This has been a tough list to put together. I have selected many films that will be known to you all, but I have also included a couple that are lesser known – they are still brilliant films, and hopefully this list will help to expand your zombie viewing horizons! So onwards, the list:
10. 28 Days Later 2002, Danny Boyle – UK
The reason this is so high on the list is because of the fact that its characters are not undead (my preference in a zombie flick) – they are merely infected with a virus. The plot, which most of us already know: Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.
9. Braindead 1992, Peter Jackson – New Zealand
This was Peter Jackson’s fourth film (and is sometimes called Dead Alive) – it is a far cry from the quality directing we have seen in Lord of the Rings, but it is brilliant nevertheless. A young man’s mother is bitten by a “rat monkey.” She gets sick and dies, at which time she comes back to life, killing and eating dogs, nurses, friends, and neighbors. How can this film NOT be on the list – the bitch eats dogs!
8. Wild Zero 2000, Tetsuro Takeuchi – Japan
Okay – like 28 days later the characters are not undead, but this film has to be included on the list because it is not just about movies – it is about movies and rock’n'roll! What combination could be better?! After a meteor strike aliens attack the earth and begin turning people into zombies. Rockers Guitar Wolf, Bass Wolf and Drum Wolf aswell as their rock and roll blood brother ace and his true love Tobio are caught in the middle of this madness.
7. White Zombie 1932, Victor Halperin – USA
This is the film that created the genre! It relies on atmosphere and expressionistic sets and acting to convey a pretty potent sense of dread. The coolest thing is that it stars Bela Lugosi as Murder Legendre, who can turn people into zombies with the power of his mind!
6. Return of the Living Dead 1985, Dan O’Bannon – USA
When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to re-animate as they go on a rampage through Louisville, Kentucky seeking their favorite food, brains (of course!)
5. The Evil Dead 1981, Sam Raimi – USA
Five friends go up to a cabin in the woods where they find unspeakable evil lurking in the forest. They find the Necronomicon and the taped translation of the text. Once the tape is played, the evil is released. One by one, the teens become deadly zombies. With only one remaining, it is up to him to survive the night and battle the evil dead. A brilliant film by the equally brilliant Sam Raimi.
4. Shaun of the Dead 2004, Edgar Wright – UK
Shaun doesn’t have a very good day, so he decides to turn his life around by getting his ex to take him back, but he times it for right in the middle of what may be a zombie apocalypse… But for him, it’s an opportunity to show everyone he knows how useful he is by saving them all. All he has to do is survive… And get his ex back. This is such a great zombie movie that it ranks as the 245th best movie of all time on IMDB!
3. Dellamorte Dellamore 1994, Michele Soavi – Italy
This movie is actually not so much a zombie film (but believe me, there are zombies galore) as an examination of life, death, love, and the boundaries between. The film is based on the life of a graveyard caretaker who has to kill the various zombies that pop up during the night. This truly is one of the best zombie movies around.
2. Night of the Living Dead 1968, George A. Romero – USA
This is the birth of the modern zombie film. It is also one of the scariest horror films ever made. The film set in concrete Romero’s position as the greatest zombie film maker in history. The radiation from a fallen satellite might have caused the recently deceased to rise from the grave and seek the living to use as food. This is the situation that a group of people penned up in an old farmhouse must deal with.
1. Dawn of the Dead 1978, George A. Romero – USA
Ten years after Night of the Living Dead, Romero gave us another astonishingly brilliant zombie film – Dawn of the Dead. It surpasses its predecessor and definitely deserves top place on this list. Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter, and his television-executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.
Bonus: Zombi 2 1979, Lucio Fulci – Italy
This tense and gory postmodern zombie film is included for one reason: the underwater fight between a zombie and a shark! You can watch the trailer here.
I definatly agree with some of them but
dawn of the dead
plane dead
day of the dead and land of the dead (my fave)
are amazing u must watch
if you now any films similar to land of the dead add me
mattyhlfc@hotmail.co.uk
To Diogenes(the false one commenting at#120)): And who might you be? Impersonating me are yah? Not bad.You got the jumbled-no- sence and mispellings almost right.
