Zombie Movies

A list of the top 30 best scary zombie movies of all time. Although they’ve always been popular, in the last few years, the public has gone zombie-crazy. There are now TV shows, comic books, novels and computer games devoted to the shuffling dead, but what are the greatest zombie films ever made?

1. Dawn of the Dead (1978)

George Romero’s second dead movie is the greatest zombie flick of all time. A group of survivors are holed up inside a suburban mall, where they desperately try to keep hordes of undead at bay.

2. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

This is the movie that created the entire genre. It was made in black and white on a very low budget, but it manages to create an eerie and forboding atmosphere. A small group of people barricade themselves inside a remote farmhouse and try to fight off the undead that surround them. The best bits: “They’re coming to get you Barbara!”, the first zombie attack in the cemetery, zombies breaking through the windows, the tension and arguments between the characters, the little dead girl… and pretty much everything in the movie!

3. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The top zombie comedy, “Shaun of the Dead” stars Nick Frost and Simon Pegg
fun use of everyday items to fight off zombies. The Best bits: When the survivors trick the zombies by pretending to be dead, record-throwing scene.

4. Dawn of the Dead (2004)

This was officially a remake, but it is nothing like the original. In fact, apart from being set in a shopping mall, it’s a totally different movie and definitely worth watching.

5. 28 Days later (2002)

The fast-moving virus-plagued monsters in 28 Days Later might not technically be zombies, but this is a good post-apocalyptic survival story with lots of action and a great soundtrack. It stars Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleason . It was followed by a sequel, 28 Weeks Later (2007)

6. Return of the Living Dead (1985)

This horror comedy manages to be funny and scary at the same time.
This was the first movie in which the zombies moaned, “Braaaains!”

7. Day of the Dead (1985)

The third of George Romero’s dead movies has a cool, paranoid atmosphere with a group of soldiers and scientists holed up in a bunker. They are capturing zombies and trying to study them. It features one of the best jump scares in movies in the scene where the hands burst out of the wall.

8. Zombieland (2009)

This horror comedy stars Woody Harrelson and jesse Eisenberg as survivors gleefully battling hordes of zombies. Taking its cues from games like Dead Rising and books like Max Brooks’ “Zombie Survival Guide,” The climax in a theme park is the perfect playground for zombie battles and the movie features a hilarious cameo by Bill Murray.

9. World War Z (2013)

Now, if you’ve read the Max Brooks-penned novel of the same name you likely recognized nothing — nothing — about the movie. Despite a completely different plot, characters, and zombies that couldn’t be less recognizable, the movie does a great job of capturing the global impact of a fast-spreading zombie pandemic. The sheer massive scale of action scenes are unmatched in zombie movie history.

10. Fido (2006)

If you’ve ever fantasized about having your own zombie pet, zombie bodyguard, or zombie housekeeper, then “Fido” is your kind of movie. It’s been described as a cross between “Night of the Living Dead” and “Lassie,” although it is clearly a comedy film. Fido is a house-broken zombie thanks to a collar that renders him harmless and obedient—most of the time. Billy Connolly plays the title character, and offers probably the best acting job done by anyone portraying the living dead.

11. Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Although this 1990 remake is not as good as the original 1968 version, this movie is worth watching too and there are some changes in character and plot along the way lead to entertaining twists.

12. Dead Snow (2009)

A Norwegian movie featuring Nazi Zombies with equal parts gore and humor in the snow-covered mountains.

13. Land of the Dead (2005)

The fourth George Romero zombie film was a little disappointing but it is a top quality zombie flick. Survivors holed up in a city surrounded by the undead and the ultimate zombie killing machine, an armoured truck called Dead Reckoning.

14. Night of the Creeps (1986)

15. Planet Terror (2007)

An entertaining but over-the-top homage to the genre from director Robert Rodriguez. It features Josh Brolin as a doctor and Rose McGowan with a machine-gun for a leg.

16. Zombie AKA Zombi 2 (1979)

An Italian zombie movie from director Lucio Fulci.

But it also had the most gruesome scene ever filmed featuring a zombie impaling a woman’s eyeball on a shard of glass. The weirdest bit: An underwater fight between a zombie and a shark. The best bit: When the people decide to take a nap in a cemetery just as the dead are about to rise.

