Nia DaCosta discusses brutal barn scene in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta and now in theaters, contains a harrowing barn torture sequence that DaCosta has described as central to the film's portrayal of human brutality. The film picks up shortly after the previous installment, following Spike as he is put to a brutal test by the sadistic Sir Jimmy Crystal: kill one of Jimmy's seven followers or die.

As the Jimmies move through the countryside they find survivors on a farm; in the barn they gag and string up four captives and slowly flay three alive in a ritual they call the "removal of the shirt," while Spike cowers outside with the only Jimmy who shows any humanity. A final fight, an attempted rescue by a hidden pregnant woman named Cathy and a gas-canister fire leave Cathy free and the Jimmies' numbers diminished, but several characters are killed in the chaos.

DaCosta likens the Jimmies to the military figures from the first film, saying, "What the military guys in 28 Days Later are doing is completely unnecessary... They've created a dogma. They've created a way of living that helps them to organize and hold the weight of the meaninglessness they feel in the wake of the infection." She also said, "Gore doesn't bother me...

It has to be violent because the movie is the beauty and the bloodshed," and that the production adjusted the scene during the ratings process to achieve the desired impact.

Key Topics

Culture, Nia Dacosta, Sir Jimmy Crystal, Rage Virus, Danny Boyle