While it hasn’t technically been 28 years since Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, the director returns to his zombie film with new ideas alongside familiar screenwriter Alex Garland. The two of them have grown as filmmakers who reprising their zombie roots should find something more than a new assortment of the decaying undead and the many ways to gore them. While they do take a surprisingly mature and thoughtful approach to the nature of growing up and dying, Boyle hasn’t skimped on the breakneck terror and gross-out violence that ensure your eyes will be feasting as much as the munching undead.

With the passage of time, the tween Spike (Alfie Williams) has grown up within the quarantined zone of a Scottish island. He’s only known the world through his parents, who struggle to raise him with their new perspective of the decaying world that the Rage virus has claimed. His father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), can only stress the importance of hunting zombies, but not how to be a better man. His mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), is profoundly sick, and there’s nobody who can help in the village, even if Jamie cared about her more. Her only hope might be the mysterious Doctor Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), a man who has become almost disturbingly adjusted to the death and destruction of zombies in the wilderness.

For as much as Kelson has become used to a world of zombies, Boyle also recognizes the sub-genre requires more than a fast-paced battle of brutalized undead. He once more flexes his muscles to make zombie attacks extra vicious and bloody, having so much fun with various camera tricks and editing techniques that effortlessly get the blood pumping. On that level, the film delivers the gory goods, but Boyle and Garland grasp that consistent displays of decapitated heads and torn flesh can only take a movie so far. Even the wilder sights of a pregnant zombie giving birth and a towering zombie giant swinging his dick as he stomps towards his victims might not be enough either.

What’s most surprising is how 28 Years Later favors a more coming-of-age existential tale, delving into the burdens left for the next generation as much as the zombies dig into organs. This is not a film where Spike learns to become a better person because of his parents, but despite them. With his father a drunken mess of rage and his mother unable to help as her mental state drifts, it’s up to Spike to find his path to getting older and surviving. He’s presented with the cruelty of the outside world when he encounters the stranded soldier, Erik (Edvin Ryding), and the acceptance of mortality through the comforting words of Kelson. Boyle’s brilliant editing skillfully shifts between memories of the past and depictions of older times, highlighting the consistent nature of time and how easily it repeats itself without individual choice.

As emotional as the film becomes, I think it’s also worth stressing how bizarre the film gets. While Spike might get a lesson in Latin and mortality from the wise Kelson, the refined words Ralph Fiennes will be delivered next to a mountain of skulls. There’s daringness in trying out some comedy amid the tragedy, and it’s remarkable how much of it lands. This is a film that can open with Teletubbies on the television and then immediately transition into children getting torn apart by zombies. While this divergence may throw off the tone, I’m impressed that this movie is willing to give you whiplash in how it can go from a dark climax akin to The Road with a bonkers punchline that has more in common with Dead Alive. It’s just as astonishing as how Boyle can film the lushest of wilderness landscapes while still featuring the most gory horror you’ll see in a mainstream movie this year.

28 Years Later returns to its apocalypse world with far more to explore beyond the allure of fast-paced zombie carnage. There’s a satisfying brutality in how Danny Boyle stages the gruesome assaults of the undead, but also great moments of beauty amidst the fight for survival. You’re allowed to catch your breath between the violence and take in the intriguing thoughts that linger in this setting beyond strategies for surviving zombie attacks. By taking these bigger risks in elevating the film beyond a mindless mash of blood and guts, this is one of the most refreshing zombie films that can feel like a moving epic of becoming a man while still being very weird, proving that zombie films are not only still alive, but can still kick with some unexpected excitement as well.