28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is just days away from release, and reactions to the film have been overwhelmingly positive, landing the film a 95% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Though the film's audience score won't be calculated until after its release, critics are already heaping flowers on The Bone Temple.
Many reviewers have highlighted key performances by Ralph Fiennes and Jack O'Connell, who represent two sides of a struggle for survival in a world nearly 30 years into an unending infestation of zombies (more or less), while also praising director Nia DaCosta for effectively continuing the story and expanding the franchise.
"Visceral and adrenalized from the off, this is by some way the wildest and the weirdest entry into the recently revived sort-of-zombie saga," says Total Film's own Will Salmon. "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a muscular, visceral and, for the most part, deeply satisfying follow-up to Boyle's film."
Our reviewer isn't alone by a long shot, with many critics joining in with the sentiment that The Bone Temple constitutes a more than worthy follow-up to the previous films in the franchise, while also representing director Nia DaCosta's best work so far.
Kristy Puchko of Mashable says DaCosta "grows this saga with sensational daring and depth," going on to conclude that "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a phenomenal film As a sequel, it builds the saga of Spike without retreading its predecessor's steps. As a zombie movie, it delivers scenes of gut-churning violence and haunting loss. As a horror film, it is sublime, gorgeous, rich in visual splendor, surging with feeling, and intoxicating in its unexpected twists."
"For genre aficionados, it's bold, mind-bending work which satisfies that so-often-frustrated craving: for a zombie movie with brains," says Variety's Peter Debruge. "The decades-spanning arc has been a wildly unpredictable thrill ride-cum-social allegory thus far, and there's no denying the deeply unsettling overarching vision that seems to be emerging."
Clint Gage of IGN also praises the longevity of the 28 Years Later films, stating that The Bone Temple "is a gruesome and fabulously shot new chapter of the franchise," calling the film "gory and thoughtful in equal measure. There’s a wit and humor at play in The Bone Temple that elevates, in all the right ways, the dramatic stakes of a zombie apocalypse working on its third decade."
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple premieres in theaters on January 16. For more monstrous and spooky stories, check out our picks for the best horror movies of all time.
