THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Let’s get it out the way: I loved 28 Years Later. It was number 4 on my Top 10 Films of 2025 (although admittedly having since seen a few extras – Marty Supreme, Hamnet, Sentimental Value, No Other Choice – it would be bumped down the list a bit). Overall the reaction to Danny Boyle’s long-awaited sequel was extremely mixed, with some (me) thinking it was a kinetic, exciting and existential horror, and others thinking it was a hot pile of messy, undead doo-doo. But whatever your opinion, you have to admit that Boyle made a unique film, shooting on huge iPhone rigs to create insane effects like arrow-bullet time, and all with a cheeky sense of humour. But it was also anchored by an emotional core: Spike (Alfie Williams’) journey with his sick mother Isla (Jodie Comer) to find Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), only to discover she had cancer and could not be treated in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, was a touching reminder that we cannot always save the ones we love. And yes, I cried. And then the ending – as a group of Power Ranger-esque Jimmy Savile lookalikes, led by Jack O’Connell, burst out and took Spike prisoner – was incredibly tonally divisive.
I can’t pretend I didn’t have some concerns for this sequel. After how much Danny Boyle’s DNA ran through the first film, handing over the reins to Nia DaCosta (2021’s Candyman, The Marvels) seemed like an odd choice. Could she match the unique direction of the first film, bringing her own flair but still remaining in the same universe? But I needn’t have worried; whilst DaCosta’s sequel is a little more conventional in its techniques, it loses none of the emotion or intelligence of its predecessor, expanding on Boyle’s elegy to the death of England and exploring the monsters that emerge from the horror of the apocalypse.
After Isla’s death, several key players return from the first film. Alfie Williams continues to excel as Spike, although he has considerably less to do here, which is a little unfortunate. Meanwhile, we spend a great deal more time with Fiennes’ Dr. Kelson, who is absolutely the MVP of this film. His bond with big-dicked Alpha zombie Samson (named for his size, strength and, presumably, girth) is both touching and intriguing. Kelson has devised a drug cocktail that keeps Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) docile, but he starts to wonder if the rage is something that could not just be subdued, but cured. After all, this is not a supernatural film: 28 Days Later established firmly that this is a virus, and viruses can be treated. Samson may be tearing off people’s heads and viscerally eating the brains, but that doesn’t mean he’s beyond saving. After all, it’s hardly his fault; he’s a big softie at heart.
This is basically the only SFW picture I can show of Samson.
Meanwhile, Spike seems to be in a much worse predicament. Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (O’Connell) and his seven Fingers take Spike to their leisure centre hideout and force him to fight for his life. After stabbing another Jimmy in his artery, Spike is adopted into the group, given a ratty wig (although I’ve seen worse in Netflix shows) and renamed… you guessed it, Jimmy! Of course in this world British culture stopped in 2002, so the real Jimmy Savile was never exposed as a monster, and it makes it a delicious irony that Jimmy Crystal has adopted his look without being aware that he is representing true evil. Jimmy and his Fingers travel around, doling out “charity” on the people they meet (read: skinning them alive horrifically, whilst occasionally doing the Dipsy dance from Teletubbies). But after a raid gone wrong and several Fingers being chopped off, Jimmy and his gang come across Dr. Kelson. In their paranoia, they believe him to be “Old Nick”, their name for the dark lord they worship – yup, that’s Satan himself. Jimmy C insists on going ahead to meet him first; after all, he believes Old Nick is his father.
Ralph Fiennes is really putting out some of the finest acting of his career here. He brings a Shakespearean gravitas to this gory, thrilling film, matched by O’Connell’s wild, but strangely sympathetic, energy. When they meet there is certainly a paternal bond with Jimmy, who had only ever known an abusive religious upbringing from his crazy pastor daddy. Together they hatch a plan to convince the Fingers that Kelson is Old Nick, in exchange for Jimmy keeping his “charity” far away from him. Meanwhile, Spike bonds with Jimmy Ink (the underrated Erin Kellyman), who is starting to become disillusioned with Jimmy Crystal’s antics. When Spike tries to escape, she protects him from the other Jimmys; but when Spike attests that anywhere is better than here, she warns him: “I’ve been anywhere. It’s not.”
My face when I see what the zombies are packing…
In a shocking turn, Samson speaks a single word to Kelson – “Moon” – the first instance of zombies showing awareness and intelligence. As a final experiment, Kelson injects Samson with a new drug cocktail and sends him away, cock swinging in the breeze. Samson returns to the abandoned train from the first film, where he starts to have memories of British rail travel. Fitting – I feel like every time I head home I’m fighting for my life against delays, disruptions and dread. When he comes around, the zombies start attacking him as if he is uninfected. WHAT THE FUCKKKKK?????
Back at the Bone Temple, Jimmy C brings his fingers to meet “Old Nick”, and boy does Kelson deliver. He decides to put on the show to end all shows, because what would the Devil himself do but perform Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast, clad in leather with black and white makeup? He drugs the Fingers, but when he realises Spike is amongst them, his gentle – and ultimately foolish – nature gets the better of him, and he attempts to suggest that Jimmy must be crucified to prove himself to his Fingers. Betrayed, Jimmy C stabs Kelson, before he is strung up by Spike and Jimmy Ink. After killing the other Fingers they leave Jimmy C nailed to the inverted cross, running off into unknown territory – I guess somewhere was better. Samson returns to the Bone Temple and Kelson, dying, sees that his work was successful. I suspected Fiennes would not make it through this film, but it’s hard to watch him go after he brought some of his best work, and the best character, to the franchise. There’s only one man that could possibly fill the Kelson-shaped hole in the prospective third film… and luckily, Cillian Murphy’s non-surprise cameo at the end is exactly what I had in mind…
I’m sorry to every other man, but you aren’t leather daddy Ralph Fiennes pretending to be the Devil. Try harder next time.
Questions are buzzing around the trilogy’s finale. Though The Bone Temple is (sadly) underperforming at the box office, the threequel (fivequel?) was already greenlit, and I need them to get on it NOW PLEASE. I’m expecting we will definitely see the return of Spike’s dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), but maybe also the conspicuously missing Naomie Harris as Selena (praying they don’t just pull an “oh she died” moment). With Kelson dead, who will carry on his legacy now we have proved the rage virus can be reversed? Will Spike ever get a happy ending? (Danny Boyle you’d better deliver on this!) And, most importantly, will this be enough to prove Nia DaCosta should be kept out of director jail?
It’s funny that this film probably contains more shots of giant zombie penis than actual zombies (even Ralph Fiennes gets his thang out at one point!) But DaCosta has achieved the difficult task of following up such a singular film in the genre, with a distinctive directorial style, without losing the flair of its predecessor or her own voice. I’m excited to see what zany antics Boyle comes up with for the next film, but if he had fully handed over to DaCosta I wouldn’t have complained. It’s also funny that an American managed to navigate a film that has such a distinctly British sense of humour. Speaking of, I’m not sure what’s scarier: a violent Satanist nutjob aping Jimmy Savile, or the Americans going to the cinema in costume whilst not realising they’re dressed as the most notorious paedophile in British history. I’m always looking for my next Halloween costume – the past two years I have done Longlegs and Aunt Gladys – but I think Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal will definitely be staying in the vault. Plus, that tracksuit was custom. I don’t have that kind of money.
Director: Nia DaCosta
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman
Runtime: 109m
Country: United Kingdom
Certificate: 18
Images: Columbia Pictures, Decibel Films, DNA Films, Sony Pictures Releasing