17. Warm Bodies (2013)

A zombie romance movie

18. Boy Eats Girl

19. Rec (2007)

A Spanish film shot in the found-footage style. All the action take place inside a Barcelona apartment building that is overrun by a quick-spreading virus that turns residents and rescuers into mindless, bloodthirsty zombies. There are plenty of moments that will make you jump out of your seat. It was later remade in the United States as Quarantine (2008).

20. Resident Evil (2002)

21. Re-Animator (1985)

This movie is loosely based on a HP Lovecraft story and features a brilliant but devious scientist named Herbert West, who preforms laboratory experiments at a university and tries to bring dead cadavers back to life. Best bit: The talking severed head.

22. City of the Living Dead (1980)

23. Burial Ground (1981)

24. Pontypool (2008)

This clever take on the genre has a radio disc jockey snowed-in at his studio as he gradually realizes the station is under attack. As he reports the strange happenings, the dead creep closer.

25. Versus (2000)

A Japanese zombie movie featuring samurai-style battles between the living and the dead.

26. Dance of the Dead (2008)

A High-school comedy with some good zombie-killing scenes. A small group of teen nerds and outcasts must save the high school prom when the undead crash the bash.

27. The Dead (2010)

A realistic zombie movie where two survivors battle the undead in the African desert.

28. Plague of the Zombies (1966)

This British horror gem is set in the English countryside, where a mysterious ailment is killing off the residents of a small village and a newly-arrived doctor is trying to figure out what’s going on. The film has once of the best rising-from-the-grave scenes of all time.

29. Cemetery Man (1994)

AKA Dellamorte Dellamore. Rupert Everett was playing a cemetery worker who just wants someone to love. This film features a number of entertaining scenes and situations, including a pack of zombie boy scouts, and a living dead severed head (in a bride’s veil)

30. White Zombie (1932)

“White Zombie” is an old black and white movie featuring zombies created by voodoo. It features Bela Lugosi at his creepy best and some surprisingly scary-looking zombies.

More Zombie Films

Night of the Comet
Evil Dead
Shock Waves
The Video Dead
Dead & Buried
Flight of the Living Dead
Dead Alive
Blind Dead
Alien Dead
Army of Darkness
C.H.U.D.
My Boyfriend’s Back
Dead Heat
Demons
Diary of the Dead
House of the Dead
Oasis of the Zombies
Route 666
The Serpent and the Rainbow

The Top 10 Zombie Movie Quotes

1. “When there’s no more room in hell the dead will walk the earth.” Dawn of the Dead (1978)

2. “They’re coming to get you, Barbara.” Night of the Living Dead (1968)

3. “You’re all going to die down here.” Resident Evil (2002)

4. “Don’t let them bury me. I’m not dead!” – The Serpent and the Rainbow

5. “In the brain and not the chest. Head shots are the very best.” Fido

6. “In those moments where you’re not quite sure if the undead are really dead, dead, don’t get all stingy with your bullets.” – Zombieland (2009)

7. “Get that damn screwdriver out of my head!” – Return of the Living Dead Part 2

8. “At a certain point in your life you realize you know more dead people than living” – Cemetery Man

9. “Yeah, they’re dead. They’re all messed up.” – Night of the Living Dead (1968)

10. “You see? You just can’t trust anyone. The first girl I let into my life and she tries to eat me.” – Zombieland (2009)

Zombie Movie Mashups

1. Who’s Eating Gilbert Grape
2. Ten Things I Ate About You
3. Brain Man
4. 21 Chomp Street
5. Hey Dude, Where’s My Brain?
6. Dirty Rotting Scoudrels
7. Eat the Parents
8. Dead Men Walking
9. Bite Club
10. Honey I Ate the Kids
11. Guess Who’s Eating Us For Dinner
12. Shuffler’s List
13. When Harry Ate Sally
14. The Quick and the Undead
15. I Cadaver Be Your Woman
16. A Walk to Dismember
17. Things To Chew In Denver When You’re Dead
18. Zombie Apocalypse Now
19. Back to the Future of the Living Dead
20. No Country For Dead Men
21. Star Wars: Return of the Living Dead
22. 300 Zombies
23. Zombies on a Plane