Like Zombie, Like Film
Zombies, like the movies they star in, come in many shapes and sizes. Some zombies are quick. Some zombies are slow. Some zombies are easy to handle. Some zombies just won’t quit. Let’s take a gentle stroll, or terrified sprint, through some fine examples of this genre.
I Walked With A Zombie (1943)
This cheap but determined film has both atmosphere and scares as a nurse on a Caribbean plantation puzzles over a woman’s mysterious condition as she falls for her patient’s husband.
RKO, I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
Chills, thrills, and biting political commentary mark the launch of the modern zombie era as director George A Romero charts the terror of rural Pennsylvanians and their vulnerable flesh.
Image Ten, Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Deathdream (1974)
In a still-relevant horror film riffing on the trauma of battle, a Vietnam vet returns after his family was told he’d passed away, but their relief turns to dread as his behavior turns more ominous.
Dead Walk Company, Dead of Night (1974)
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974)
A small-town inspector gets the shock of his life when the usual suspects turn out to be the unusual undead. Some fans consider this tale of mortal mayhem a lyrical, if underrated, classic.
Star Films S.A., Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974)
Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
Romero’s sequel to Night Of The Living Dead takes place in a chopping mall—I mean shopping mall—as blood and guts spoil the consumerist mood of an increasingly panicked populace.
Laurel Group, Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Zombi 2 (1979)
There’s plenty of intense gore, but the slight narrative of this Italian film might leave an empty feeling in between the shocks, which include a memorable underwater zombie-vs-shark fight.
Variety Film Production, Zombie 2 (1979)
Night Of The Comet (1984)
In this satire of just about everything in sight, two Valley girls join up with a Valley dude as they alternate fleeing zombies and the scary scientists who want them for medical experiments.
Atlantic Entertainment Group, Night of the Comet (1984)
Day Of The Dead (1985)
Although it’s not the best of the trilogy, director Romero expertly combines vivid gore with a dystopian view of society as survivors in Florida flee to a missile silo as zombies gather above.
Laurel Entertainment Inc., Day of the Dead (1985)
Re-animator (1985)
Dark humor pushes this 1980s gorefest into a witty snicker-splatter showing some serious brain power—which can’t be said of the headless professor that a medical student imprudently revives.
Empire Pictures, Re-Animator (1985)
The Return Of The Living Dead (1985)
More 1980s wit turns up in this tale of a government experiment gone wrong. It’s a gas as a pair of bungling warehouse workers turn Kentucky cadavers into curiously contorting flesh eaters.
Cinema '84, The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Night Of The Creeps (1986)
Gleefully mixing horror subgenres, this film presents creepy frat boys unleashing a plague of creepy alien slugs after the hapless students abduct an ice-cold body for a campus prank.
TriStar, Night of the Creeps (1986)
Dead Alive (1992)
Peter Jackson is Lord of the Gore after a rat-monkey turns a romance-meddling helicopter mom into a more serious risk, as her son’s cover-ups unleash undead mayhem on the neighbors.
Cemetery Man (1995)
This quirky Italian B-movie features a frustrated cemetery custodian who just can’t keep the zombies down, and they’re vexing his budding romance. Amusing if borderline incoherent.
Scooby-Doo On Zombie Island (1998)
Likely of more interest to Scooby-Doo fans than zombie aficionados, this tale of these intrepid animated sleuths reveals a haunted house in Louisiana that inflicts surprisingly intense scares.
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
Versus (2000)
An inmate escapes from his cell and encounters the Yakuza and a girl they’ve abducted in the Forest of Resurrection, so no surprise when there’s undead lurking in this Japanese cult fave.
WEVCO Produce Company, Versus (2000)
Wild Zero (2000)
Not exactly a film for the ages, but this enjoyable battle of Japanese greasers and the undead features lots of rock and roll as this road movie unrelentingly speeds down its path of credulity.
Dragon Pictures, Wild Zero (1999)
Resident Evil (2002)
Dubious lab protocols turn scientists into zombies, so commandos have to secure the building and defeat a supercomputer to protect a world innocently playing the much better video game.
New Legacy, Resident Evil (2002)
28 Days Later (2002)
Bike courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma to find London devastated after activists liberated an infected chimp. He joins survivors in search of a zombie-free zone.
DNA Films, 28 Days Later (2002)
Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
Remaking a Romero classic sounds a bit dicey, but critics felt Zack Snyder did a great job with his shopping mall mayhem, even if Romero’s sly social commentary got lost in the shuffle.
