‘28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE’ A Funky Continuation of the Infection

January 13, 2026 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Alex Garland, Alfie Williams, Chi Lewis-Parry, Danny Boyle, Jack O'Connell, Nia DaCosta, Ralph Fiennes 2 Comments

After escaping a tumultuous coming‑of‑age under his father’s forceful hand and delivering his ailing mother to her final resting place, Spike (Alfie Williams) has now taken up with a band of satanists. In 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Nia DaCosta’s sequel to last year’s reinvention of the franchise, a movie that picks up right where the last one left off and carries on its meditative yet unabashedly goofy vibe, Spike finds himself in a new kind of “kill or be killed” situation. Under his eye, Spike is forced to duel a member of Lord Jimmy Crystal’s (Jack O’Connell) death cult that has just taken him in, where survival means becoming part of the tribe. Or, as they put it, one of the fist’s many fingers. As Spike soon discovers, though, being a member of a death cult isn’t much better than just being dead. After all, what’s worse: dying, or losing a piece of your soul in order to survive? Read More

Social Horror ‘CANDYMAN’ Radically Addresses Black Trauma in Brutal Fashion

August 25, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Candyman, Colman Domingo, John Guleserian, Jordan Peele, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Nia DaCosta, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowes, Teyonah Parris, Win Rosenfeld, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II 2 Comments

For what it does right – and it does do plenty right – Bernard Rose’s 1992 cult horror-slasher Candyman feels like a dated product of its racially off-putting times. Hone in on where it focuses the spotlight: Virginia Madsen’s curious and lily white grad student Helen Lyle, out to deconstruct the urban myths of a hook-handed boogeyman terrorizing the Black community. A white woman in distress scouring the trauma of the African-American hood, Helen is a peculiar cypher for a story about the lingering horrors of race. Read More

Well-Acted ‘LITTLE WOODS’ a Dour Scene of Poverty-Inflicted Desperation

April 12, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged James Badge Dale, Lance Reddick, Lily James, Little Woods, Luke Kirby, Nia DaCosta, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Tessa Thompson Leave a comment

Little Woods is the kind of movie that makes you wonder about the backstory of writer-director Nia DaCosta (who is signed on to direct the Jordan Peele produced Candyman remake), who enriches the film with down-home specificity that it feels like much more than just a facsimile of authenticity. Her’s is the kind of movie that feels written from personal experience, that pulls from the specifics of a life harshly lived, that doesn’t wallow in its poverty porn setting, and though dour and depressing, never compromises its optimistic, full-spirited edge and push towards the light. It’s a neo-western in construction – the story of a good person doing a bad thing for good reasons, and DaCosta teases out the drive for self-preservation by any means by focusing on character first and foremost. Read More