The zombie pop culture boom of the 2000s and early 2010s had pretty much died off over the past several years, with spin-offs of “The Walking Dead” being the only remnant of a bygone media frenzy.

Of course, just like the undead themselves, it wasn’t truly gone for good, as the video game and later TV adaptation of “The Last of Us” brought it right back into the mainstream. A global pandemic in 2020 made stories about people being separated amid mass hysteria and the dangers of infection seem all too real.

Seems like a good time to make the long-awaited sequel to the British horror movie “28 Days Later.” The newest film, “28 Years Later,” sees returning director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland pick up nearly three decades after the original 2002 movie and essentially erase the “28 Weeks Later” sequel from 2007 out of this story’s continuity.

The thing about Boyle and Garland is you’re never really sure what you’re going to get. Sometimes you get sci-fi classics like “28 Days Later” and “Sunshine” or Oscar-winning dramas like “Slumdog Millionaire” (directed by Boyle) and “Ex Machina” (written and directed by Garland). Other times, you get Boyle’s “Yesterday” and Garland’s “Men,” both of which so completely miss the mark after such promise from their concepts and opening scenes.

Thankfully, with “28 Years Later,” it is a true return to form with both filmmakers bringing what they do best to the table, and although their styles are often acquired tastes, it’s exactly what these series needed after 18 years of lying dormant.

Twenty-eight years since the rage virus escaped a London biological weapons laboratory, Great Britain is still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, and some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway.

When one islander departs on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.

Though there are dozens of survivors and hundreds of infected in the film, the story mainly follows Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a scavenger; his wife, Isla (Jodie Comer), who is battling a mysterious illness; and their son, Spike (Alfie Williams), who is leaving the island for the first time.

In the tradition of this series, the prologue is very intense and quite scary, and then the main meat of the film is essentially three short films telling an overarching story that follows Spike’s journey. And experiencing the post-apocalyptic Britain from his point of view helps make the world more fully realized, even though we know there is so much more of this world that can be explored.

By this point, these feel a lot like the “Mad Max” films. You could set off in any compass direction and run into another group of survivors or infected and get a whole other movie’s worth of story. Ralph Fiennes’ former doctor, who’s lived on the mainland by himself for 25 years, and Jack O’Connell’s cult leader are great examples of what the next two planned films will bring.

In that sense, this is peak Boyle and Garland in the best of ways. Yes, you get the jarring, quick cuts and extreme shooting styles from Boyle, while the thought-provoking metaphors via sex and nature from Garland can be a bit much. But it all works so well for this story and heightens what could be a pretty standard post-apocalyptic movie.

Bringing back Boyle and Garland also means a proper return to a real British film. The first one is so unapologetically English, but the second one lost a lot of that identity with a U.S. military-focused story. Now it’s back and more British than ever.

A short scene on the island of an older man riding a bike past a group of kids — all disheveled and wielding bows and arrows — and him saying, “It’s tea time, lads,” says so much about this world. Even set in 2030, portraits of a younger Queen Elizabeth hang in many homes, and that sense of “Keep Calm and Carry on” permeates the village. Even amid the apocalypse, 4 o’clock means tea and biscuits.