And 28 days later... satanic cults in the land of the infected

It arrived in theaters six months ago 28 years laterThe third installment in the saga with which Danny Boyle revitalized apocalyptic horror, transforming the slow, deliberate march of the undead into the galloping rampage of the infected. In this third entry, Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland shifted the focus of their study, moving away from the response to the catastrophe and proposing a stimulating reflection on murder as a ritual of cohesion against an external enemy. This interest in the relationship between human beings and violence, amidst a struggle between reason and barbarity, resurfaces powerfully in 28 years later: the temple of bones, which was filmed consecutively in the previous film and will be the second part of a trilogy.

The main novelty ofThe Temple of Bones The main threat to the heroes—an orphaned boy (Alfie Williams) and a benevolent doctor (Ralph Fiennes)—is no longer the infected, but rather a satanic cult reminiscent of the Manson Family. And, in fact, the idea that humans are the true monsters—a seminal element of the zombie myth—is underscored by transforming the infected's alpha male into a hybrid of Friday the 21st Century. Robinson Crusoe and the noble creature of Frankenstein

From this intriguing narrative premise, Garland, in his screenplay, presents a grandiose confrontation between faith and scientific knowledge—all seasoned with biblical quotes and textbook humanism—while director Nia DaCosta steers the story toward gory, bloody terror. The end result is a film that entertains and stimulates the mind, but never quite finds a consistent tone, lost between the naive and the grotesque, between Fiennes's skill and the histrionics of the rest of the cast, between the pop of Duran Duran and the heavy metal of Iron Maiden.