of its parts makes it unrecommendable.  It leaves one with a sense of hopelessness, which is, admittedly, a function of seeing two horror movies in the theater in consecutive weeks.  Because of this, I shall endeavor to be as fair as possible, but know that it is a difficult watch no matter how you are feeling.

At the start of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Spike is in a predicament.  He has been captured by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, and the boy is being forced to fight to the death one of the Jimmies.  This is in reference to what each of Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal’s followers have named themselves, each one calling him or herself Jimmy.  By a fluke, Spike manages to stab his opponent in the leg, hitting an artery, and watching the man die.  As such, he takes his place as one of the Jimmies, though it is not an exciting prospect.  Meanwhile, the person who keeps the title location, Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), is still at work with what he had been doing in the previous film.  Mainly, this is building more structures out of the bones of various deceased people he encounters in the vicinity of his rural, northern England home.  In addition to his usual activities, he often encounters Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry).  Samson is an infected, but one that is referred to as an “Alpha.”  This simply means that he is bigger and stronger, and the others appear to defer to him.  With Dr. Kelson’s medical background, he has been able to obtain morphine, which he carries with him in a blow dart gun.  Every time Samson gets close, Dr. Kelson doses the Alpha with the opioid.  Under the influence of the painkiller, Samson becomes docile and Dr. Kelson attempts to communicate with the infected brute.  During the course of these experiments, the Jimmies come upon a settlement of a few uninfected humans and decide to take it over.  Two of this settlement’s number, Cathy (Mirren Mack) and Tom (Louis Ashbourne Serkis), return to find the Jimmies at their table and holding the others hostage.  Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal eventually tells it bluntly: he is going to kill them all.  There is an escape attempt, which allows Cathy to make a run for it.  However, the others are brought into their barn where unspeakable things are done to them.  The one who cannot take the torture is Spike, who runs outside to puke.  He is soon joined by Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), who had been sent to scout the surrounding area.  As she looked around, she had spotted Dr. Kelson cavorting with Samson.  Before reporting this finding to Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, she spends some time with Spike.  He admits that this is all too much for him, and she suggests that their so-called leader might not be all he says he is, like the son of satan.  By the way, they refer to the devil as Old Nick, though I have never heard of this reference.  At any rate, in the middle of the torture going on inside, Tom is offered the same opportunity as had been extended to Spike.  Tom is forced to take on one of the women, but she turns out to be a more deadly opponent than expected.  Indeed, she is about to finish off Tom when she is mortally wounded by Cathy, who had been hiding in the loft.  As the Jimmies turn their attention to Cathy, a dying Tom manages to turn a kerosine canister into a flame thrower and take down a few more of Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal’s cronies.  Their leader orders Spike to go after Cathy, but he asks to go with her.  Instead, she pushes him down and flees.  Upon returning to Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, he is enraged that Spike did not complete the task of capturing Cathy.  In contemplating a punishment, Jimmy Ink suggests they take the boy to Old Nick for judgement.  Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal knows that he is not really the son of satan, so he orders the others to stay behind in order to speak with Dr. Kelson alone.  In the course of their conversation, Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal makes it clear that he is scamming his followers.  Further, Dr. Kelson needs to help maintain the charade or else he will be killed.  With that, he sets up an elaborate production to make the Jimmies believe he is satan.  Everything is working according to plan until Dr. Kelson recognizes Spike behind the boy’s mask.  They had met in the previous film and departed on good terms.  Sensing the boy is in danger, Dr. Kelson tries to get Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal to sacrifice himself, causing the fraudulent satan worshipper to stab Dr. Kelson in the stomach.  Jimmy Ink takes this moment to rise up against the others, and she and Spike set off together after bidding Dr. Kelson a fond farewell.  Dr. Kelson is then carried away by Samson, dying in the Alpha’s arms.  The final sequence is of Jim (Cillian Murphy) and his daughter deciding to help Spike and Jimmy Ink, who reveals her real name is Kelly.

The fact that 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has an open-ended conclusion means that there will be another one of these movies.  Hence, whenever that day comes, I am sure I will be in the theater and then writing about it.  I wish I could be more enthusiastic about that prospect, especially since I actually enjoyed the original film in the series.  What it has, unlike the others, is a sense of optimism.  As a Catholic, my ultimate source for hope is God.  Without Him, I would be a much more pessimistic person, a feeling that would no doubt be amplified by the difficult times in which we live.  With this in mind, I can take almost any kind of film as long as it can leave me with some semblance of good as the final credits roll.  Today’s film, like many others of its ilk, are virtually nothing but sadness.  As I said a moment ago, the world is sad enough without putting such material in front of our eyes.  Going back to the point about it being open-ended, though, in addition to being depressing, is there really a story here?  A typical plot structure, no matter its position in a series, should go in roughly this order: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion.  I challenge you to find any of these in this one.  Perhaps I can see a climax and maybe some rising action, but the others?  These elements are also often helped along by a protagonist.  Which of the characters I discussed would fit that lead role?  What we are left with is a gross film with satan worshippers, none of which is palatable for this Catholic.

This Catholic film critic wants to label Dr. Kelson as the main character of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple even if it does not completely fit.  He is almost sympathetic.  To that end, he approaches everyone with a gentleness I think could be emulated by more Christians.  Instead of treating Samson as a monster, for example, he tries to help the Alpha.  Granted, Dr. Kelson does so as a scientist rather than a man of God, but there are some parallels between how they are taught to treat people and what the Bible says about our fellow man.  An example of this is the Hippocratic oath, which adjures men of medicine to do no harm.  It can be argued that a Scriptural basis for this can be found in Jesus’ command to turn the other cheek.  Unfortunately, there is not a lot of that going on in these movies.  Nonetheless, Dr. Kelson can be praised when he follows this rule, including when he is kind to Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal.  Where he loses me is when he agrees to play the role of satan.  Nothing is worth such an abomination, not even one’s own life.  The price for giving into evil is an even worse death.  Some might say that he is simply doing what he needs to do to survive.  In other words, he is complying, and that proves dangerous for him.  It can become a danger for our souls.  In 2 Maccabees 7, a family is called upon to defy Jewish custom and eat pork.  They are even told they can pretend to consume it, the point being that they needed to show their obedience.  Instead of committing what they saw as a grave sin for nicety’s sake, they gave their lives.  Dr. Kelson does not have the same fortitude.  Then again, he is an atheist, so it means something different for him.  Just know that God is watching, and He judges the heart.  Also know that some things are worth dying for.

And 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is not worth dying for, literally or figuratively.  The good moments in it, especially seeing the interactions between Dr. Kelson and Samson, do not add up to a recommendation.  It is just unfortunate there are no other options this weekend.