Given how persistent zombies are, it’s only fitting that the 28 Days Later franchise roar back to life only seven months after its previous release. The newest entry, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, picks right up after its predecessor’s cliffhanger ending when Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and his minions, The Fingers, saved teenage protagonist Spike (Alfie Williams). The hooligans, all also named Jimmy, wear moppy blonde wigs and remain fiercely loyal to their leader, the self-proclaimed offspring of Satan.

Spike may not have fit into the isolated, traditionalist community he came from, but he’s even more out of place among the murderous Jimmys. Crystal and his goons have a fondness for violent initiation rituals, skinning survivors, and the Teletubbies. While forced to join or die, Spike is a Finger in name, but never spirit.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) is still toiling away in his bone-covered domicile. It’s here that he frequently interacts with Alpha zombie Samson (Chi Lewis-Perry), who has developed a taste for the doctor’s morphine. Through these chemically fueled get-togethers, Kelson has begun to see a faint glimmer of humanity in the undead. Crystal, on the other hand, can only see the bloodshed they cause and embraces it as a virtue. These two opposing worldviews cannot co-exist for long.

28 Years Later ended with a conceptually deranged yet beautiful-in-execution sequence focused on finding peace amid the heartbreak of death. Happily, screenwriter Alex Garland and new director Nia DaCosta don’t backtrack on those oddball tendencies for The Bone Temple. Specifically, this entry oscillates between theology-heavy dialogue scenes reminiscent of Ordet and gnarly gross-out slayings that would make Herschell Gordon Lewis gleefully clap his hands. Embracing those opposing ambitions isn’t what any studio executive or algorithm would recommend for a “proper” legacy sequel.

As executed, though, the varying aesthetics deftly communicate post-apocalyptic chaos. There are no rules in the fallen world. Any day could be your last. The staggering horrors of living through the unthinkable have inspired brutes (Crystal) and nurturers (Kelson) alike. That volatility informs both the barbarism of the squelching violence and the offbeat charm of two dudes getting high together. DaCosta’s filmmaking versatility makes it a blast rather than disorienting to see where the film’s warped imagination goes next.

Intimate scenes of Samson and Kelson interacting, for instance, are so effective because of their stripped-down (sometimes literally), unhurried nature. The flair for vulnerable, tight-knit dialogue DaCosta showed in her directorial debut, Little Woods, echoes through the compelling human/zombie exchanges.

Simultaneously, she deftly establishes Crystal and his brethren as kooky without sacrificing their menace. Stuck in a permanent adolescent mindset, the Jimmys have a rigid, literal interpretation of theology and happily babble about Teletubbies lore. None of that diminishes Crystal’s potently ominous air. Even when just sitting at a dinner table making jokes to his followers and captives, DaCosta subtly uses tilted camera angles or uneasy silence to reinforce his prowess. When it’s time for the Jimmys to unleash brutality, her unflinching vision remains as compelling.

Bone Temple’s middle section sometimes feels like switching channels between a Funny Games pastiche and a zombie-themed hangout movie. That’s a heavy compliment, since both modes are incredibly gripping. Garland’s 28 Days Later was a rapid-fire, ADHD vision conveying the experience of enduring a zombie outbreak. DaCosta, meanwhile, realizes The Bone Temple as an act of witnessing. Audiences observe rather than outrun humanity’s worst impulses and the surprising potential depth of zombies.

What’s frustrating is how Garland handles Spike. Clearly, more fascinated by the dichotomy between Kelson and Crystal, he frequently lets the threads of the coming-of-age story slip away. This time around, Spike is backgrounded, reduced to reaction rather than action. Granted, The Bone Temple works just fine even while pushing Spike to the margins. However, given that it is very much a continuation of its predecessor, how it does and doesn’t work within the larger narrative is important to note. And in that regard, the feature struggles.

Making that shortcoming go down more smoothly are the incredibly evocative performances. Fiennes channels big Mr. Boss from Smiling Friends energy for this iteration of Kelson. It’s a vibe he excels in, particularly in his quietly amusing line deliveries. O’Connell, meanwhile, now has a second great horror baddie under his belt with his terrific Jimmy Crystal performance. He effortlessly makes the scared adolescent Crystal from 28 Years Later’s prologue evident while inspiring goosebumps with his monstrousness. It’s truly impressive how well he balances the character’s raggedness with a palpably intimidating aura.

The MVP among the supporting players, though, is Emma Laird as Jimmima. With plastic butterfly wings on her back, a giggle constantly on her lips, and an unquenchable bloodlust driving her every move, she’s terrifying. Laird is a capricious riot, like this film’s Chop Top from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.  Meanwhile, Lewis-Perry is sublime at handling the increased depth of Samson.

In typical legacy sequels (horror or otherwise), newly assembled actors like Lewis-Perry, O’Connell, and Laird would do little more than sit around, looking awestruck at franchise veterans and repeating lines from earlier films. Happily, The Bone Temple lets the 28 Days Later universe grow.

Offering up such a fresh tableau really lets DaCosta’s filmmaking instincts soar, particularly in a bombastic climactic set piece that’s nothing short of enthralling. Granted, The Bone Temple doesn’t fully explore every weighty theme it introduces. Garland’s weird decision to sideline Spike leaves much pathos-based potential on the table. However, even those jagged shortcomings reflect what a commendably audacious—and entertaining— exercise this is. Here’s one horror franchise that more than justified coming back after just a seven-month breather.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple stomps into theaters on January 16.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Trailer: