Geek On Film

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

• Robbie Holmes • Episode 105

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Hey folks, uh, this is my Warner about 28 years later, the Bone Temple. Some of you may already have an idea of where I am and what I feel about this because you follow me on Letterboxd or you're following me on TikTok or YouTube, where I put up an instant reaction right after seeing the movie. Um, but I'm super excited because I was able to see it early. I saw it on Monday, um, and I was lucky enough to get into an early screening. I'm really hopeful for more of those. So if you have connections and you'd like more instant reactions and more wonders earlier from me, please make a connection with me. Robbie on Robbie the Geek everywhere online and Geek on Film everywhere across the internet. Um little PSA for you, go follow me on those services. Also, if you're here, please rate, review, comment across the board. It really does help. Thank you so much. Sorry, PSA over. I will now jump into my rating and review and my discussion of 28 Eilaris Leader, the Bone Temple. Our friends over at IMDB have this as Spike is inducted into Jimmy Crystal's gang on the mainland, Dr. Kelson makes a discovery that could alter the world. It is written by Alex Scarland and Nia DeCosta, and uh it is pretty good. I I uh I'm going to jump into my Letterboxd review. What I'm sad about is I didn't get a chance to see it again. I had a very busy week. I was going to try to see it again before I did this review, which is why I held it. But uh over on Letterboxd, I have it as three and a half stars with a heart. A totally different tone than 28 years later. A bit of a Fisher Price first torture porn film. There are a lot, a lot of things to like about this film, especially any scene involving Ray Finds. He is the MVP of this film. Um, so Ray Findes is again playing Dr. Ian Kelson. He is trying desperately to make the deaths of everyone uh matter, whether they are infected or they are uninfected. He treats them all the same. And I think there's something really truly special about the sentiment that this character starts from, and then it leads all the way across this movie. So it mentions that we are going to spend some time with Sir Jimmy Cavill, played by Jack O'Connell. If you watch 28 years later, that last like coda at the end of the movie really freaked a lot of people out because Spike was on his way uh to find his way on the real world on uh outside of the little bubble that was the island of his of his community, uh, after being disillusioned by what he had seen and uh becoming his own man, and he runs directly into the Jimmies, as Jimmy Crystal calls his squad, Jimmy Crystal and the Seven Fingers, we find out later. And uh Spike is we open up on Spike having to fight one of the Jimmies for being one of the fingers. So there's only allowed to be seven, according to Jimmy Crystal. Uh, this movie is violent, it it opens really violent. The fight between them is Spike getting really picked on and berated and beaten down until he very cleverly pants the person and then stabs them in the leg. And that person pulls the knife out and he hit the artery in the leg, and that person slowly bleeds out. And Jimmy Crystal is constantly mocking him through the process. And we see all the other fingers um reckoning with the fact that one of the fingers has died, one of them is very close to that finger, and the others are watching Spike become the next Jimmy. It's uh really setting you up for what the movie is going to feel like. Um, but there's this ominous sense that anyone in this movie could die. And I think that is a huge part of why I was unsettled going through this movie. That and the first group of people that the Jimmies encounter as they are going across this planet, like there are Jimmies here that are absolutely indestructible. Jimmy Inc., played by Aaron Kellyman, walks across this planet like nothing matters. Like it treats the infected as though they are just merely passerbys that have no ability to affect or infect them. The the violence that the Jimmies portray upon the infected is unreal. But it's even worse when it is the uninfected because we see the impact, we hear the impact. They end up torturing a group of people and offering for one of the Jimmies to get a chance to survive uh and become a new Jimmy, which happens over and over again. And he chooses Jimmy Ma, who is the smallest female of the Jimmy fingers. And wow, that goes totally wrong. Oh wolf. Uh what a crazy scene. Uh, really, really powerful. And then we uh we end up cutting over to our friend Dr. Kelson spending time with the alpha that we met in the first movie, Samson, who's played by Chi Lewis Parry. And uh he realizes that Samson keeps coming back to him um mostly because he just wants to get high. And while he's high, he seems to be getting back or re regressing in his state of infection back to humanity. And there's so many amazing scenes here, but like in the end, you see almost like a buddy cop movie unfurling between Dr. Kelson and Samson. Eventually, the Jimmies find Dr. Kelson. Jimmy Crystal has to go and communicate with Dr. Felson Kelson because he has told the Jimmies that he is the son of Satan, uh old Nick, and that uh when they saw Dr. Kelson and Samson together, and Samson dancing with him, they thought that it was uh old Nick incarnate on planet Earth in and basically playing with his playthings. Um, it's a really powerful scene because you see for the first time Jimmy Crystal having some doubts and some vulnerability. And in the end, he says to him, like, you and I have to come to an impasse because you either have to be Dr. Nick and make me make them believers, put me over in the wrestling parlance, or I am going to kill you by stuffing your intestines down your throat until you can't breathe. And from what we've seen in this movie, that is the next step of this if Dr. Kelson says no. But don't worry, Dr. Kelson does not at all let up. He puts on the performance of his lifetime. It is one of the most amazing scenes I've ever seen. Music is so important in this movie, and that scene alone is probably bordering on or will be the best music scene of 2026. It is phenomenal. It is the thing I will think about every time I think about this movie. Uh, Ray Fines is so good in this movie, and he is the kind of actor that could just be in costume dramas and not and not taking on these kind of films today. And he takes on these challenging roles and he's willing to make himself so much a part of what makes this movie tick and what brings its humanity to the surface. Again, this is a movie about the infected and zombies, and it's much more about morality, empathy, sympathy, and how we treat one another. It's it's a really astounding movie. Um, I really think on my second viewing, I'll be up to four stars. That's what happened last time with 28 years later, when I felt the same way, which is like, God, this isn't the movie I expected it to be. Um, but I expect this will quickly become a four-star movie. And right now, it it is the first movie I've seen this year, so it is currently at the top of my 2026 list. Um, let's see how long it stays there. If you haven't seen this movie, you should, but be warned, this movie is extremely violent. It is very hard to sit through some of those torture scenes, and uh it pays off. There's some absolutely visually stunning changes in this movie to the way this story is being told. You can feel that Nea Costa's camera. I heard another reviewer talk about it, saying it's more like an observer in this movie. I I noted that the camera at the beginning, there's a lot of like sweeping camera movements where it feels like we're just observing what's happening. And I really love that uh another critic mentioned the idea that this is going from 28 years later where we are a part of the story. We're we're right up in it, whether we are in the eyes of the person or we're right over their shoulder. This movie gives us a lot more time to linger longer distances and seeing things from different angles and pulling a little further back so we can study it. And that is probably even worse because of the things that are happening in this movie. Um, I really liked it. I came away from it um a little shook, but I think in the end, the more I think about it and the more time I spend thinking about it, the more I liked it. And again, it's one of the reasons why I love listening to reviews and I love listening to people talk about it because it really does help me clarify the things that I had issues with. So I hope that what I'm doing is doing a little bit of that for you. Um, thank you so much for sticking around. Thank you for watching this, and I really hope to hear from you, whether it's on TikTok or YouTube or Spotify or Pocketcasts or Apple Podcasts, but I'm I'm sort of everywhere. And if I'm not where you want me to be, please tell me. Um, I look forward to hearing from you. There's been so much uh interaction with the uh instant reaction that I put up about this movie on Monday or Tuesday morning. Um, I felt so good to get that kind of instant re feedback, and I look forward to more of it. Um, I really hope this movie uh is something you get to see in a theater because I do think getting locked in and having to sit with it is really a big part of what makes this movie work. If you had the ability to just look away or to turn it off or to take a breath, I think you would lose sort of the momentum and the and you know, the the pacing of this movie is is uh at times is like overwhelming, and then other times it's languid. And I think that's on purpose. It's it the the ebb and flow gives you something as an audience member to finally breathe on, but you would be surprised how how out of breath you will be from sitting in one seat. Um, thank you so much. Uh go see some movies. Uh, I am rocking and rolling right now, trying to get ready for the film independent, um, for the independent spirit awards. I've been watching movies like crazy. I really hope that uh you get a chance to see some of these movies, but also check out some of my instant reactions. They're not always these movies. Um, I just put one up for She's a She's the He, and it really blew me away. It was such a beautiful, intimate, small film that is sort of like high school hijinks from my childhood, except it it is empathetic, it has a little bit of a morality to it, it doesn't feel like it's putting it in your face. It is both funny and moving and poignant and gross, and it's really unreal. It's the story of like a couple of friends who get up to hijinks and they say that they are both transitioning to be women, become women, and one of them actually is. And it's beautiful, and I really loved it, even though it's gross. So there you go. A little added bonus review from me. She's the he. Check it out. Talk to you soon. Bye.

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Robbie Holmes

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