George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) is the most influential zombie film, but is it also the best?The finest zombie movies are rated by how they employ zombies, how bizarre their locations are, how authentic their effects are, how much blood and mayhem they have, how skillfully they poke fun of civilization, how hilarious they are, or how terrifying they are.
White Zombie, starring Bela Lugosi as a witch doctor, is the first full-length "zombie" horror film and the first to popularize the idea of Haitian voodoo undead in Hollywood.
In the movie Murder, a man named Lugosi plays Svengali. He uses potions and powders to turn a young woman who is about to get married into a zombie. It's pretty dry and wooden, but it gave Rob Zombie an idea for a musical project.
Sam Raimi created The Dead Next Door and paid J. R. Bookwalter to direct it using the money from Evil Dead II. It was a SUPER 8 zombie action-drama with amateur acting that made you grimace and professional acting that astonished you.
A military private who has also been zombified convinces a bunch of lazy pals into believing they are "super soliders." Like Colin, the film is "told from the zombie's point of view," but it does it in a way that is both intelligent and humorous.
The film showcases Nyong'o's musical talent and Josh Gad's annoyingness.
Nightmare City is a crazy European horror movie about radioactive zombies who can think and use machine guns. The movie has a funny ending with zombies and a weird English dub.
Blood Quantum, directed by Jeff Barnaby, is a zombie movie that aims for the satirical and political edge that is often associated with the zombie subgenre, and it delves deeply into the everyday ills that come with colonialism.
Some white people, fleeing colonialism, really want its worst practices.
Slither was a B-movie zombie/alien mashup by James Gunn. Because of the similarities to Night of the Creeps, it lacks originality, but it's still a wonderful film.
In this zombie movie, killing bugs doesn't quite have the effect that was planned. The movie is an interesting mix of American zombie tropes and foreignness that is hard to place.
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), directed by Wes Craven, is a welcome return to the voodoo-style Haitian zombie and proof that it is still feasible to produce a "voodoo zombie" movie that is at least somewhat serious about scaring its audience.
In Juan of the Dead, Juan tries to profit off the fear and uncertainty by launching a company that spirals out of hand.
A nurse travels to the Caribbean to care for a zombie-infected patient and becomes caught in a mystery involving a local voodoo group.
Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino make a goofy zombie movie, Planet Terror, that's about destructive zombie/mutants created by a biological weapon to terrorize the southwestern countryside. It's really good at being that kind of film, and deserved to make far more at the box office.
63-minute German film Rammbock. Michael, a miserable person with delusions of grandeur, sneaks into the apartment he shares with his lover when there is a breakout of zombies.
Night of the Living Dead, remade in 1990 by special effects guru Tom Savini, is a faithful remake that does not attempt to change anything about the original picture. If the title weren't Night of the Living Dead, it would be considered a greater classic.
People that look like the slain guests are strolling the streets of a tiny New England seaside town. The undead here may behave independently.
Robert Englund portrays a presumably zombified village resident, while Jack Albertson portrays the quirky town coroner/mortician.
Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead is a post-apocalyptic zombie film with no lack of flair from a young Australian filmmaker. The picture is terrifying without being dour, emotive without sounding pretentious, and gruesome without fully sliding into the violent farce of Peter Jackson's Dead Alive or Bad Taste.
One Cut of the Dead is a humorous zombie film about actors attempting to live-stream a zombie short film.
One Cut of the Dead is a film on a shoestring budget and DIY mindset, depicting the creative energy and adaptability of low-budget filmmakers like as George Romero.
A former baseball pitcher and catcher hit the road together after the source zombie apocalypse. The zombies are both an obstruction and a continual reminder of what these troops have lost.
Hammer Horror made numerous famous monster pictures, like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, but they also produced a wonderful zombie movie, Plague of the Zombies. The zombies appear rotten and terrifying, and the film clearly draws inspiration from Night of the Living Dead in terms of its aesthetic.
The horror-comedy Dead Alive by Peter Jackson features a room full of zombies and a lawnmower that continues to operate despite being choked with 1,000 gallons of blood.
Dawn of the Dead, directed by Zack Snyder, is a leaner, action-packed, brutal contemporary zombie thriller that owes a lot to 28 Days Later. It has one of the finest opening scenes in the history of zombie movies.
Zombieland is a zombie comedy set in the United States that brings together survivors who are strangers to one another rather than pals. It has truly dangerous zombies and strikes a near-perfect mix between humorous violence and character-driven fun.
Train to Busan is a film that delivers both popcorn entertainment and heartfelt drama in equal measure. It comes to an exciting conclusion with action and makeup effects that I've never seen before.
Lucio Fulci's The Beyond is a zombie movie that combines a haunted house aesthetic with demonic possession, the living dead and ghostly apparitions, and is one of the most stylish of the Italian, zombie-featuring horror flicks.
2007 saw the release of Paranormal Activity and Romero's Diary of the Dead. REC is the best found-footage zombie film, combining zombie folklore with Catholic spirituality.
Everyone's phone would record a zombie outbreak in the digital era. This film offers an idea.
Pontypool's zombies are intellectual and otherworldly. I applaud it for taking the hard route and criticizing 21st century humanity's incapacity to connect and address important concerns.
Demons is a zombie movie about a movie theater full of strange people, like a pimp, a blind man, and a bunch of cool teens.
The screening of a horror movie and the subsequent breakout of zombification and demonization among the individuals in the audience are both orchestrated by a secret conspiracy. This leads to a meat grinder of practical effects brutality and the struggle to survive.
Zombi 2 is the greatest of its type, with more lunacy and violence. It features terrifying sequences that have become legendary.
George Romero's Night of the Living Dead is the most important zombie film ever made, as well as a very influential independent film.
28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead showed that zombies may be used for comedy.
Although Dawn is held in higher regard, Day of the Dead is my personal favorite of George Romero's zombie films, because it brings science back into zombie films.
Day of the Dead reimagines the typical Romero ghoul and introduces Bub, maybe the most famous zombie in Romero's body of work, who has a unique personality and even a sense of humor.
In 2002, the film 28 Days Later breathed new life into the traditional zombie film by making them a true menace. It gave birth to the current zombie film.
The science fiction film Re-Animator takes great pride in its clinical treatment to reanimated dead. As Herbert West, Jeffrey Combs portrays the crazy scientist who uses glowing green slime to bring the dead back to life.
Romero's Dawn of the Dead is a giant leap forward in terms of presentation, professionalism, thematic complexity and groundbreaking special effects. It takes place in a tacky mall overrun by the walking dead, and features iconic imagery that future zombie films attempted to duplicate or subvert.