Almost.
but not quite.
the socket bare
dry bone
dead path where searchers stagger over
dark cold with a b-movie graveyard fog
dangling from the bare socket
is a living eye
The eye moves to the light
away from its dried sheath
doppleganger zombie
like a *****ual act on the edge of the word spoken
trapped in a corridor of injustice, becoming a dummy cosmic joke.
the zombie “dusts” off the maggots
a crack of sun in the brick.
and brick and brick and brick.
The mantle on the other side displays a framed photogragh
of a sunset
overturned furniture and
two fingers in the light socket
zombie man
breakdancing.
break dance zombie!
beakdance!
Doo-Wop Zombie. Ahmen, standing on the blue fog= a nightly sea of charm and romance. a dance with motor running out on the phonogragh.
could be an extended truckstop
one bite outah the apple pie and go. fork left on saucer.
could dust storms blow
It happens all the time. I was telling Duke the other day that the whole reason I wasn’t blogging anymore was because of the Zombies.
“The What.”, he asked in a rather abrupt pop of a sound in his throat.
“you know…zombies, you know?”
“oooohhh, right! the zombies. of coarse.” Duke said
I said,” You know, Zombies have two tounges.”
“They Wha?”
I said, “yeh, two tounges…but thats not important. Blogging, thats what I was talking about. Those Zombies have side-tracked me off coarse”
“The what now?” Duked asked
” The Zombies Aaaarrhh, Off Coarse! Rough mossy dew!….Nevermind Duke!”
Duke: ok.
Duke rose from the table. There were no roses anymore,
because the zombies had taken over,
and all was grey
Sombody had to turn off the fog machine
and mop up the fake syrup blood dye.
the nights eye, video transmission, the fields of barbed wire, a swaying spot light apon the roaming surging
zombie brain
peering down from the watch tower
it sees the skinny mad hell hounds sweeping through the gore
the fallen empire left twitching
Zombies dont care
the watch now
waiting
they wait as extras in zombie masks and grease paint.
It’s bitter cold and the coco has all ready gotten cold in the cup.
the call goes out and they can all hear the battle cry, “action!”
a sliver of the zombie retina
disolving in
what looks like
milk
what looks like milk
dries out and the plastic dish in the sun
the retina sliver is almost crystalized
grey goo attempting to focus
or frost over
sludge of the dead
with fowl beggars
frozen birds on the ledge
i can see them in the scope
feed them by the rope
the bending of time
the dried-out/ ill-balanced world
imaging days on end-trudging through a desert.
without.. bare…
there are no thoughts
but an unbarable/unbreakable thread stretches forever away
this is what is the zombie
a little world all my own
in petrified
nullified
ossified
where is the nourishment?
where is the love?
the sour taste of too much?
this world is not my own………..the zombie questions it’s self
self?
still before this shadow
on baked dirt
the zombie
still
thinking
not to worry
the sun has burnt this flesh
over and over before
Diogenes: so, diogenes, how’s this zombie comment thing going for you?
diogenes: ok, i geuss. it’s a little odd yeh, but i like to read my words in the mirror
Diogenes: run that by me again, i hear voices outside my window below and they sound like my own….but twisted versions in some way…are you my double?
diogenes: you mean, am i your zombie?
Big D does his “laughing through the nose” discomfort reply
ah zombie retribution and it’s B-movie finest.
I saw Dellamorte Dellamore when I was just a kid, couldn’t have been older than 11, over 10 years ago now and I thought it was amazing. Until now, I couldn’t remember the title (and didn’t realise that Rupert Everett was the star!) Thanks so much for including it here, now I can look for it to buy.
Just reading back over the other comments, I think I am the only person alive (or at least the only person I know) who thought Shaun Of The Dead was utter garbage. Dellamorte Dellamore is the only zombie flick here that actually has any brains (pardon the pun.) I’ve just discovered it’s alternative title is Cemetery Man. Doesn’t sound quite so eerie but it’s easier to remember anyway!
28 Days Later was a horrible experience for me. I don’t really like horror movies. It’s not that I don’t appreciate them, I just get really freaked out. I think that’s why my husband makes me see them. He knows I’ll do the stereotypical squealing and jumping into his arms thing. I was 8 months pregnant when I went to see it. Oh it was SO scary. I had nightmares for days.
