Nia DaCosta on 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple: “This whole movie is a tonal tightrope walk”

Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later (2025) was a striking, intelligent threequel in the tradition of gnarly British folk horror, and now the baton for screenwriter Alex Garland’s post-apocalyptic zombie franchise has been passed to American director Nia DaCosta, who helms this fierce, funny and surprising follow-up.  

In The Bone Temple, named for the open-air memorial structure built by Dr Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) using skulls from victims of the Rage virus that has ravaged Britain, the action follows directly after 28 Years Later…, in which young Spike (Alfie Williams) is saved from the infected by a bizarre cult called The Jimmys. Led by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), the Jimmys are modelled on posthumously disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile and induct Spike into their vicious tribe in a savage initiation ritual before kidnapping a family of survivors. The film explores the internal politics and deceit within the cult and Kelson’s sedation experiments on Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), a large “Alpha” of the infected, before inevitably bringing the two scenarios together.

Last behind the camera for her intriguing Henrik Ibsen reworking Hedda (2025), DaCosta has also spent time in the MCU with The Marvels (2023). The Brooklyn-born filmmaker kicked off her feature career with Little Woods (2018, named Crossing the Line in the UK, probably because its US name was a bit too close to a well-known catalogue shop) but is perhaps best known for her excellent 2021 remake of horror classic Candyman (1992). 

Lou Thomas: Before you had the opportunity to make this film, how familiar were you with the original 28 Days Later (2002) and what did you think of it?

Nia DaCosta: I had the DVD in my house when I was 12 or 13 and I watched it over and over again. I absolutely adored the world and the characters. It was around this time when I was realising I wanted to work in film and figuring out, “Oh, there’s a director. There’s a writer. The actors are doing this.”

To what extent did the success of your version of Candyman influence you wanting to take on this as a project?

DaCosta: On every film, I learn more about myself and more about how I want to work. I took everything that I knew worked for me and that I felt really strongly about and applied it to this film because you want to keep getting better and better and streamlining the process.

There’s a lot talked about how filmmakers from different countries can come in and see things from the outside that other people wouldn’t. This film has got a lot of very specific British cultural references, from Jimmy Savile to the Teletubbies. As an American filmmaker, how aware were you of those things before you came to make this?

DaCosta: My dad’s from London actually. He’s born and raised here. My family is mostly Jamaican, so there’s a lot of peripheral Britishness. I have a lot of family here. First time I came to the UK I went to Birmingham, visiting family when I was a teen. So I’ve had a lot of cultural exposure. I grew up watching EastEnders with my grandma.

Jack O’Connell is incredible as a villain in Sinners (2025), but this takes his villainy to a whole new level. How did you work with him to get that bonkers performance we see on screen? How much of it is Jack and how much of it’s you? Are you saying, “Pull it back, go harder” or…?

DaCosta: It’s all me. Every actor has me to thank for their success [laughing]. No, I think when you get the casting right, you really set yourself up for success. But I want to talk to my actors about the character and make sure we’re on the same page and get really in depth about who they are, their journey, what kind of person they are.

With Jimmy Crystal, he’s a cult leader so he’s completely fucking evil, but he also is incredibly charismatic. He’s funny. He’s a bit camp. This whole movie is a tonal tightrope walk. On the day, it’s about getting more and less and then I have to modulate and cut that in the edit. So I’m really mining what they’re doing so that I know I have enough material to make the performance that I need.

You’ve got a great wider cast – Ralph Fiennes, Chi Lewis-Parry, Alfie Williams, Emma Laird, Erin Kellyman. Is there a secret to getting the best from such a wild mix of actors and temperaments, given that they’re playing wildly divergent characters?

DaCosta: Rehearsal’s really huge for me. Every movie I do, I do one or two weeks of rehearsal. You want to make sure we’re all in the same movie, so rehearsal’s a really good time to parse that out, because it can be really hard if you don’t agree with an actor about what their character should be doing or how they should come off. I got really lucky with having excellent actors. Then we just built the world together.

Tonally, there’s a strong identity to the film, especially considering the chaos on screen. Aside from looking at previous films in the franchise, were there any other films that inspired you?

DaCosta: I try not to reference films visually, because you’re always trying to do something different. However, I did think a lot about Barry Lyndon [1975]. Our main theme is very much inspired by the way Kubrick used Schubert and Handel in Barry Lyndon. Also, the way he films the countryside. So much of Kelson’s world has to be beautiful and bucolic and very British. So that was really running through my head when I framed up from some of these shots.

What is it that you love about horror?

DaCosta: There’s the exciting part of it, which is like going on a rollercoaster. You’re going into a horror movie to have a specific experience, which is to be scared, and to be scared is really fun when there’s nothing actually at stake. When I was in high school, I wrote this thesis about horror films and how they express our cultural anxieties and fears. So whether it’s kaiju movies from Japan, post-World War II, post-atom bomb, or the Judeo-Christian exorcism horrors that we’d have in the West, they say so much about who we are as a people.

What’s your favourite horror film?

The Thing [1982] is basically a perfect movie. The prosthetics and the creatures in that movie are amazing. Kurt Russell in that beard, love it. It’s just a really cool paranoid thriller body-horror. 

This is very different from your previous film, Hedda. Do you make a conscious decision to alternate what you want to film?

DaCosta: In the beginning I was really aware of not wanting to be pigeonholed, especially as a female director who started with an independent drama. I knew I wanted to do bigger things and different things and superhero stuff and horror. In the beginning, it was very intentional going from Little Woods to Candyman, going into genre. Then when Marvel became an opportunity, that was really important.

After Marvel, I felt I really had to do something that was mine. At this stage of my career, I’m really just following what I’m passionate about. I don’t feel like I need to prove I can do this or that. I’ve done a lot of different genres, and now it’s just about what I want to do. Everything I’ve done, I’ve wanted to do and I was passionate about them, but now it’s less strategic.

Are there any new films you’re looking forward to seeing this year?

DaCosta: The year has barely even registered to me. Someone else asked me this and I blanked. I was like, “What even is a cinema? What’s happening?” I didn’t have an answer, so I just said Heated Rivalry season two, which is nuts. It’s is not a [film]. It’s very steamy. Listen, you come for the sex, stay for the emotions.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is in cinemas now.