What do you get when you combine the infected, medicine, and Jimmy?
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a psychological horror film that doesn’t rely on jump scares or scary monsters to scare you, but instead on the mental state of people experiencing the apocalypse.
Psychological horror is scarier than jump scares and the interactions between Dr. Ian and Samson, the Jimmies, and the infected carry the tension.
Starting off 28 Years Later: BT, relies on psychological horror and not the stereotypical horror that the previous movies in the series did before it. It’s not focused on the infected aspect of the universe, but alternatively, it focuses on the human interactions of the main characters, specifically the interactions between Dr.Ian and Samson.
Writer Alex Garland has worked on every single 28 Days/Years Later movie (except 28 Weeks Later), but this time he brought a fresh perspective on the series.
*(SPOILER WARNING)*
Dr.Ian finds out that a host of drugs makes the infected less violent for a short amount of time, so he gives it to the biggest infected being he can find, Samson. The more drugs he gives Samson, the more relaxed Samson seems until eventually Samson speaks by saying “Moon,” and then it shows a flashback to Samson’s childhood, where he was a kid obsessed with the moon, until he was infected and forced to become this monster. These are huge plot points in the movie as it shows the human side of these “monsters,” which you don’t see very often in zombie movies.
It also shows a Frankenstein like relationship between Dr.Ian and Samson showing the genuine intrigue that Dr.Ian has for the mental state of the infected and what the infected might see while attacking the humans, and shows Samson’s child-like mind and how he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Besides Dr.Ian and Samson, there was another plot driving the story throughout the movie with The Jimmies. The Jimmies are a post-apocalyptic group filled with 8 people who all call themselves Jimmy. Now we never learn the names of 6 of the jimmies except 2, Kelly and Spike. Spike is the main character from the first movie who ran away from home. He then gets kidnapped by the jimmies and forced to kill to stay alive.
Kelly, on the other hand, is a new character that was introduced in 28 Years Later: BT and starts the movie as just another Jimmy, but as the movie goes on, it is clear to the audience that she disagrees with the jimmies ideals, making her stand out.
Lastly, there is one more Jimmy that stands out from the rest, and that is Sir Jimmy Crystal (the leader) but instead of talking about the character, I want to talk about the actor Jack O’Connell.
O’Connell started his career in television with Doctors, The Bill, and Waterloo Road, but didn’t break out until he transitioned to movies in 300: Rise of an Empire, Starred, and Unbroken. He’s best known, however, in recent memory, for giving one of the best performances of the year as Remmick in Sinners, and he brings the same type of villainous energy he has in Sinners to 28 Years Later: BT.
Throughout, the Jimmies and their obsession with the devil make them a very noteworthy addition to the movie and every scene in which they are a part.
Now you can’t have a 28 Years Later movie review without mentioning the infected, we touched on it briefly by talking about Dr.Ian and Samson, but I want to focus on the background infected that popped up throughout the movie.
First, the makeup for this movie is out of this world and would easily be my best makeup of the year award winner (if Frankenstein didn’t exist). Second, it’s clear that the infected take a back seat compared to the other movies in the franchise, and they are just there to kill the non-important characters and be killed.
Finally the infected seem to take a huge step down from the previous films being replaced by suspense and drama between the human characters (and Samson). While that seems like a bad thing, it isn’t since the acting and character building is so strong and powerful that it makes up for the lack of infected in the long run.
Overall, 28 Years Later: BT blew my expectations out of the water and frankly made me think about the horror genre as a whole differently. Definitely a must-watch as a horror fan if you’re looking for a refreshing take on the infected as a whole. Congratulations to the director Nia DaCosta, writer Alex Garland, stars Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman and so much more for creating this stellar movie and hopefully more to come.
★★★★1/2
4.5/5 stars