Yeah seen a couple, most you people are right resident evil shouldn’t be on the list… Fisrt one alright, second crap all…28 days later aint that scary Lizim setle down.
Resident Evil IS a zombie movie so I see no reason why it shouldn’t be on the list, whereas 28 Days Later technically isn’t. I guess the people are zombie-like but they’re not zombies, they didn’t rise from the dead, they were living people infected with a virus that made them revert to their most basic instincts.
Huge fan of both Shaun of the Dead and Evil Dead.Good choices!
P.S. The first time I ever saw Dead Alive (Braindead), I was about 8.I had a fairly strong stomach, thanks to my fathers love of slasher flicks, but this one left me having nightmares for weeks.
Dellamorte Dellamore-i saw a long while ago but it was called the cemetary man thought it was slightly lame same with shawn of the dead i wouldnt rate them badly but wouldnt include them on my list the latter could have been funnier
Shaun of the Dead is a modern day comedy/Zombie classic! This is no exaggeration, anyone who has not seen it should, and if you don’t like it get some help.
T$: The only movie on this list I’ve watched is Shaun of the Dead
Lucio Fulci’s Zombie. This Movie Rocks. The Scene Were A Woman Gets a Piece Of Wood In Her Eye Is One Of The Best Scenes In Horror Movie History.
I was an extra in the Nudist Camp Zombie Massacre – filmed by Tim Davis. What has ever happened to the movie? It’s been a couple of years and I’ve not heard anything.
What’s up?
Thanks,
Roger
naturerunner@yahoo.com
shaun of the dead is th sh*t man!! if u havnt watched, then u have missed out!!
diary of the dead was absolutely horrible! its not worth the time to see it. 28 days later isnt really a zombie movie so i dont think it should be on here even tho its in my top 5 all time horror favs. and the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead is better than the old dawn of the dead even though the older dawn of the dead is Romero’s best.
The dead that rise and tower within
The weak spark flickering above and falling down
The audience watching the dawn on the screen. It has an acidic odor.
The flesh is the under layers of greasepaint, latex and glue
the empty skulls of sleep
and the crucible containing the soul
Zombie maws
are bellowing out cemetery fog
the only thing that resonates from the toll afterwards is the monotonous droll
the pathetic sadness that rinses itself in vacant halloween mockery
where an oversized ribcage clutters the room of the zombie kept under dry ice
underneath
but the light of the eye flickers still
and the illusion begins to fill the tounge
with
a close proximity to words
where the creeping skin ends
down that dark alley there (Floyd points in the dirction for the local news)
somehow one managed to make its way across the border. got outside the gate.
under the bridge and over the river on a garbage bardge
somehow found its way into town
when everybody was sleeping
it began by preying on rats
then cats
then dogs
had a little shanty of sorts
at the end of that alley there(Floyd waves his arm in the direction for the documentary crew)
“I started to feed him afterhours”
“he allways grabbed what I gave him, with relish”
“never said much”
“grunted mostly”
“I swear it never occured to me that it was a zombie”
“It was so human-like”
As Halloween approached, the news team needed a scoop.
They latched onto the documentary crew, who already had a story…had been working on “It” for sometime.
The same “It” for sometime.
and the EyE roamed like a helicopter insect over the deserted plain
where the building once stood.
Just the gate was left, poking through.
Floyd left the scraps in the pizza box,never thinking that “IT” would be an issue with the favorite alley cat that had made itself known for weeks.
IT waited in the dark shadowed corner of bricks cold and watching under the bulb of hunger.,almost like a staged event, where the knarled fake teeth ran like flustered memory cheeks over nature’s moss, growig within the brain of decayed zombie excursions.
There was a map and the lines led to this very plaace in time.
Where paper cut-out skulls and jackolanterns poked out like eyes in the windows of All Hallow’s Eve.
It seemed like a story was being made up by some computer talker in the middle of the night/morn.
