28 Years Later is a captivating return to form that casts away cheap nostalgia and doubles down on the powerful nature the first movie was known for. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland recognized that the message of empathy versus conflict still carries a charge, and pick things up in a sweeping epic that doesn’t miss a heartbeat.

Victor Halperin’s White Zombie (1932) was the first zombie film, but George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) defined the modern genre. In 2002, 28 Days Later revived it. Now, nearly three decades later,