'The horror strikes just the right balance'

Ralph Fiennes joins director Nia DaCosta to discuss 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the sequel to Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later

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Last summer marked the long-awaited return of the post-apocalyptic horror film series, with the release of Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later.

The third instalment in the 28 Days Later franchise, written by Alex Garland, follows on from the Cillian Murphy-led 2002 original and its 2007 sequel, capturing what life in Britain looks like three decades after the outbreak of the catastrophic Rage Virus, a violent contagion that led to the rapid breakdown of society.

A followup film, directed by Nia DaCosta and starring Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Chi Lewis-Parry, and Erin Kellyman, shifts its focus to the human survivors living in the North East of England.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple sees Dr Ian Kelson, played by Fiennes, form a shocking new relationship with potentially world-changing consequences, while Spike, played by Williams, is inducted into Sir Jimmy Crystal's, portrayed by O'Connell, gang of acrobatic killers in a brutal post-apocalyptic Britain.

Fiennes, a three-time Oscar nominee who takes on a larger role in this film as the creator of the Bone Temple, says he felt deeply disturbed while reading parts of the script.

"Without giving too much away, there are definitely sequences in the film that are horrifying," says the 63-year-old actor.

"I was disturbed reading them. I think Nia has handled it brilliantly, the way she’s photographed and edited the horror strikes just the right balance, so you're compelled to watch rather than look away." The Conclave actor adds that while the film contains gruesome scenes, it is far from mindless horror.