If you ever loved the cult classic with Cillian Murphy, '28 Days Later', I'd be interested to know what you think of the latest installment to the series with '28 Years Later' and it's follow up, 'The Bone Temple'. I don't think it's a plot spoiler at this point to say that Cillian Murphy is enough of a reason to watch it, because yes, confirmed, he does appear, and is even more gorgeous than he was in 2003.

The initial film shows the emergence of the Rage Virus - not the undead, per se - a highly infectious disease that drives those it infects into uncontrollable, violent fury. Unlike previous zombie flicks, these are fast and furious. After the virus is unintentionally released from a research facility test on monkeys in England, it rapidly spreads, triggering a devastating epidemic that leads to the breakdown of society.

The new films begin in an England 28 years later, isolated from the rest of the world lest the virus spread to Europe and beyond. It's an England that has regressed - small enclaves figure out ways to live through subsistance farming and others, like the 'Jimmys', turn to small bands of violent criminals who steal from, and torture, others.

Spike, the young lad from 28 Years Later, falls in with this band by bad luck - the leader is a lad who, having been subjected to the violent death of his priest father by the infected years before - creates his own mythology to keep his 'fingers' or seven followers under control. They're dressed in matching tracksuit pants, a nod to Jimmy Saville who had his own fall from grace in English society after it was discovered he was an abuser and even, macabrely, into necrophilia. It's a tonal decision that nods to the hidden horrors in polite and civilised British society - here, they are out in the open, killing people for a giggle.

The Bone Temple examines what happens when we adhere to belief systems that are based on fear and illusion - the stories we follow are important. The Jimmy's fear in their leader is because they are afraid of him and his power, and the fear he raises in them, therefore controlling them abjectly. Uneducated in this new horror landscape, they are lead because they believe in his stories of Father/Satan. The encroachment of Telly Tubbies as mythology into this dynamic serves to remind the audience that the regression of language and education, of misremembering history, and the deterioration of information - furthers power through illusion and distortion.

By contrast, Kelson, the doctor who creates the bone temple as a memento mori to the dead, is relatively sane, even though he appears mad, covered in what appears to be blood but is iodine, serving to repel the infected. This is established in 28 Days Later - he's a deeply compassionate man that shows Spike that compassionate must be extended to every living creature. Threatened by Jimmy to play the role of Satan, or die, he takes it seriously - one of the most delightful scenes I've seen in a while. Ralph Fiennes draws on his previous roles as Voldemort to act out Satan to Iron Maiden, mesmerising the Fingers who believe the story they've been told. Theatrics are important deception, after all. I loved this scene and had to watch it again immediately and it's absolutely what many reviewers described as a mic drop or at least a needle drop. Apparently in some showings they got up and clapped.

Without giving to much else away, the last belief system nodded to at the end of the film is education. Spike and Kelly look like they will be saved from this violent, degenerative myth making as they encounter Cillian Murphy who is teaching his daughter history, lest we forget, as Dr Kelson would argue. As Spike carries Kelson's lessons on empathy, one would hope he will learn other lessons to, and carry the torch for humanity better than Jimmy.

Score by me? Eight zombies.

🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟🧟