28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Sony Pictures Releasing | Release Date: January 16, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 58 Critic Reviews
Positive:
51
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
95
PolygonJake KleinmanJan 14, 2026
In spite of the heavy odds stacked against it, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is one of those perfect middle entry movies: It elevates what came before and throws down the gauntlet for whatever might follow. Read full review
91
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJan 13, 2026
The Bone Temple does have plenty on its mind about illness and outbreaks—perhaps the sickness that is mankind and the freakshow we doomscroll witness every day— it simply buries those thoughts under layers of bloody viscera and wreckage. That’s the movie’s defining tension: beauty against barbarism, hush against havoc, and the fleeting possibility of grace pressed up against the certainty of carnage. Read full review
91
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerJan 13, 2026
The Bone Temple once again pulls off the 28 Days Later trick of finding moments of grace at the end of the world, with enough beautiful moments to balance out the grotesque ones. Read full review
90
The New YorkerJustin ChangJan 23, 2026
The movie develops these ideas, with thrillingly demented showmanship, into a doozy of a third act, built on two cleverly intertwined cases of mistaken identity. Read full review
90
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJan 16, 2026
DaCosta’s film is a macabre morality tale about the best and worst of human nature. It is utterly brutal, and one of the most compelling so far. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJan 16, 2026
Quirky touches, dry wit and first-rate characterizations make “The Bone Temple” a rare treat and one of the finest zombie movies I’ve seen, not to mention a major improvement from last summer’s third entry in the series. Read full review
90
The AtlanticDavid SimsJan 15, 2026
The Bone Temple is gnarly, challenging, and an incredibly impressive swerve, with Garland’s grim worldview beautifully captured by the director Nia DaCosta. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJan 15, 2026
The beauty of DaCosta’s film is that these particular ideas are worked in subtly, even though The Bone Temple itself is not what one might call subtle. In fact, it’s downright looney tunes. Read full review
90
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonJan 15, 2026
DaCosta’s talents as a director are a terrific, confident match for this material. Read full review
90
LooperMatthew JacksonJan 13, 2026
DaCosta arrives in the world of 28 Years Later with confidence, swagger, and infectious energy, delivering 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple — one of the best horror sequels in recent memory, and a must-see horror film for 2026. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 13, 2026
For genre aficianados, it’s bold, mind-bending work which satisfies that so-often-frustrated craving: for a zombie movie with brains. Read full review
90
Screen DailyNikki BaughanJan 13, 2026
Bold, bloody and blisteringly brutal, this exhilarating follow-up to last year’s 28 Years Later grabs its audience by the throat from the off and never loosens its grip. Read full review
90
Screen RantGregory NussenJan 13, 2026
The magic of DaCosta's film is that it tells us that, regardless of who you are, what we're all searching for is the same thing: community, and a place to call home. Read full review
90
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJan 13, 2026
As the fourth entry in a long-running franchise (written, like its ancestors, by Alex Garland), it is, to borrow a phrase uttered by its protagonist, “miraculous”—and marks this zombie saga as a nightmare with few equals. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenFeb 5, 2026
A gory, violent consideration of end-times theology, the absence of God, and demonology, Bone Temple moves the franchise from the zombie genre into something closer to religious horror. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshJan 16, 2026
The film is shockingly violent and bloody, but there are also profoundly poetic moments and images that pop up like wildflowers in a field. Read full review
88
Washington PostSonia RaoJan 15, 2026
Fiennes anchors the film with his remarkably layered performance, relishing Kelson’s eccentricities while conveying the underlying anguish of a man losing his grip on what his life once was. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesJas KeimigJan 14, 2026
DaCosta takes some big stylistic swings — particularly with the soundtrack — that sometimes makes you feel as if you’re watching a comedy rather than a horror film. It’s a welcome, offbeat balm to the more intense moments sprinkled throughout and reflects the movie’s more pondering approach to a story that questions who the real monsters are. Read full review
88
