But of all the subgenres of horror, one has dominated the spotlight
in recent years: Zombie and Zombie Apocalypse
movies.
Thus, to begin our countdown to Halloween (36 Days!), I
present the Ten Greatest Zombie Movies (in chronological
order).
To begin, the Rules: a Zombie isn’t a Zombie
isn’t a Zombie. White
Zombie, I Walked With a Zombie, Cast a
Deadly Spell, House of the Dead, and Reanimator,
all feature zombies of different varieties.
None of them make this list. Nor
do Frankenstein’s monster, Mummies, or
Vampires, all technically Walking Dead,
but not zombies. This list is of
Romero, Russo, and O’Bannon
style zombies only, MTV style zombies make the cut if they
are true zombies, but not if they are only zombie like (28 Days
Later).
1. Night
of the Living Dead (1968) – the first, the classic, the
film all other zombie films are judged on – and it wasn’t even supposed to be
zombies. Written by George A.
Romero and John A. Russo, Night
was originally supposed to be Ghouls - the traditional flesh-eating
undead creatures.
2. Dawn of the Dead (1978) – Romero and Russo split company after Night each
wanting to take the series in different directions. Romero’s follow-up was Dawn of the
Dead, produced by Italian horror master Dario
Argento. It closely follows
the same themes and tone as Night and is filled with Romero’s
brand of humor and social commentary.
3. Zombie (1979) – In Italy,
Argento reedited Dawn and released it as Zombi,
which spawned a series of sequels of its own, beginning with Lucio
Fulci’s Zombi 2 or – as it was released in America – Zombie. Fulci’s film –
like Argento’s reedit of Dawn - is more serious and more
graphically gory than the Romero films.
Iconic scenes include a woman getting her eye gouged out and a fight
between a zombie and a shark. Fulci went
on to make more of his own – unrelated – zombie films and the Zombi series
continued with one more official film and dozens of unofficial ones.
4. Return of the Living
Dead (1985) – While Romero continued the
Dead films, Russo began writing novels, starting with an
adaptation of Night and followed by Return of the
Living Dead. Russo’s Zombies
stayed relatively true to the classic Walking Dead zombies. But this 1985 film adaptation of the novel
did not. Anyone who thinks zombies feed
on human brains has seen, or at least heard references to, Dan O’Bannon’s
horror/black comedy Return of the Living Dead. Famous for its Ghouls’ hunger – and moaning –
for brains, as well as 80’s scream queen Linnea Quigley’s – a
hum – “wardrobe,” Return spawned two true sequels – one funny,
one not – and two in-name-only sequels – not funny and not really O’Bannon
style zombies.
5. Night of the Living
Dead (1990) – Romero, along with frequent collaborator/gore effects god Tom Savini as director, returned to the original
material to remake Night mostly to prevent someone else from
doing it. Not as creepy as the original
film, not as fun as Return, Savini’s
Night is good for a few scares and far exceeds the later
2006 remake.
6. Resident Evil (2002)
– This flick – more action than horror – based on the video game franchise of
the same name, is more flash than substance, but – along with its multiple
sequels (which are only in various degrees zombie movies – some are more in
line with not zombie movies featuring zombies) – is among the finest examples
of MTV Zombies and is a very fun film.
7. Dawn of the Dead
(2004) - Zack Snyder’s Dawn remake is an
even better example of MTV Zombies – fast moving, scary (if cheaply), intense,
somehow less realistic than the Romero zombie.
The two Dawns are among – if not
the - greatest zombie movies of all time. However, Dawn was only the
second greatest zombie film of ’04…
8. Shaun of the Dead (2004) – The film that made slow-moving, flesh-eating, rotting corpses cool again…and funny. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s “romantic comedy…with zombies” was, along with Snyder’s Dawn responsible for reigniting the zombie brushfire. Shaun is the Zombie genre’s Scream - a serious, but funny, loving attack on the conventions of the zombie movie. It even goes so far as to point out you’re not supposed to call them “zombies.”
9.
Land of the Dead (2005) – Romero’s
studio zombie film which was made thanks to the two films immediately
above. Sometimes called Romero’s
greatest zombie film, sometimes not looked at so favorably. Land is filled with the “biting”
social commentary of Romero’s former films and cameo’s several Romero regulars,
but also features some name actors and a budget.
10.
Diary of the Dead (2008) – Romero’s
follow up to Land and possibly a reboot of the Dead series,
Diary is my personal favorite of the second Dead trilogy
films. It comments not only on society –
social media especially – and commercialism – horror movies do better than
serious documentaries – but also on MTV zombies – “I told you dead things move
slow!”
So there you have it.
Ten Zombie films to sink your teeth into. Did your favorite make the list? Or was it left out? Was my list too Romero heavy? Not enough? Do you like Romero zombies, O’Bannon zombies,
or MTV zombies? Or are flesh-eating
zombies lame and there should be more voodoo zombie flicks.
Let me know your Zombie preferences in the comments below or
on my twitter page @nerdisnewcool.
Also, for a long but incomplete list of zombie films see
This Page on Wikipedia.
Nerd Is the New Cool, signing off.