“Where were we going?” and “What were they after?”
how many times around the earth
a desolate lop-sided equator
rollerskating zombies of the nineteen eighties. “-put another dime in the juke box baby.”
around and around
like a ghost story skipping beats in a never-ending nostalgia
a desolate lop-side equator
“Where were we going?” and “What were they after?”
They all showed up in the early crystalized frost of another dawn.
Vast stretches of parking lot on the outer skirts of Baltimore had cars removed for the event. They were temporarily parked at various points throughout the surrounding area.
Real fog was rolling in off the freeway underpass.
Crawling like a vagabond.
Floyd read about it in the paper.
a small square, he tore haphazzardly, and placed within his breast pocket. Thumbed his way out there, without thinking what might happen next.
All he knew was that he carried within himself, “IT’s” “zombie matter”.
Diogenes: What are you on? (Did I ask you that on another list, or was that someone else? If it was you, I’m really worried!!!!)
this isint kool at all…..
In Evil Dead they are not zombies per se. They are more like demons who likes to kill people in the most brutal way. But it’s a good list indeed.
Haha Braindead is a legend film
that list kinda sucks. first of all, 28 weeks later is far scarier than 28 days later. And the newer version of dawn of the dead blows the old one away hands down.
glad you pointed out that the 28 days ‘rage infected’ humans, are not really zombies.
oh and ‘yourname’
28 weeks later is by no means scarier.. it is simply more violent and fast paced. The fear of 28 days later comes from the total isolation. Sure, Danny Boyle could have made it more action packed, and gory, but then it would have lost a lot of it’s integrity. It isnt about cheap thrills, it is about and overwhelming and realistic portrayal of what could happen.
And, do your research, i think you will find that the original dawn of the dead was vastly above the remake. The remake was totally beneath the original. For one, the contextual importance and rellevance of the original is immense. A female and African american lead characters, also the original has an important view on the consumerism driven society in which it was filmed.
bah!
I personally think that 28 days later is a great film, however it does not belong on the list. The movie is based on a virus, not actually living dead, while Resident Evil is.
Anyone who is a true zombie film fan will know the 3 basic ground breaking movies-Dawn-Day-Night “of the living dead” by G.Romero..also a good one “Land of the Dead,” and the new Day of the Dead with Mena Suvari in it…another “to see” movie is the remake of Night of the Living Dead from 1990.
These by my opinion, coming from a fanatics’ oint of view are oldies but goodies.
(Quote)
“I personally think that 28 days later is a great film, however it does not belong on the list. The movie is based on a virus, not actually living dead, while Resident Evil is.”
But wasn’t resident evil based on a virus (the T-Virus)??
What? No Redneck Zombies? A horrible film, but worth the laugh if you can rent it cheap enough!
good list. except I’ve seen delamorte delamore and i think it is terrible regardless of its artsy tone. not enough focus on the zombie aspect for me. also the remake of dawn of the dead is good but nowhere good as the original. special effects are just masking for what a movie lacks (transformers for example was a terrible movie that looked pretty good). maybe put undead here in its place.
it’s not true where is the 28 weels later and resident evil
28 days later is not a zombie movie, it is a movie about living people that are infected by a “rage” virus.
Zombies are dead people, corpses that are reanimated and their only instinct is to eat whatever gets in their way.
I don´t specially love Resident Evil, but it is more of a zombie movie than 28 days later.
Wild zero.. i remember that movie. That b movie was pretty fckin awesome. Fighting zombies with a guitar pick is unreal. : )
I never understood why stupid movies like Return of the Living Dead or Phantasm are always in best horror movies lists..
This list is stupid resident evil would be my top choice the fact that its not on here at all is a rip
Return of the living dead is a classic zombie movie!! If you think not then truely your not a fan of zombie films and your opinion means *****.
WHAT….WHERE IS RESIDENT EVIL. ALL TIME BEST ZOMBIE MOVIES EVER. just amazing movies in general. they should be on the list.
I have seen most of the movies here but still I have to say I Am Legend is better.
shaun of the dead is beautiful i hope
u r enjoy to watch this hahaha
im black american david obama
the new dawn of the dead was a great movie!!!
Shaun of the Dead was so awesome!!!!