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJan 13, 2026
Fiennes is magnificent, and a scene involving him and Iron Maiden’s song “Number of the Beast” will go down as one of the most buzzed-about sequences of 2026. Were it written for a grisly horror movie, Alex Garland’s climax would fit snuggly into a Shakespearean comedy. Read full review
88
The Associated PressMark KennedyJan 13, 2026
There’s plenty of good music in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, including Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place” and one of the most gloriously unhinged uses of Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” ever conceived. If the previous film had a Fellini-esque vibe, this one has punky, anarchic feel. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsJan 13, 2026
If there’s one misstep to “The Bone Temple,” it’s the ending, which features a cameo that alters the tenor of the picture’s emotional hostility. Read full review
88
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeJan 13, 2026
Juggling big ideas and white-knuckle scares has always been the currency of the 28 Days Later saga, and Nia DaCosta does right by the franchise’s legacy. Read full review
85
Film ThreatBradley GibsonJan 13, 2026
With Garland crafting the script and DeCosta at the wheel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a winner on all fronts. It is wildly entertaining, never predictable, and explores the clash between superstition and tradition versus hard science. Read full review
84
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJan 13, 2026
Nia DaCosta’s smart, freaky sequel zooms in on the ongoing battle between sense and senselessness until it finds strong, connective tissue between science and religion. Read full review
83
Original-CinJim SlotekJan 16, 2026
It’s a new apocalyptic pallet to paint upon, and I look forward to where it goes next. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 13, 2026
A strange, hysterical, and thrillingly audacious continuation of a saga about the nature of faith in a godless world, “The Bone Temple” might appear to be a more traditional genre offering than its immediate predecessor, but don’t be fooled by the fact that it wasn’t shot on an iPhone: This is very much the part two that 2025’s smartest and most humane studio horror movie deserves. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJan 13, 2026
It’s a neat surprise that DaCosta extracts more dark humor from the series than Boyle himself. Read full review
80
Little White LiesHannah StrongJan 16, 2026
The Bone Temple offers a heady mix of stomach-churning violence, absurdist humour and surprising glimmers of tenderness. Read full review
80
NMELou ThomasJan 16, 2026
With a uniformly impressive cast, spectacular scenes of carnage and the unshakeable feeling that anything could happen, this zombie franchise is as thrilling as it’s ever been. It’s well worth taking a trip to The Bone Temple. Read full review
80
Radio TimesTerry StauntonJan 16, 2026
Both actors imbue events with personality, bringing rich textures to the story that have been largely missing since 28 Days Later, resulting in a supremely satisfying horror thrill ride with unexpected depth. Read full review
80
The RevealKeith PhippsJan 16, 2026
It’s not a subtle movie, but it’s not a predictable one, either, opening several obvious avenues for its plot to travel down then closing them off and letting the elements collide in less obvious patterns. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonJan 15, 2026
If we lived in a rational world, Fiennes’ bravura comic-manic performance would earn him an Oscar nomination. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearJan 14, 2026
New director Nia DaCosta — the sort of filmmaker who can handle both a continuation of the racially charged Candyman mythology and a radical take on Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler — brings pints of fresh blood to the proceedings, as well as a keen eye for compositions and an inherent sense of how to sustain tension. Read full review
80
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaJan 13, 2026
I left 28 Years Later nervous about what might come next. After The Bone Temple, I'm thrilled at the prospect of where this story could go. That's what I call progress. Read full review
80
ColliderRoss BonaimeJan 13, 2026
A stunning movie that continues to solidify the franchise's legacy as one of the best zombie stories to ever hit theaters. Read full review
80
The TimesKevin MaherJan 13, 2026
Gosh, I hope that Ralph Fiennes’s back is OK. Because the 63-year-old certainly did a lot of heavy lifting in this latest instalment of the long-running zombie franchise. I mean that metaphorically, of course, because in this movie it’s up to Fiennes to provide the emotional, intellectual and comedic fireworks. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 13, 2026
