A Response to 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

In America, we are suffering through major cultural reverberatory concussions (the long-term denialism of our irrational 9/11 revenge on a global scale and the so-far, short-term paranoiac pandemic delusions) that have stifled our ability to address our perceived traumas or mobilize our vast resources to make life better for the population-at-large.

In the film 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple we see a similar cultural condition unleashed as a result of a viral infection that creates violent rage in a large part of the population (and we see what the ragers see in this film - which is a big narrative twist). The two responses portrayed in the film could not be any more different. Dr. Kelson seeks meaning in science and creativity (the titular Bone Temple). He feels empathy for others, including the most degraded individuals like the massive and violent rager that he names Samson. On the other hand we have Jimmy Crystal and his cult of Jimmies. They make sense through extreme hatred and violence against others. They glorify in pain and anguish, especially that of their victims. Jimmy Crystal, who resembles the detested British entertainer/sexual predator Jimmy Saville (but easily brings to mind for this American, Donald Trump), couches his actions in a childish fantasy of his being the son of a dark deity, and creates a religious narrative that this torture and murder is a form of glorification of his father.

I don't want to go beyond this for those that have not seen the film. I could write for hours on what I think of the film. It is subtle in its explorations through genre/mythic structures of these ideas and it is not polemical/didactic at all. Nia DaCosta, Alex Garland, and Danny Boyle have created a unique world and film. A rare sequel that exceeds the previous films.