Nia DaCosta
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A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
influenced 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Visuals Characters
…including a Clockwork Orange-inspired home invasion that is both sickening and terrifying…
…a roving gang of ruffians who Clockwork Orange their way around the countryside wearing platinum blonde wigs and matching jumpsuits…
…with the latter bringing some dark Clockwork Orange vibes…
…make the Droogs of “A Clockwork Oranges” look like do-gooders.
…think A Clockwork Orange’s droogs…
Similar to Alex’s Droogs in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, Jimmy and his Fingers, who have names like Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), Jimmy Snake (Ghazi Al Ruffai), and Jimmima (Emma Laird), revel in the anarchy and violence they inflict on those, living and undead, they come across.
28 Days Later (2002)
Directed by Danny Boyle
influenced 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Themes Visuals Music
…we will have to wait and see how this one ties in and connects the dots from 28 Days Later to the end.
Boyle’s return to the franchise replaced the lo-fi gritty handheld of 28 Days Later with glossy cinematography, extended worldbuilding and sometimes sarcastic directorial flourishes.
It’s through the characters and their morally grey journeys and conflicts that bring The Bone Temple closest to the original film 28 Days Later…
…there are moments that clearly call back to shots from the original 28 Days Later…
…even the use of the original 28 Days Later theme on the credits carries a bit more than its worthy weight from recognition.
Fans of 28 Days Later and the larger franchise should find enough here to make the Blu-ray worth considering.
Later, the director pays homage to the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup , molding Groucho’s famous mirror scene into something much more sinister, and then quickly pivots to an external point-of-view focus that reflects on Hitchcock’s Rear Window .
Another kill unfolds brilliantly behind a condo’s large windows as the camera pulls farther and farther away — like a nod to Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), the screen fills with windows, buildings, and lives in progress, but only one features a crimson spray.
…continuing the previous resistible motifs of zombie knobs, Teletubbies and interminable waffle…
Plus a surprising number of Tellytubby references.
…to the tune of a thrashy rendition of the Teletubbies theme song…
Conveying both a dangerously short fuse, while desperately wanting to keep up an image of sophistication, O’Connell can turn a simple story about the Teletubbies into a sinister moment.
Crystal and his goons have a fondness for violent initiation rituals, skinning survivors, and the Teletubbies.
…whom we saw in the previous film’s early scenes as a young child surrounded by Teletubbies and religion at the time of the apocalypse…
…asking whether the real monsters are the infected or the living, a theme familiar to fans of AMC’s The Walking Dead.
While 28 Days Later predated and essentially predicted the glut of apocalyptic TV shows and movies we’ve had in this century about what humans look like when society breaks down—think The Last of Us, Bird Box, and most especially The Walking Dead empire…
…projects like The Walking Dead, Zombieland, and World War Z all followed in its wake in various ways…
If I were to compare this franchise to The Walking Dead, then Jimmy Crystal would be Negan.
Thor: Love and Thunder, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, Deadpool & Wolverine…
…and similarly CGAF about The Marvels…
…its downs, like Nia DaCosta’s muddled The Marvels…
The last time Marvel introduced an ensemble to theaters, in 2023’s uninspiringly titled "The Marvels," the studio suffered its first box office bomb.
With a string of underwhelming box office results — including Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, and the recently disappointing Captain America: Brave New World…
Film entries such as The Marvels and Captain America: Brave New World have felt more like recap sessions than compelling stories…
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
influenced 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Themes Characters
Who couldn't love a character study with shades of Apocalypse Now…
…a combo of mad Col. Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now”…
Satanism was an unexpected direction for the Jimmies–after the Power Rangers-esque fight scene at the end of the last film–with far more disturbing scenes.
One plot follows Spike facing off against the “Fingers” gang, whom he views through the lens of the Tokusatsu programmes (like Power Rangers or Kamen Rider) he likely grew up watching.
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Directed by Irvin Kershner
influenced 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Plot
The second film in a trilogy has a tough remit with relatively high stakes. It should feel like a natural continuation of the first film, while advancing both the plot and the world-building in meaningful and interesting ways. Sure, sounds easy, but few films can objectively claim this, such as “The Empire Strikes Back,” “The Two Towers,” “Aliens,” and of course, “CarousHELL 2.”
Of course you could say the same thing about The Empire Strikes Back or Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo…
28 Years Later (2025)
Directed by Danny Boyle
influenced 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Themes Plot
Expanding upon the world created by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland in 28 Years Later but turning that world on its head – Nia DaCosta directs 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
The climactic emergence of a roving cult dedicated to an unlikely icon is, I’m sure, divisive, but I will spare my own commentary on it for when I see more of them in next year’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
It is perhaps a more conventional sequel than 28 Years Later.
Director Nia DaCosta follows Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later with The Bone Temple, a leaner, smarter, nastier sequel, the best of the franchise since the original.
…the acclaimed 28 Years Later, which blended kinetic handheld action with an at-times surprisingly lovely depiction of grief and loss in a world beyond saving.
…it was an extended setup for the sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
The Dog Stars (2026)
Directed by Ridley Scott
influenced by 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Themes Visuals
In a year where the excellent 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple expands on the already rich universe set forth by Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002) nearly a quarter century ago, this vision barely registers.
Still, there are smaller joys in Scott’s direction, which is unfussy and straightforward, and reminiscent of Nia DaCosta’s work in the similarly structured “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.”
Movies like The Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps all disappointed expectations to outright bombed at the box office.
…or The Marvels…
The group efforts that audiences didn’t connect with, like “Eternals” and the criminally undervalued “The Marvels.”
…some team-ups (Thunderbolts, The Marvels)…
While 28 Days Later predated and essentially predicted the glut of apocalyptic TV shows and movies we’ve had in this century about what humans look like when society breaks down—think The Last of Us, Bird Box, and most especially The Walking Dead empire…
Taking a page out of The Last of Us’s playbook (which took multiple pages out of 28 Days Later’s playbook), The Bone Temple is primarily interesting because it’s a zombie apocalypse movie with human antagonists.
…or the third act of The Marvels…
Even if the film suffers a significant second weekend drop like The Marvels (79% after a $46.1 million opening)…
…the criminally underrated The Marvels…
…danger music score of Laura Karpman (The Marvels)…
We Bury the Dead (2026)
Directed by Zak Hilditch
influenced 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Themes
Looking at you, “We Bury the Dead” (2025).
At least “We Bury the Dead,” which focused on grief more than gore, kept our attention.
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
influenced 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
It’s 28 years after the 28 weeks after the 28 days later…
That world was further explored in 2007’s “28 Weeks Later” and then again in 2025.
…firmly expanding the universe of 28 Days/Weeks/Years Later…
The miracle of 28 Years Later is how it takes the aspects of the original two films and adapted them to the modern-day horror audience.
Bonus points to Sony for releasing the film 28 weeks after the last one — a subtle but well-played nod to the second film in the series, 28 Weeks Later.
Four years later, the sequel, 28 Weeks Later, became a box office hit.
Ordet (1955)
Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
influenced 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Themes
…this entry oscillates between theology-heavy dialogue scenes reminiscent of Ordet and gnarly gross-out slayings…
West Side Story (1961)
Directed by Jerome Robbins
influenced 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Visuals
Opening with a West Side Story-style rumble under the dry flumes of a disused leisure centre…
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
influenced 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Visuals
The most famous example is probably the bone turning into the satellite in 2001: A Space Odyssey…
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a wild ride, leaning into wider influences such as Mad Max and The Warriors.