{"id":701498,"date":"2026-01-17T06:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/701498\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T06:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:02:10","slug":"death-metal-drug-commercial-the-reader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/701498\/","title":{"rendered":"Death metal drug commercial – The Reader"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wouldn\u2019t it be nice if there was a drug to cure all of (insert gesturing in every direction) \u2026 this. Would that it were so simple<\/a> as to have a medication that rapidly reverses the kind of insanity that turns ordinary folks into brainwashed bloodthirsty beasts. Alas, there does not appear to be an \u201cundo podcast\u201d pill. We are left with reason, logic, and persuasion, a combination that feels a lot like placebo these days.<\/p>\n

Despite its U.K. setting, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has a U.S. director (Nia DaCosta) and an adversary with an American agenda: Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O\u2019Connell). His villainy was foreshadowed last year in director Danny Boyle\u2019s return to the zombie franchise that he and writer Alex Garland launched. The devout Satanist commands a loyal mini-legion of \u201cFingers,\u201d the term he uses for his violent followers who have all rebranded themselves as \u201cJimmy\u201d in one way or another.<\/p>\n

Spike (Alfie Williams), the young hero from the previous installment, is forced to fight his way into joining the Fingers. Only Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman) seems to have any remnants of humanity left. She isn\u2019t \u201cnice\u201d or \u201cgood\u201d so much as she is \u201cappreciably less evil,\u201d which may be the modern synonym for \u201cgood.\u201d While Sir Lord Jimmy rolls through the postapocalyptic countryside wreaking havoc, Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) is busy trying to cure Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), a massive \u201calpha\u201d zombie. Their bonkers friendship often literally resembles the montage that plays out during drug commercials while a voiceover quickly details horrifying side effects.<\/p>\n

The inevitable collision between the Jimmys and Dr. Kelson almost certainly does not play out the way you are thinking it will. At the very least, whatever you are imaging is missing some wild details. \u201cWild defiance of expectation\u201d is actually great description for both 28 Years Later films thus far, even if there is a strong hint that the third movie will be the sequel that fans of the original flick have long demanded. But where\u2019s the fun in that?<\/p>\n

There is so much more fun to be had in the weird and new, as DaCosta and Garland clearly realize. Were it not for an overlong sequence squarely in the \u201ctorture porn\u201d subgenre, The Bone Temple may be on the shortlist for best horror sequel. Ever. It is a bold dichotomy of message and form. It is relentlessly mean-spirited in service of a message about kindness, hope, and intelligent persistence.<\/p>\n

That last one is the most obvious central theme. Pitting science against religion is nothing new. But this is a new flavor. The choice to make Sir Lord Jimmy a devotee of the devil may allow enough cognitive distance for some holier believers to see how the blinders of religion can lead to crushing the very things that can keep humanity alive. And bravo for the tragicomic decision to have the cult\u2019s supreme leader reduce everyone\u2019s name to his own. They are so unimportant in his bloated, deadly, narcissistic presence as to be minor extensions of his own body that he doesn\u2019t hesitate to amputate.<\/p>\n

In the same way that Ridley Scott\u2019s two Alien sequels were prosecuted for not being elegant repetitions of the first film, the widespread reception of the 28 Years Later series may not be what it deserves. Because if the last film in this trilogy sticks the landing, it is some straight-up Mount Rushmore of Legacy Sequels stuff.<\/p>\n

Oh, two more quick things: First, shame on everyone who cast out DaCosta over The Marvels, which was good. Between this and Hedda, boy do critics of hers look as silly as a nekkid zombie. Second, did you know that Ralph Fiennes is good at acting? In addition, he is also remarkably game for shenanigans. That last 20 minutes or so could be watched on a loop for a few hours at a time.<\/p>\n

Grade = A- (solely for the excessive torture fetishism)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other Critical Voices to Consider<\/strong> (Oops: All Sara or Sarahs edition)<\/p>\n

Sara Clements at Nerdspin says<\/a> \u201cIf Danny Boyle\u2019s\u00a028 Years Later\u00a0was a hauntingly tender\u00a0memento mori\u00a0for a dying world, Nia DaCosta\u2019s sequel,\u00a028 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is a visceral, grounded investigation into what remains once the flesh has rotted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara Michelle Fetters at Movie Freak says<\/a> \u201cThe Bone Temple\u00a0is phenomenal. Wild, weird, and overflowing in rich ideas, the film is a deliciously nasty soliloquy of birth, death, and resurrection that begins like some tragically austere Puccini operetta only to climax with death metal majesty like it\u2019s the most raucous Iron Maiden concert ever staged. Armageddon has rarely been this beautiful. Or this profound.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Jessica Rintjema at Exclaim says<\/a> \u201cWhile likely to be forgotten as the awkward middle child,\u00a0The Bone Temple\u00a0prevails as a fun ride. The revisitation of Boyle\u2019s classic refuels the zombie genre with sparkling creativity and infects a famously pessimistic genre with a contagious case of optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wouldn\u2019t it be nice if there was a drug to cure all of (insert gesturing in every direction)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[105,4326,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-701498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115908925505670416","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}