Walking to The Bone Temple

It was with a certain trepidation that I went to a cinema to see 28 Years Later: the Bone Temple this afternoon. YouTube is already full of the usual spoiler reactions and having enjoyed its predecessor so much, my favourite film in a decade, thought I should go before I built up into something it's not. Sinners is a very close second. Both films have in very different ways, an  integrated soundtrack which becomes part of the film and for me always makes for a better storytelling experience.

I walked into town enjoying the weak winter sun, leaving enough time to stop off in Thornes Park to draw a tree. I'd noticed this particular tree a few days ago while walking to work, again the sun was out and I couldn't help but notice the gnarly made for drawing qualities. I am always too early and having to stand around waiting so factoring in 'somethin to do' works for me. I enjoyed the 40 minutes stood in front of the tree but was happy to get moving to stave off the cold.

I enjoyed The Bone Temple a lot and it's a great 18 classified horror film. More of a crowd pleaser and broadly appealing than 28 Years Later. The commercial viability is exactly the thing keeping it from being as 'punk' as Danny Boyles film and not being an Iron Maiden fan the finale was wasted on me although the opposite can be said for including Duran Duran songs. The film explores evil, satanism and atheism. The satanism in the film seems based on a modern 1970's heavy metal flavour designed for teenagers that doesn't go deeper than 'that's cool'. Service 'Without any f*cking back chat' as the films Sir Jimmy Crystal would say.

The modern cinema experience is broken and cinemas need to address it. For my £7 ticket I got to sit wrapped up in a cold theatre with maybe four other people while I watched 10 minutes of corporate propaganda including numerous car and prestige Arab airline adverts. A further 10 minutes of mediocre blipvert trailers for Scream 7, The Strangers 3, Primate, and something called Send Help didn't really do anything to enhance the experience. There was a constant background noise like air-conditioning or a generator which wasn't that distracting when there was was onscreen audio. I know £7 is a cheap ticket compared to £12 across the road, maybe I should learn to just avoid YouTube for the next few weeks until the film is available on digital February 24 2026.

I don't usually notice details like this but the trailer had edited frames compared to those of the more hardcore film. I can understand why when the scene incudes a crow on a rock pecking at the skin of a removed human face.