The first blockbuster movie of 2026 described as ‘beautiful, intense and horrifying’

The much-anticipated film will finally be available to watch next week.

The Bone Temple is the fourth movie in the 28 Days Later franchise and is the direct sequel to last year's absolutely brilliant post-apocalyptic thriller 28 Years Later.

Like its predecessor, the film is set in the UK nearly three decades after a virus was unleashed upon the country, turning the humans it infects into angry, bloodthirsty, zombie-like monsters incapable of reasoning.

Amidst all the chaos and carnage, some survivors try to retain their basic human decency, such as former GP Dr Ian Kelson (Fiennes).

Others, meanwhile, turn to anarchy and violence, including Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell, Sinners), the leader of a sinister cult of youngsters called the Jimmys.

As Dr Kelson stumbles upon a shocking discovery that could change the world, a terrified Spike (Alfie Williams) - the teen protagonist of the previous movie - tries to escape from under Sir Jimmy's control.

The three soon find themselves on a dangerous collision course.

JOE has already seen 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and while we can't review it just yet, we will say that fans of the franchise are sure to love this meaner-and-leaner sequel.

In fact, when JOE spoke to the movie's cast, they used the words "beautiful", "fun", "intense" and "horrifying" to describe the film, adjectives which we wholeheartedly agree with.

One of the great aspects of 28 Years Later was its surplus of fascinating characters that Spike encountered on his odyssey, including Dr Kelson, the Jimmys, as well as the newly evolved, head-ripping 'alpha' zombie Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry).

The Bone Temple allows audiences to spend more time with these characters and learn more about them as their narrative journeys continue and collide in unexpected ways.

For instance, we discover early on in the sequel that Dr Kelson has a real passion for music, often using the electricity generator in his hut to play his favourite band, Duran Duran, on vinyl.

Speaking about the importance of this for the character, Fiennes tells JOE: "He's a lonely man. He's alone with his memories. 

"I don't think it's a spoiler to say Duran Duran features heavily in his record collection. The film establishes that he needs his music. It's a way of breaking out of his sense of isolation.

"And suddenly he has someone to dance for," he adds, referring to Dr Kelson's relationship with Samson, the vicious alpha zombie he monitors and cares for, hoping to learn more about the Rage virus.

"I think most people can understand that if you are alone a lot of the time, access to music, it would be really important," Fiennes adds.

"Despite the lack of electricity, he has his own little generating machinery. He can play his old LPs. 

"So, I think it's hugely important [to him]. Music gives your soul inner life, inner elasticity, a buoyancy.

"His soul is kept alive and alert through music, through Duran Duran and Iron Maiden."

This plot also allows Fiennes to show off his dance moves on screen once again, after 2015 cult favourite A Bigger Splash.

Speaking about directing these sequences, Da Costa refers to the actor as "Twinkle Toes Fiennes", before adding: "I'm kidding. I've never called him that to his face and never will."

She also says: "It was so fun because Ralph is obviously this amazing, serious legend of stage and screen, but he's also so playful.

"He's all about discovery and experimenting and having fun.

"It would just be fun to let the camera roll after the scene itself was done, and just see what he did.

"So many of those things he did after the scene was finished are in the movie."

JOE would argue that these scenes provide a lovely, much-needed levity in contrast to the extremely dark other main plot strand in The Bone Temple.

This follows Sir Jimmy Crystal and his band of young disciples as they pillage and murder across the UK.

One of the new main characters in the sequel is Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman, Falcon and the Winter Soldier), a female member of the Jimmys, who starts to doubt some of her leader's more extreme claims.

Speaking about where the follow-up finds the cult after their much-discussed appearance in the final moments of 28 Years Later, Kellyman tells JOE:

"I think the first scene of the film is so intense, and it's a real door to what their life is like every single day, and it's horrifying. 

"Where you meet Jimmy [Ink], she's still very much involved [with the cult and their actions], but she's having her own separate dialogue in her head, and she's maybe going against the grain a little bit.

"But she's definitely not in a position where she would ever vocalise that to anybody."

Another much-discussed part of 28 Years Later was the aforementioned ferocious Samson, memorably played by Chi Lewis-Parry.

Lewis-Parry is back in the sequel, as it turns out that Samson may have a bigger role to play in the franchise than initially expected.

On the character's continuing evolution, the MMA fighter turned actor says:

"This is a horror franchise that you dream of being involved in.

"To have been given that opportunity and to [get to] really develop a character, a deeper character than just the surface level carnage that Samson can appear to be, that was really exciting, and I suppose in a little way unexpected.

"I wasn't expecting to find such a depth within him because he's almost nonverbal. 

"To explore the physicality - which I know can be overwhelming and can take away from a character because he's a head ripper, so to speak - that for me was a beautiful story to tell, to find something within this man, because he is a man, although infected... and to find a friend, someone that he trusts [in Dr Kelson].

"I can imagine that no infected even understands what trust is, but Samson does and he trusts Kelson because Kelson treats him with care.

"So, it was important for me to get along with Ralph. I remember thinking that at the beginning. But that was easily done because I absolutely adore him. 

"We became gym buds. We're gym buds, we're bud buds, we're theatre buds, we're all kinds of buds."

Cillian Murphy

When it comes to The Bone Temple, the elephant in the room is the involvement of Cillian Murphy, who played Jim, the lead character of the first 28 Days Later, all the way back in 2002.

On this point, we'll just reiterate what 28 Years Later director Danny Boyle told JOE last year:

"[Cillian's] part of the planning of the whole trilogy of films that we're making. We've shot the first one, which is released now: 28 Years Later.

"We've shot the second one, which is released in January and will feature Cillian in one section of it. And then the third film is then his film.

"So, it's a kind of rainbow, a horror rainbow, and the pot of gold at the end of it is Cillian Murphy."

While we won't go into specifics regarding Murphy's presence in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, we'll note that when we brought up the topic of the Irishman to Fiennes, he said:

"We had been warned off talking about his appearance. The studio, like the gods on Olympus, has ordained that we shouldn't mention his presence too much.

"But it's not a secret that he is going to be part of the trilogy. 

"That's all I can say, I think."

Growing up a "huge fan" of 28 Days Later, Da Costa says working on the franchise has been "honestly a dream come true".

And she has nothing but kind words to say about Murphy, telling us: "I'm obsessed with Cillian. I think he's an amazing actor.

"Also, of course, as a 12-year-old girl watching the first film, I was like: 'Cillian Murphy'," which the director says while doing a fangirling impression.

"So, it was really great to meet him as an adult, a mature adult, and to work with him as a fan. He's wonderful."

Also, knowing the truth about the nature of Murphy's involvement made it very funny for Da Costa when the internet falsely deduced that the Irish actor would appear in the first 28 Years Later as a zombie.

At the time, some fans thought that one of the infected in the first trailer for the 2025 reboot bore a striking resemblance to the Oppenheimer star.

Speaking about this, Da Costa says: "I just thought: 'Guys, if you do one Google for two seconds, you'll find that that's not [him]. Also, that doesn't look like [him].'

"It was just so crazy. I was like: 'What is happening? But it was kind of fun, though. The internet really... rode with it."

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple lands in cinemas on Wednesday, 14 January 2026.