Strike Entertainment, Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Shaun Of The Dead (2004)
Simon Pegg plays a once-boring store clerk in over his head as he fights alarmingly persistent zombies and the indifference of Londoners in order to rescue his girlfriend and her mom.
Universal, Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Planet Terror (2007)
A Texas go-go dancer joins her ex to battle biochemically induced zombies, one of whom takes Cherry’s leg—quite a setback until she replaces it with a cybernetic pistol and grenade launcher.
Dimension Films, Planet Terror (2007)
Rec (2007)
This Spanish found-footage film trails an intrepid reporter following a medical team into an apartment building where her cameraman goes all shaky cam documenting the viral chaos.
28 Weeks Later (2007)
The US Army shows up in England to restore law and order among the few survivors of 28 Days Later, but before anyone can shout “mission accomplished,” the virus returns with a vengeance.
Fox Atomic, 28 Weeks Later (2007)
Zombieland (2009)
Starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin, a motley crew struggles to follow the rules of zombie survival as they search for a cameo-inducing LA refuge.
Juan Of The Dead (2011)
Political satire is safely couched in this slapstick buddy comedy about a Havana entrepreneur who sees the undead and, naturally, vies to become your friendly neighborhood zombie swatter.
Soundchef Studios, Juan of the Dead (2011)
Warm Bodies (2013)
Roses are red, violets are blue. A self-aware zombie has fallen in love with you. Nicholas Hoult plays a zombie with a heart who feels ever more human from the love of a woman he rescued.
Summit Entertainment, Warm Bodies (2013)
World War Z (2013)
Brad Pitt plays a UN investigator globe-hopping to fight a virus that turns slow-moving people into fast-moving zombies. The plot is a bit of a mess, with the third act rewritten and reshot.
The Autopsy Of Jane Doe (2016)
Brian Cox plays the coroner father of a coroner son as they investigate whatever happened to Jane Doe. It’s a film with wonderfully creepy suspense, but is pretty light on the chase scenes.
IM Global, The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)
The Girl With All The Gifts (2016)
A girl immune to an insidious fungus may hold the key to humanity’s survival, if only the adults can get her to the right people. But hey, if they fail, maybe Netflix’s The Last Of Us will save us!
BFI Film Fund, The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)
Train To Busan (2016)
A South Korean express train features nonstop thrills layered with social commentary as a workaholic desperately attempts to save himself and the daughter he’s chronically ignored.
Next Entertainment World (NEW), Train to Busan (2016)
One Cut Of The Dead (2017)
A nefarious director summons up “real” zombies—before we see the making of this film for a fictional Zombie Channel, embedded in director Shinichiro Ueda’s clever mega-meta film.
ENBU Seminar, One Cut of the Dead (2017)
Blood Quantum (2019)
A zombie plague wipes out humanity—aside from an aboriginal community—in a twist showing the subgenre still has flesh on its bones, even if the film’s social commentary outshines its acting.
Prospector Films, Blood Quantum (2019)
Little Monsters (2019)
Lupita Nyong'o plays a teacher protecting her kindergarten charges from zombies in a film that some may find delightfully comedic, while others may flee from its upbeat, even musical, tone.
Screen Australia, Little Monsters (2019)
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)
After a decade, zombies have turned smarter—unlike this sequel. Nonetheless, this star-powered tale offers a reasonably entertaining time as our quarrelsome quartet seeks safety in Graceland.
Columbia, Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)
Train To Busan Presents: Peninsula (2020)
Best left to fans of the original, this sequel features a Korean Peninsula devastated by hordes of zombies, as a soldier and comrades fail to rival the thrills and chills of that infamous train ride.
Next Entertainment World (NEW), Peninsula (2020)
Army Of The Dead (2021)
Zack Snyder gets thieves to target an impregnable safe in zombie-infested Las Vegas before a nuke can destroy Sin City. The film overstays its welcome, but has the requisite blood and gore.
The Stone Quarry, Army of the Dead (2021)
Army Of Thieves (2021)
A daring heist trumps a budding zombie apocalypse in this prequel to Snyder’s Army Of The Dead, with director Matthias Schweighöfer also playing safe-cracking bank teller Ludwig Dieter.
Pantaleon Films, Army of Thieves (2021)
Final Cut (2022)
A remake of the Japanese One Cut Of The Dead (2017), this merrily meta film is enlivened by energetic performances as undead stars and extras turn out to be not so undead after all.
Getaway Films, Final Cut (2022)
Skills Development
Zombies have evolved, and can even show some remarkable verbal skills, but let’s not pretend becoming undead is a great career move, except possibly for certain actors. Nonetheless, zombies continue to surprise, as do the filmmakers who tell us their tales of torment and terror.
