By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

The arrival of Jack O’Connell (Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Apollo Theatre) as a Jimmy Savile-inspired cult leader at the end of last year’s 28 Years Later and the departure of director Danny Boyle left us concerned about the content of this film.

• Read on for reasons including how this does enough – and quite brilliantly – to make us super excited for the final chapter

But we needn’t have feared because if anything this follow-up film shows far more visual flair and storytelling daring than either of its predecessors.

O’Connell’s Satanist ‘Sir Lord’ Jimmy Crystal leads a gang of ‘fingers’, all named after their leader in some way, who are unafraid of the zombies roaming Britain and instead inflict torture and terror on those humans unlucky enough to cross their paths.

Author Alex Garland once again holds the pen and it’s a brave choice by director Nia DaCosta to dress the gang Clockwork Orange-style in the tracksuits, gaudy jewellery and white wigs Savile was renowned for while obsessing over a bizarre love for 90s children’s TV show Teletubbies as they commit their atrocities.

We’re not big fans of horror as a genre and the scenes where the Jimmies inflict torture – or what they call ‘charity’ – on those they have visited was the point where we can appreciate why others would flee the cinema although we stayed with it.

Because it’s the 2nd storyline where Ralph Fiennes (Richard III, Almeida Theatre) as Dr Kelson attempts to discover whether the Rage Virus is treatable by experimenting with sedating the Alpha zombie and even dancing to Duran Duran with him that shows the best of humanity and its ingenuity in finding cures to infections.

The most memorable scene is where the 2 worlds collide and Kelson performs Iron Maiden’s The Number Of The Beast (watch below) at Crystal’s request to convince the Jimmies that the doctor is his father, the devil – or Old Nick as he repeatedly calls him.

Fiennes has always been a committed performer but it will be hard to forget this karaoke masterpiece punctured only when he realises that behind 1 of the Jimmies’ masks is unhappy and haunted Spike, the young boy he met in 28 Years Later.

The NHS even gets an early mention in Bone Temple and slowly we realise this isn’t just about the brilliance of scientists but the importance of humanity working together as 1 to defeat a common enemy.

It’s a theme we expect to be more fully explored in the final film, yet to be shot, but which is tee-ed up before the end credits roll.

We delayed seeing this film because we thought it might be too violent and not of the standard of the previous efforts in this series. But, while it was stomach-churning, it does enough – and quite brilliantly – to make us super excited for the final chapter.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Tickets
• Have you seen a film in this series before and what did you think of it? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
• Enjoyed this preview? Follow monstagigz on Twitter @NeilDurham, email neildurham3@gmail.com and check us out on Instagram and Facebook