In staging the Jimmies’ various acts of violence (to which they refer, horribly, as “charity”), DaCosta may have taken a cue from Kubrick’s own parable of British decay: even toughened horror fans should find it disturbing, if not downright hard to watch. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 13, 2026
This is an exciting, forthright, energised – though very gruesome – film in which there is real human jeopardy and conflict. Non-zombies are more cinematic. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJan 13, 2026
It’s rich thematic territory for the series, and slowly amps up the audience’s anticipation for the moment these two finally cross paths. When they do, it’s spectacular and audacious. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenJan 13, 2026
This is simultaneously the nastiest and most soulful of the franchise to date – and the most probing. Read full review
80
EmpireOlly RichardsJan 13, 2026
Simpler, but also bolder and bloodier, than its predecessor, The Bone Temple is a more-than-worthy sequel. Read full review
80
IGNClint GageJan 13, 2026
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, especially in Ralph Fiennes’ record collection. Read full review
80
Total FilmWill SalmonJan 13, 2026
Nia DaCosta turns things up to 11 with an energized take on the 28 Years Later world. Come for the gore but stay for the surprisingly frequent jokes and a pair of astonishing performances from Ralph Fiennes and Jack O'Connell, whose sadistic Jimmy Crystal is utterly hateful but always compelling. Read full review
80
Next Best PictureJosh ParhamJan 13, 2026
Even with crafts that, at worst, could be described as serviceable, the narrative and performances are so captivating that they more than compensate. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJan 13, 2026
[DaCosta] may divert the series from its withering dissection of the green and pleasant land’s self-image, but her absurdist perspective on this inherently absurd franchise is still undeniably entertaining. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 20, 2026
The Bone Temple doesn't work entirely well as a stand-alone, but as part of a larger whole, it is a very good continuation of the ongoing tale. It leaves me hoping for a successful box office run so we can see how the whole thing ends. Read full review
75
The Travers TakePeter TraversJan 17, 2026
You’ll be thinking about this scary, savvy fright fest long after you wake up screaming. Read full review
75
The Film MavenKristen LopezJan 13, 2026
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is not only better than its predecessor, it's one of the first great movies of 2026. Read full review
75
The Film StageEthan VestbyJan 13, 2026
With very few locations or characters, the film perhaps operates with a deliberate, necessary austerity after so many resources went to Boyle’s predecessor. Read full review
70
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Radheyan SimonpillaiJan 13, 2026
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple doesn’t quite live up to the earlier film’s promise. At best, it’s an ambitious and compelling enough staging ground biding time, with cruel violence more stomach-turning than ever, as it sets up the already-in-the-works final chapter in a planned trilogy Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 13, 2026
If audiences can accept a sequel that has veered into something closer to folk horror than its zombie-adjacent roots, they should be able to plug into its peculiar wavelength. Read full review
60
StatusBrian LowryJan 16, 2026
The latest installment is insanely weird, gruesomely violent, and features incredibly hammy roles for Ralph Fiennes and “Sinners’” Jack O’Connell. Read full review
60
iFrancesca SteeleJan 16, 2026
I’m not convinced that the heavy violence is entirely warranted, but the whole thing is at least unfailingly kitsch, and when the storylines merge they do so seamlessly. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekJan 14, 2026
The Bone Temple is part satisfying triumph, part missed opportunity, and its pluses and minuses bump against one another in jangly discord. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJan 13, 2026
The new film, evocatively shot by Sean Bobbitt, feels like a trivial, if entertaining, diversion on the way to a more substantial closing fall. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJan 13, 2026
Fiennes has an excellent rapport with Lewis-Parry, making their scenes as compelling and moving as anything “28 Years Later” had to offer. It’s too bad that every time the Samson-Kelson plotline gets good, we’re yanked back to dopey Jimmy’s goofy gang and its religious mumbo jumbo. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJan 13, 2026
Although more Fiennes is always a good thing, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple simply doesn’t have the solid storytelling or enthralling characters that its predecessor has. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineRocco T. ThompsonJan 13, 2026
The Bone Temple doesn’t pack the moment-to-moment kineticism of the prior films. Read full review
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