Ralph Fiennes doesn’t just deliver a strong performance; his role is essential to the film’s success. Writer Alex Garland often prioritizes ideas over character development, and while The Bone Temple is an improvement over 28 Years Later, it’s weighed down by heavy themes of nihilism that risk turning it into a bleak and unnecessarily violent experience. This tendency of Garland’s explains why the isolated Britain depicted in the films feels more like a thought experiment than a real place. It’s hard to imagine truly living in constant fear of turning into a monster, or of others doing the same, but the communities we see in both movies don’t quite capture that desperate reality. (Most of the characters seem strangely resilient, considering the circumstances.) Kelson, who sings Duran Duran while collecting bodies in the countryside, is the only character who convincingly portrays someone witnessing the end of the world, or at least its continuation. He has a strange calmness that initially seems like insanity, but closer inspection reveals a deep sadness for what humanity has become. Through him, the film becomes both funnier and more poignant as it explores themes of suffering.
