Zombies! ....how did it come to this?!
In 1929 W.B. Seabrook introduced the wider world to the notion of the ZOMBIE with "The Magic Island"; a biographical book about his journey through Haiti in which he encountered the Voodoo religion. Seabrook explains the myth as a Voodoo necromancer casting a spell upon a corpse to reanimate it, to make it do his evil bidding. This seems miles away from the flesh eating, virus infecting creature that Hollywood today portrays. So just how did this metamorphous take place? I look back over some of my favourite zombie movies to trace the evolution from humble Haitian origins to the apocalyptic monsters we have come to know today.
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- DirectorJames WhaleStarsColin CliveMae ClarkeBoris KarloffDr Henry Frankenstein is obsessed with assembling a living being from parts of several exhumed corpses.I start with a film which isn't exactly a zombie movie. Nevertheless, in understanding the "evolution" of the zombie in Hollywood representation, I think it's important to look at this story of reanimation. Namely, Frankenstein prefigures many of the themes that would eventually become synonymous to the zombie genre... that is to say; the hubris of man to his folly; the effects of abhorrent science; and the incapacity to control that which is set loose on the world. There is also a stylistic beauty in its Gothic visuals (even more wonderful in The Bride of Frankenstein) which can be put on a parallel to the 'noir' world of the bleak zombie apocalypse of movies to come.
- DirectorVictor HalperinStarsBela LugosiMadge BellamyJoseph CawthornA young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.The producers of White Zombie wanted to exploit the new zombie craze in popular culture by creating a movie that would emanate the success of such gothic horrors as Nosferatu (1922), Frankenstein (1931) or Dracula (1931). It's interesting to note how it borrows heavily from the European myth of the Vampire and transposes those images into the Haitian voodoo environment: the character 'Murder' Legendre (Bela Lugosi) looks rather like a Count Dracula and his abode looks more like a Romanian castle than something found in the Caribbean. Superficially at least, the myth of the zombie and the myth of the vampire were already being conjoined.
Considered mellow-dramatic and badly acted even in its own time, this quirky, Independent film could easily have been cast to the shadows of time, but it has been given something of a resurrection in modern times, namely due to the fact, with the rise of the prominence of the zombie in cinema, it can boast to having the first representation of a zombie on-screen. - DirectorJean YarbroughStarsDick PurcellJoan WoodburyMantan MorelandOn a spooky island, three stranded travelers find an evil doctor working with foreign spies and in control of zombies.I add this movie, not so much because it is a particularly good one, but simply because it typifies zombie representation in the movies at that time. It plays out something like a haunted mansion mystery with many secret passages, basements and strange characters, only that it is set on a Caribbean island with zombies instead of ghosts. The character Jeff (Mantan Moreland) as the Afro-American attendant was probably intended as a progressive character for the standards of the time, but his antics and behaviour are really quite hammy and stereo-typed by todays standards. Still, playing beside two leads who were as stiff as the undead themselves, he really comes across as the best thing about the movie and in fairness, if one can get past the context, his timing is quite comic. Again, like with White Zombie, the producers clearly borrow from the vampire myth by drawing on Dracula associations when representing the Master of the house, Dr. Miklos Sangre (Henry Victor). It may also be worth mentioning the nazi side plot as a sort of precursor to the nazi-zombies that would later became popular in the naughties. Of course, this was a wartime movie, so what better way to represent nazi sympathisers as a maniac Doctor who does the diabolical deed of raising the dead. As with many early zombie movies, in order to extricate a happy ending, they 'cheat' the zombie course by revealing it can be lifted, which, in this case in particular, seems to make little real sense at all.
- DirectorJacques TourneurStarsFrances DeeTom ConwayJames EllisonA nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.I walked with a Zombie is perhaps the most honest depiction of the zombie to its Voodoo origins. It's an eery, haunting piece but also beautiful in a dreamlike reality. What strikes me most, as a "B-movie" it so easily could have struck a gaudy tone or gone for the lowest common denominator; the islanders could have bet their drums in full African garb like some Hammer Horror movie, or perhaps they could have gone for the castle-on-the-hill motif with a vampire-esque plantation owner like in White Zombie. But instead IWWAZ takes a refreshingly subtle and parred back approach, and there is a real sense of trying to do justice to the authenticity of the myth and to its Caribbean surroundings. If you are looking for your typical murdering, malevolent zombies you won't find them here! Nor is there any "invasion threat" that is common to most other movies of its time which feature zombies, but, like with nurse Betsy (Frances Dee) slowly slipping away from the rational thought of her Western upbringing and succumbing to the superstitious beliefs of the Island, we see that THIS zombie can only exist perhaps, in the magic of a mysterious Caribbean.
- DirectorWilliam BeaudineStarsBela LugosiJohn CarradineGeorge ZuccoDr. Richard Marlowe uses a combination of voodoo and hypnosis in an attempt to revive his dead wife by transferring the life essences of several hapless young girls he has kidnapped and imprisoned in the dungeon beneath his mansion.Dr. Richard Marlowe (Bela Lugosi) uses voodoo magic to lure and entrance unsuspecting women, in the hope of using their life-force to resurrect his zombie wife back to full vitality.
While there may not be any 'army of zombies' or 'invasion threat' typical of zombies movies of the time, Voodoo Man still represents the typical themes and narrative present in a trashy B-movie of its kind. It touches upon Voodoo magic, yes, but mixes it with a slight dose of mesmerism, to give it a cocktail of mystic allure typical of contrived pulp fiction. The Great Bela Lugosi, who, as an actor was failing to land rolls worthy of his name, certainly stands out as the best thing about the movie, staring in a typical role of malevolent splendour. - DirectorUbaldo RagonaSidney SalkowStarsVincent PriceFranca BettoiaEmma DanieliWhen a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant vampire hunter.An infection has spread through the world and only one man finds himself immune; the rest of society turned into living dead! The Last Man on Earth is an adaptation of an 1954 novel called, "I am Legend". Actually, the living dead are best described as vampire like creatures: they rise from the dead, are nocturnal, suck blood, are scared of their own reflection, repelled by garlic and are best killed by a stake through the heart. Nevertheless this is a movie that is important in understanding the zombie evolution as ostensibly it bears all the hallmarks of what we would come to associate with it as a genre.
By necessity of a low budget, the drive of the movie shifts focus onto the human element of the story, but this possibly proves to be its strongest asset as Vincent Price, playing the part of Dr. Robert Morgan, manages to really encompass the pain of isolation as he must trudge through a bleak, lonely world as the last man on Earth. - DirectorJohn GillingStarsAndré MorellDiane ClareBrook WilliamsDuring a mysterious epidemic in a small Cornish village, the local doctor summons his professor friend for help.Fun in that kitsch sort of way that only a Hammer Horror can pull off, this colourful number reflects the rules of the Haitian Voodoo Zombie; that is to say, a zombie controlled by a master through a Voodoo spell. Like with White Zombie, it follows a theme that pops up quite often in early movies about zombies: a western colonist comes upon Voodoo magic and exploits it in a rather industrialist way to create an entire army of feeble-minded but subservient zombie monsters to do his diabolical bidding.
Perhaps one of the last of its kind as one George A. Romero was about to change the entire rule book of the zombie a year later with his classic movie, Night of the Living Dead! - DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsDuane JonesJudith O'DeaKarl HardmanA ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the Northeast of the United States.This is the movie that was to change everything! Made as an unofficial homage to the 1954 novel "I am Legend", director George A. Romero could never have imagined that his movie would go on to inspire and eventually spur an entire genre in its own right! Yet, like in the novel, Romero never intended his "ghouls" to be zombies as such, but rather more closely represented vampires perhaps. It was actually the fan base of this cult classic that began to refer to Romero's creature as zombies and the label stuck. The image of a wave of living-dead at the gates, set against the inner battles of protagonist and villain alike, was such an irresistible metaphor to represent the fragility of society, that it would spur on movie after movie.
Whats interesting to note also is the trend set by this masterpiece where heroes in a zombie apocalypse are often placed in incongruous situations where there is no easy or obvious solution to extricate them; what often becomes more important, to keep the fragile integration of a group together, is to show direction through leadership rather than the direction taken in itself. This is demonstrated with Mr. Cooper (Karl Hardman) attempting to take early dominance over the group by insisting they shelter in the basement. But Mr. Cooper is obviously ill fit to lead and Ben (Duane Jones), quite literally has to smack him down to put him in his place. It's ironic therefor, where Ben ultimately finds himself crouching to wait out the horrors of the night. - DirectorDavid E. DurstonStarsBhaskar Roy ChowdhuryJadin WongRhonda FultzA group of Satanic hippies wreak havoc on a small town where a young boy whose sister and grandfather were victimized by them tries to get even--with deadly results.I Drink Your Blood uses one of those loose zombie definitions in that the "infection" is neither linked to a Voodoo curse, nor is it a direct off-shoot from the Romero reinvention of the term. Nevertheless, the rabid infection that turns a group of satanic worshiping hippies into a troop of violent yet mindless maniacs, probably fits the bill close enough. It has it's place in Zombie lore in that it was the first movie to be given an X rating by the MPAA based on violence alone; thus sparking a fine tradition for low budget zombie movies to fill niche markets like Grind House, splatter and gore or video nasty; though, to be honest, the violence seems rather kitsch than outright shocking by today's standards. Keep an eye out for actress Lynn Lowry; she became something of a Scream Queen legend amongst zombie enthusiasts as she also appeared in such classics as Shivers and The Crazies. Apparently director David E. Durston, was so taken by her striking beauty, he wrote her a role even though casting had already been completed. Giving her the part of a 'mute' meant he didn't need to write her any additional lines.
- DirectorBoris SagalStarsCharlton HestonAnthony ZerbeRosalind CashDr Robert Neville has developed an experimental vaccine which makes him the only immune survivor of a biological catastrophe. A gang of homicidal mutants blame science for their condition and attempt to kill him.This is the second adaptation of the novel "I am Legend". This time powerhouse Charlton Heston takes up the role of Dr. Robert Neville. A bigger budget allowed the expanse of a world of revenant, infected creatures.
- DirectorBob ClarkStarsAlan OrmsbyValerie MamchesJeff GillenSix friends in a theatrical troupe dig up a corpse on an abandoned island to use in a mock Satanic rite. It backfires with deadly consequences.Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things is an odd little number: at once very kitsch, outlandish, overacted and done in a more traditional 'Hammer Horror' style, still it awakens to very satisfyingly dark climax with everything one would expect from a classic zombie finale.
- DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsLane CarrollWill MacMillanHarold Wayne JonesThe military attempts to contain a manmade combat virus that causes death and permanent insanity in those infected, as it overtakes a small Pennsylvania town.Here Romero tries to steer away from the tag of "zombie" by making The Crazies an infection movie; not a monster movie. A military grade virus escaped into the water system from an accident is sending the residents of a small Pennsylvanian town crazy! Though it may not feature flesh eating monsters risen from the dead, the theme fits close enough to allow us to fit it into the wider cannon of zombie lore. By keeping his victims recognisably human, it allows Romero to explore, with greater focus, the force of intrusion by the military upon the sleepy Pennsylvanian town. This movie primarily is a study on communication --or perhaps more worryingly, the lack of it-- in a developing situation; the characters continually talking over and at each other, often barking and bickering, as the mayhem gathers pace and unfolds around them.
- DirectorJorge GrauStarsCristina GalbóRay LovelockArthur KennedyA cop chases two hippies suspected of a series of Manson family-like murders; unbeknownst to him, the real culprits are the living dead, brought to life with a hunger for human flesh by ultrasonic radiation being used for pest control.Produced in Italy, shot in Spain and set in England, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue aka Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, aka Don't Open the Window and perhaps a few other titles to boot, is a rather odd yet eerily beautiful gem. Slower paced and a lot more subtle than later Italian zombie gore would prove, TLDAMM actually attempts to tell a story! Though the idea of "ultrasonic radiation" causing the dead to rise when it emanates through a farming tool may seem a little naff, nevertheless the steady building of tension and changing scene dynamics --from being wrongly accused, to the very tense scene of being trapped in a crypt with the living dead, to the penultimate chase through the streets in an attempt to save the day-- makes it a thoroughly enjoyable watch. It even manages to say something about perceptions and prejudices even if the message is a little more blunt than Romero in his Night of the Living Dead.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsPaul HamptonJoe SilverLynn LowryThe residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are being infected by a strain of parasites that turn them into mindless, sex-crazed fiends out to infect others by the slightest sexual contact.As with many early zombie movies, the gormless creatures were not necessarily zombies as such, other than they were associated as being "zombie-like". This first of two entries from Cronenberg mirrors common themes and satires that would go on to pop up again and again in different guises in a genre that was still, only in its infancy. This 'infection' is spread through a parasite that enters the body and takes over the host, turning them into sex crazed, zombie-like creatures. The self contained apartment block, with every modern amenity at your fingertips, could well be seen as a societal microcosm that begins to rot from within.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsMarilyn ChambersFrank MooreTerry SchonblumA young woman develops a taste for human blood after experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into blood-thirsty zombies, leading into a city-wide epidemic.Perhaps one of the earlier features that concentrates primarily on the notion of infection spreading, sometimes feeling a little like a docusoap, this movie traces its way from "patient one" and follows infection all the way through to a city being placed into lockdown. It's interesting to look back at this movie from a contemporary perspective, considering recent pandemics like Covid-19: it was created before the vast majority of us had even heard of phrases like "super spreader", "contact tracing" or "community spreading", and yet, in its own way, with eery prescience it manages to touch upon all these issues. The images of army out on the streets of Montréal were purposely created to be provocative, but in what is quickly becoming a post Covid-19 reality, perhaps now just seem like good practical sense in the event of such emergency. Indeed, the shots of bin trucks being convoyed into the city to dispose of the dead corpses may have been a facetious ploy to horrify audiences of-the-day in true Cronenberg style, but perhaps now hit a little close to the bone when off-set against the reality of make-shift morgues, erected in cities overburdened by infection casualties. We are still, of course, a world away from the indignities realised in a Cronenberg dystopia, but that doesn't mean it is not interesting to compare and contrast.
- DirectorKen WiederhornStarsClarence ThomasBrooke AdamsLuke HalpinVisitors to a remote island discover that a reclusive Nazi commandant has been breeding a group of Zombie soldiers.While it is suspenseful and does have that 70s charm, even with the presence of the Almighty Peter Cushing, the movie just fails to hit the pulse to make it a classic. All in all, it is probably a little dull. Nevertheless it is important in zombie lore as it is the first to play with the theme of having Nazis as zombies! This decades before the theme became popularised in computer gaming or as a sub set to the genre in the naughties.
- DirectorPhilip KaufmanStarsDonald SutherlandBrooke AdamsJeff GoldblumWhen strange seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the city's residents one body at a time.Is this a zombie movie? Well... close enough, I guess. Gormless clones begin to appear once an organic plant from outer space lands and begins to propagate and infest the Earth.
The celestial theme in zombie movies is on occasion hinted at; like with the radiation fallout from a Venus space probe in "Night of the Living Dead"; and sometimes expanded upon, becoming a major component in the likes of "Night of the Comet" and later "The Girl With All the Gifts". Zombie movies often like to focus on man's on folly, and I guess this is why a theme of homegrown infection became more prominent in most zombie movies. Nevertheless, there is a real terror in the prospect of societal infiltration from a unknown source... don't go to sleep! - DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsDavid EmgeKen ForeeScott H. ReinigerDuring an escalating zombie epidemic, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter and his TV executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.Night of the Living Dead was the spark that started the zombie wave, but Romero's Dawn of the Dead really is the movie that turned it into a living genre in its own right! For the first time the word "zombie" is used in-movie to describe the flesh eating creatures that inexplicably rise from the dead and will infect you through a bite. Still arguably the best zombie movie ever created, this film has every archetype which, more or less, sets the rules for every zombie movie that followed. Set in shopping mall, Romero's cynical commentary on commercialism plays out delightfully against a backdrop of slow moving zombies, aimlessly wondering the shops and floors.
Fear, paranoia, jealousies, power struggles, isolation, social commentary and satire... some of the typical themes often repeated but rarely bested. - DirectorLucio FulciStarsTisa FarrowIan McCullochRichard JohnsonStrangers searching for a young woman's missing father arrive at a tropical island where a doctor desperately seeks the cause and cure of a recent epidemic of the undead.It would be hard to talk about the evolution of the zombie within cinema without touching upon the spate of "spaghetti splatter" that came out of Italy in the wake of the success of Dawn of the Dead. Both censorship and copyright law were more lax in Italy at this time and this led to an entire export of badly lip-synched movies aimed at grindhouse cinema that fed on the formula of sex and gore. Perhaps the very best among them was also one of the first, Lucio Fulci’s Zombie 2; thus named to piggy-back on the success of Dawn of the Dead which had been released “Zombie” in Italy.
There is a type of 'pureness' to experience in this movie; the conventions that would make the later zombie flicks of the 80s self-aware, and thus ironic in theme, were not yet seen as cliche here. I like how Fulci attempts to bring the Zombie myth back to its origins by setting it on a Caribbean Island and linking the rising of the dead to an ancient voodoo curse. Like in many good zombie movies to come, the climax centres around our heroes being hold up in a barn come infirmary, with limited resources, trying to fend off a horde of zombies. But the highlight for me is one I've never seen replicated (or bested) in any other zombie movie – Zombie vs Shark. I say no more! - DirectorUmberto LenziStarsHugo StiglitzLaura TrotterMaria Rosaria OmaggioAn airplane exposed to radiation lands, and blood drinking zombies emerge armed with knives, guns and teeth! They go on a rampage slicing, dicing, and biting their way across the Italian countryside.These aren't just zombies, they are radioactive zombies!
Nightmare City might be but for the true connoisseur of the zombie genre in that it may prove to be a little too kitsch and silly for the more discerning among us. Nevertheless, it's got some great moments hidden away and holds all the ridiculous facets one would expect from the Italian perspective of the time. If there is one thing the movie is aware of, it is its intended target audience; the sheer opportunity the narrative provides for yet another naked lady is, in itself, quite mesmerising. And yet, despite the lack of regard toward storytelling, somehow it does present a terrifying picture of a city succumbing to the effects of an irradiated virus, though maybe not as subtly executed as Cronenberg's Rabid. - DirectorLucio FulciStarsChristopher GeorgeCatriona MacCollCarlo De MejoA reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from their graves.City of the Living Dead being the first in his Gates of Hell trilogy, with it Fulci created what I would describe as spectral zombies. It's an interesting tangent from the regular physical limitations usually associated with zombie hordes, as these zombies could infect your thoughts, your dreams; could move through walls or make your eyes bleed by simply staring at you. Forget about coherent story telling; there is the shabbiest attempt to weave storyline at times. These movies are all about texture and visuals; and most of all about creating gory set pieces! City of the Living Dead (1980), The Beyond (1981) and The House by the Cemetery (1981) aren't interesting just because they are zombie movies, but they also represent excellent examples of that debasing title of the time, the "video nasty".
- DirectorGary ShermanStarsJames FarentinoMelody AndersonJack AlbertsonSheriff Dan Gillis investigates eerie deaths in a sleepy coastal town.Playing out something more like a Stephen King thriller rather than a regular zombie blood bath, this flick offers an alternative take on the zombie myth. These zombies perhaps more closely represent revenants; shadows of past lives unwittingly playing out roles rather than the gormless brain-dead creatures we have come to know. The writers weren't too concerned where they borrowed from, mixing elements of voodoo, witch-craft occult or Frankensteinian science and brewing it together to produce one wholly suspensful horror. It probably doesn't even matter that we'll suspect where the plot is moving us, it's all so atmospheric and dark, it's eerily engaging.
- DirectorThom EberhardtStarsCatherine Mary StewartKelli MaroneyRobert BeltranA comet wipes out most of life on Earth, leaving two Valley Girls fighting against cannibal zombies and a sinister group of scientists.A comet passing close to Earth, turns the world population into dust or flesh eating zombies, save for a handful of quirky teens and a bunker full of crazed scientists! Night of the Comet represents the quirky delights that low budget zombie movies from the 80s had to offer, not taking itself too seriously. Interestingly enough, to get the empty road shots, they shot the street scenes on Christmas Day when nobody would be around.
- DirectorHal BarwoodStarsSam WaterstonKathleen QuinlanYaphet KottoA woman working as a security guard in an agricultural research facility finds herself and her co-worker Schmidt fighting to survive against their former friends.There is something of a small twist in Warning Sign which sets it apart from others of its ilk: the theme focuses not so much on keeping the infected out, so much as trying to keep the infected locked in! It's a great example of themes of government conspiracy and "Big Brother" trying to control the narrative.
- DirectorDan O'BannonStarsClu GulagerJames KarenDon CalfaWhen two bumbling employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to rise again as zombies.While Romero walked away from Night of the Living Dead with his "Dead" series, co-writer John A. Russo went in another direction altogether, hanging onto the "Living" part of the original title. A young budding director, Dan O'Bannon, took on Russo's story and The Return of the Living Dead was born...
The 80's saw an onslaught of low budget zombie movies as young, ambitions directors saw it as a genre they could sink their teeth into. Cheap, cheesy acting could be counterbalanced with gory scenes, a sprinkling of titillation and loading up on irony. The Return of the Living Dead might just be the best among them. What a group of teens more diverse than The Breakfast Club might be doing hanging out together needs little more exposition than a throw away line like "How come you guys only come out when you need a ride some place..." and why wouldn't these delinquents hang out in a cemetery and strip naked while waiting for a friend? TROTLD obeys all the laws laid out by Romero to the existence of the zombie ...to a point, or rather has a lot of fun disobeying them! We get some great slap stick moments when head and limb decapitations fail to do the job. And some mighty bizarre comedy converse with the zombies... "The pain of being dead!" Even creating the catchphrase that would forever become synonymous with zombie comedy, "Brains!" - DirectorStuart GordonStarsJeffrey CombsBruce AbbottBarbara CramptonAfter an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue.Based loosely off a Lovecraft story, Re-Animator tells the story of Mad scientist Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) who creates a serum that can bring dead tissue back to life. Re-Animator takes a rather different trajectory to zombie movies of the time, playing out something more like a Frankenstein cautionary tale - a very gory one at that! Overall it's one of the better splatter-gore of the 80s and though it may not be a typical zombie movie, it is a lot of fun and well worth a watch!
- DirectorLamberto BavaStarsUrbano BarberiniNatasha HoveyKarl ZinnyA group of random people are invited to a screening of a mysterious movie, only to find themselves trapped in the theater with ravenous demons.Demons has everything you would expect from an 80s Spaghetti Splatter! A bang'n sound track, cheesy array of characters and plenty of blood and gore. But what's probably most impressive is the imaginative narrative that sees the events of an in-movie movie mirroring those as they unfold upon an unsuspecting audience. It's like one big "Boo!" And who knows, those demons might even come out of your T.V. screen! So okay, the creatures are described as demons, but it's really just a minor detail as they behave as we'd ever imagine zombies to; eating flesh and spreading their curse through their bite.
- DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsLori CardilleTerry AlexanderJoseph PilatoAs the world is overrun by zombies, a group of scientists and military personnel sheltering in an underground bunker in Florida must decide on how they should deal with the undead horde.One popping up in nearly every decade, Romero's movies seem to embody a moment in time; with its heightened aggression and constant power plays, Dawn of the Dead is decidedly 80s! Here we see Romero still had a trick or two up his sleeve to supplement the genre he had seeded. The setting is an underground facility where both military and scientist vie, in an ever changing game, for political dominance. Sarah (Lori Cardille) finds herself caught somewhere in the middle, trying to keep a fragile peace. But like in any good zombie movie, it turns out that it is the living themselves who end up being their own worst enemy; with a certain fatalism, the two camps fail to move from the extremities of their positions, and we witness the social order rot from within.
- DirectorTobe HooperStarsSteve RailsbackMathilda MayPeter FirthA race of space vampires arrives in London and infects the populace, beginning an apocalyptic descent into chaos.For me, if it looks like a zombie, and acts like a zombie, I'm going to class it as a zombie...even when it's described as a vampire. This is a prime example of where the two myths of reanimation converge; this time given a sci-fi makeover with a theme of celestial origins. An Earth shuttle discovers a large space craft, hidden in the tail of Halley's Comet. The crew transport the vampire-esque space demons, in the form of perfect humans, and unwittingly unleash their terror upon our planet. Some great special effects (especially for their day!) culminate in apocalyptic scenes, as an outbreak of zombie-like infections ravage though the city while London burns and chaos ensues.
- DirectorFred DekkerStarsJason LivelyTom AtkinsSteve MarshallAlien brain parasites, entering humans through the mouth, turn their host into a killing zombie. Some teenagers start to fight against them.Celestial origins, homage to 50's horror flicks, an ode to Cronenberg's parasitic slugs... and that's just in the first ten minutes! Cryogenics and college campus shenanigans, this movie manages to weave so many threads without losing its flow. Yes, the acting is sometimes below par but even that seems part of the undeniable charm this low budget movie has to offer. Like with The Return of the Living Dead, it shamelessly embraces every cheesy aspect of the zombie genre, with so many one liners fashioned to fit a movie trailer which would nearly be as long as the movie itself if it were to fit them all in; we are presented with a movie that's full on irony and at its core, just a fun movie overall!
- DirectorRichard W. HainesLloyd KaufmanStarsJanelle BradyGil BrentonRobert PrichardThe pupils at a high school next to a nuclear power plant start acting and looking strange after buying contaminated drugs from a plant worker.Maybe not zombies by the strictest of definitions but mutinous teen creatures fall close enough into the definition.
If you're looking for the lowest of production values, bad acting and nonsensical storylines, then look no further than Class of Nuke 'Em High! Then again Troma Entertainment make no excuses; their mission statement is to create only "the most offensive, tasteless films in the history of cinema". There is a charm quality about the unabashed production that begins to win you over; does the acting actually improve as the movie progresses or do our minds become dulled to its level?! And while this is the exemplifier of T.V. graveyard slot fodder, to satisfy pimply teens with a mix of gore and tit, under the cover there are nice satirical plays at work. Directors Richard W. Haines and Lloyd Kaufman are certainly referencing the exploitation movies of the 30s and 40s with their over-the-top warning of smoking marijuana for example. - DirectorRobert ScottStarsMichael St. MichaelsThaddeus GolasDouglass BellA family takes delivery of a new television set, unaware that it is the gateway by which killer zombies enter the world.It's worth mentioning this straight to video movie for its creativity. Though the acting is difficult to watch, the special effects made on a shoestring budget really are quite impressive. It tells the story of a possessed television that turns itself on to reveal a zombie horror movie which becomes real! As with Demons (1985) and Demons 2 (1986), the monsters come out of the T.V. screen in some pretty messed up but great visual effects, giving it a level of verisimilitude which might leave you not wanting to watch this one on your own in the dark! And this over a decade before Ringu (1998) or The Ring (2002) used the concept as their party trick.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsDonald PleasenceLisa BlountJameson ParkerA group of graduate students and scientists uncover an ancient canister in an abandoned church, but when they open the container, they inadvertently unleash a strange liquid and an evil force on all humanity.Here John Carpenter gives us his take on the zombie with Prince of Darkness, but it is rather different take from your typical flesh eating zombie we had come to know from the 80s in this supernatural thriller. A ancient malevolent force is possessing both the living and dead to make them carry out its diabolical plan. Watch out for an Alice Copper cameo, posing as a possessed, vagrant zombie.
- DirectorKevin TenneyStarsCathy PodewellAlvin AlexisHal HavinsTen teenagers party at an abandoned funeral parlor on Halloween night. When an evil force awakens, demonic spirits keep them from leaving and turn their gathering into a living Hell.Ten teens partying in an abandoned house on Halloween, one by one become possessed and turned into zombie like murdering monsters. It would be easy to cast this movie away as a frivolous teen nonsense, but despite its cheap budget and average acting, it has some very creative elements, both in ideas and makeup/effects - the freaky dancing girl in black being lit up by a camera strobe flash is just one scene that comes to mind.
- DirectorMark GoldblattStarsTreat WilliamsJoe PiscopoLindsay FrostA cop is killed investigating a strange case of resurrected corpses. His partner and a pathologist resurrect him, but he only has a limited time before he starts to decompose, and he uses it to chase down the diabolical man who killed him.Beverly Hills Cop was the breakthrough movie for Eddie Murphy; Dead Heat was going to do the same for former 'Friday Night Live' co-star, Joe Piscopo ...oops!
Dead Heat dares to go where no other dreamed possible; by blending the buddy-cop with the zombie movie! If ironic retrospect is your thing, Dead Heat will deliver on so many levels! It is so gloriously 80s. Too much in fact. Some of the jokes probably fall a little tasteless by todays standards. But just enjoy the over-the-top scenes like where the two lead ladies meet. Of course they instantly get the cat claws out in true 80s bravado. But, in the end, this is not a "best-worst-movie". No, it is certainly a cut above that and at times shows real creativity and produces some genuine scares. The scene in the Asian abattoir, we get to see the art direction being let off his hooks and proves a real treat of visual effects. For me, Dead Heat is a real hidden gem of the 80s. - DirectorKen WiederhornStarsJames KarenThom MathewsMichael KenworthyCurious kids unearth the barrels that previously helped revive the dead, which proves the second time's an undead charm.While there are very fine sequences and moments bordering on the same slap stick genius of its predecessor, with some great makeup and visual effects to boot, somehow RofLD Part II just falls short of all it should be - as sequels very often do! On paper I'm sure it looked like a very solid script, though the inclusion of having a child actor as the main protagonist leaves it without the bite one would expect from a zombie movie with any teeth.
- DirectorWes CravenStarsBill PullmanCathy TysonZakes MokaeAn anthropologist goes to Haiti after hearing rumors about a drug used by black magic practitioners to turn people into zombies.By 1988 the image of the zombie had well and truly established itself in Hollywood as a flesh eating, living dead creature that crash through the gates in a mass horde. So it is refreshing to see that Wes Craven decided to go right back to the origins of the zombie myth, drawing on a real life inspired story to spin his psychedelically psychological tale. A voodoo powder, that can create a temporary deathlike condition, said to steal its victims soul and turn them into zombies, may well hold anaesthetic properties of value to a pharmaceutics company. Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman) is sent to Haiti to see if he can recover the formula, but soon finds himself entangled in the political affairs of a country on the verge of revolution, in a land where the word "magic" seems to be just a byword to the aesthetic of every day life. Here the scientific and supernatural worlds are hard to differentiate and Dennis finds himself on one freaky journey.
- DirectorJ.R. BookwalterStarsPete FerryBogdan PecicMichael GrossiAn elite anti-Zombie team is assembled by the Government to cope with an ever-growing undead infection and the religious cult zealots who fanatically protect the festering foes.Shot on Super-8, The Dead Next Door has all the hallmarks of "home movie" made by enthusiasts. It just fortunate for director J.R. Bookwalter that he was friends with Sam Rami who used a portion of his payments from Evil Dead II to help fund the movie. It is equal parts amateur to impressive: the acting feels like it has been done with friends rather than professional actors while the visual effects sometimes raise it above the bar. Certainly only for the most hard-core of zombie fans, still it introduces new sinister themes to zombie folklore such as religious fanaticism. Listen out for the unmistakable voice of Bruce Campbell (uncredited) who does an audio dub for a couple of the actors!
- DirectorBrett LeonardStarsJeremy SlateCheryl LawsonStephen Gregory FosterThe arrival of an amnesiac patient in a psychiatric hospital somehow frees a mad doctor, who was shot and entombed with his fiendish experiments in an abandoned wing of the asylum 20 years before.
- DirectorBrian YuznaStarsJeffrey CombsBruce AbbottClaude Earl JonesDoctors Herbert West and Dan Cain discover the secret to creating human life and proceed to create a perfect woman from dead tissue.
- DirectorFrank HenenlotterStarsJames LorinzJoanne RitchiePatty MullenA medical student sets out to recreate his decapitated fiancée by building her a new body made of Manhattan street prostitutes.
- DirectorPeter JacksonStarsTimothy BalmeDiana PeñalverElizabeth MoodyA young man's mother is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey. She gets sick and dies, at which time she comes back to life, killing and eating dogs, nurses, friends, and neighbors.Most come to know Peter Jackson through his epic Lord of the Rings movies, but it's well worth a visit back to his early days. Don't expect the same slick style; these movies are often rough and ready. The beauty is in what he managed to achieve by the means he had available, creating stunning special effects out of the most humblest of materials. Braindead (aka Dead Alive) is, in all sense of the words, slapstick splatter gore and kitsch dark-comedy, embracing and celebrating all the most ridiculous facets of the zombie universe.
- DirectorBrian YuznaStarsJ. Trevor EdmondMelinda ClarkeKent McCordHaving recently witnessed the horrific results of a top secret project to bring the dead back to life, a distraught youth performs the operation on his girlfriend after she's killed in a motorcycle accident.The third instalment to this franchise, it shares the namesake and features those army vats that hold the hilariously indestructible zombies inside, synonymous with the series. But that's about as far as the similarities go with its predecessors. By the start of the 90s, pretty much the regular storyline of a zombie movie had become rather stale and so Return of the Living Dead III dares to reinvigorate the genre by delving into a love story of a rather different kind: Curt (J. Trevor Edmond) just cannot let his girlfriend go, but while he inadvertently unleashes hell on Earth by trying to save her, Julie (Melinda Clarke) unwillingly reanimated, tries to dull the pain of death through self-mutilation and satisfy her new found appetite for "brains"...
For a number of reasons, RotLDIII failed to find the limelight and pretty much got buried. But perhaps enthusiasts are now rediscovering this underrated gem, not least for the appreciation of the visual effects - no less than five FX teams battled it out in healthy rivalry on the set. - DirectorMichele SoaviStarsRupert EverettFrançois Hadji-LazaroAnna FalchiA cemetery man must kill the dead a second time when they become zombies.Probably the most "art house" movie on this list (well, art house and zombies aren't normally synonymous with one another), somehow this movie gets away with it without being too far up its own ...ehem. What can I say? What a wonderful concept! Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett), a cemetery caretaker, must fend off those troublesome corpses that keep rising from their grave night after night, least they should go and trouble the not so worthy town folk. Reminiscent of the working man, his wage barely justifies the duty he diligently preforms! But when 'she' (Anna Falchi) keeps reappearing in the guise of other women, we begin to suspect the fragility of Francesco's mind. Thus, Cemetery Man brings the zombie movie to new, and preciously uncharted territories... actually, it turns less of a zombie movie, and more of a cerebral journey as it progresses, but it's always so delightfully weird and a devilishly comical journey.
It's fitting that it makes such good homage to the zombie splatters that came before it, as, in many ways, it marks an impasse for the genre; until the arrival of 28 Days Later (2002), very little development occurred with few movies worth mentioning in the intervening years. - DirectorDanny BoyleStarsCillian MurphyNaomie HarrisChristopher EcclestonFour weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.As with Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' or 'Dawn of the Dead', Danny Boyle's '28 Days Later' was a game changer for the zombie genre; this time by creating the "fast moving zombie" which helped to reinvigorate what had nearly become a dead genre by the start of the millennium. It's got everything a good zombie movie requires, from those first initial encounters with zombies, to those bounds forged with strangers; the disappointment with so called "safe-heavens" to the ever illusive promise over the next hill. But what sets it apart from those movies set before, is the new level of terror --a real shock to the system-- with the relentless persistence of the fast moving zombies, infected with rage!
- DirectorPaul W.S. AndersonStarsMilla JovovichMichelle RodriguezRyan McCluskeyA special military unit fights a powerful, out-of-control supercomputer and hundreds of scientists who have mutated into flesh-eating creatures after a laboratory accident.Let's give Resident Evil its due kudos in the world of zombies, even if it's not the most intellectually challenging movie series ever created. 28 Days Later is often credited with the rejuvenation of the zombie genre, but maybe developments in CGI has as much to do with reinvigorating what had otherwise become a stale genre, by allowing creators to imagine all new visual concepts and spectacles. And that's exactly what the Resident Evil series embraces! Sure, it looks like the same drear post-apocalyptic landscape we've all come to know, but why not as a full-on, adrenaline filled, sexy leg kicking, action packed, gun toting, kick-ass world? Sometimes we just need to switch off the brain and enjoy the visuals.
- DirectorBrian YuznaStarsJeffrey CombsTommy Dean MussetJason BarryAfter 13 years in prison, the mad scientist from Re-Animator (1985) gets a new chance to experiment with the arrival of a young prison doctor, who secretly hopes to learn to reanimate dead people. Good intentions turn to horror.
- DirectorEdgar WrightStarsSimon PeggNick FrostKate AshfieldThe uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesman and his layabout roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse.Sure there were zombie movies that didn't take themselves too seriously before, certainly B-movies that were low on budgets but high on irony; but this is the first real zombie comedy for comedy sake. I can just imagine writers Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright sitting down to a bowl of popcorn, beer, notepad and pen, about to go on a marathon run of classic zombie movies to 'research' all the zombie conventions and clichés, before they embarked on their own zombie comedy – a zom-com! It's fair to say, they probably created a sub-genre in itself. And yet, for all its teasing, it undoubtedly helped in the reinvigoration of the zombie genre as a whole! I think that's because their love of the movies they mock ultimately shines through.
- DirectorZack SnyderStarsSarah PolleyVing RhamesMekhi PhiferA nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.Dawn of the Dead is loose remake of the Romero classic of the same name. What strikes me most about this movie, unlike those that come after, whereby they desperately try to carve out their own interpretation of the zombie with some unique angle, this flick works so well simply because it doesn't tinker too much with the dynamics other than essentially updating the classic zombie tale. More than anything, it simply tells a good zombie story with that undeniably engrossing cross-section of society where flawed characters try desperately to stitch the tearing seams against the inevitable abrasion of the Human Condition.
- DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsJohn LeguizamoAsia ArgentoSimon BakerThe living dead have taken over the world, and the last humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they come to grips with the situation.From the ashes of the zombie apocalypse, a haven has risen. Within this city, protected by electrified fences, water and a bridge system, some semblance of the World has returned; the streets filled with humans hustling to make a living, while the ultra rich live in the luxuries of high rise tower complexes. It's no accident that Romero put so much emphasis on the theme of money; that even in a reality where dollars could have little intrinsic value outside the city limits, still, as humans we seem to be fatalistically drawn to it, as if we need it as a talisman to convince ourselves of our own prestige.
Romero introduces into his world the notion of a pack mentality with a zombie (Eugene Clark) leading the horde into the city with the precision of something like a zombie general. It's probably a little clumsily executed, sometimes bordering on slapstick as he figures out, and then subsequently teaches his zombie subordinates, how to use a machine gun, etc. Nevertheless, later movies (the Cured, Ravenous, The Girl with all the Gifts) would explore the concept with a little more finesse. - DirectorAndrew CurrieStarsKesun LoderBilly ConnollyCarrie-Anne MossIn an Earthly world resembling the 1950s, a cloud of space radiation has shrouded the planet, resulting in the dead becoming zombies that desire live human flesh. A company called Zomcon has been able to control the zombie population. Zombies can be temporarily neutralized by being shot, but can only be permanently neutralized by their brain being destroyed. Their ultimate disposal is through cremation, or burial, the latter which requires decapitation with the head being buried separately from the body. Conversely, Zomcon has created the domestication collar, when activated and placed on a zombie makes the zombie controllable, and thus an eternally productive creature within society. Because all dead initially become zombies, the elderly are viewed negatively and suspectly. And all people, adult or child, learn to shoot to kill to protect society. Zomcon is the go to organization for all things zombie. In the town of Willard, the Robinsons - father Bill (Dylan Baker), mother Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss), and adolescent son Timmy (Kesun Loder) - are one family who don't own a zombie as a domestic, since Bill is afraid of zombies, as, when he was a child, he had to shoot his own zombie father, who tried to eat him. Bill has thus become fascinated with funerals to see zombies put away permanently. But Helen feels pressured to get a zombie when Zomcon's new head of security in Willard, the officious Jonathan Bottoms (Henry Czerny), moves into the neighborhood with his family. Never having had to deal with a zombie directly, Timmy is initially wary of their zombie. But as a lonely child who has no friends and is often bullied, Timmy eventually befriends their zombie, who he names Fido (Sir Billy Connolly), as he treats the zombie much like a faithful pet dog. Timmy protects Fido at all cost, even after Fido, due to no fault of its own, is implicated in some deaths, which creates a mini-wave of loose zombies unknown to Zomcon. But Fido may play a larger role within the family as a companion for Helen, who is largely neglected by Bill, since he sees human affection as ultimately resulting in such difficult issues as what happened between him and his own father. With Timmy and Helen treating Fido with kindness, Fido, in turn, may prove that not all zombies, even when without their domestication collar, are out to kill anyone and everyone in their path.It's something of a 50s utopia in which a massive Zombie outbreak has occurred, but suburbia has survived and emerged even stronger than ever! In fact, the blood thirsty zombies that once ravaged society have been tamed by use of an electrified collar and have been turned into domestic servants... Fido is an odd movie! Whacky, yet still subtle and weirdly engrossing in its off-beat manner. It's probably one of the first examples of a zombie movie totally redefining itself from the expected parameters of a regular zombie movie.
- DirectorJames GunnStarsNathan FillionElizabeth BanksMichael RookerA small town is taken over by an alien plague, turning residents into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters.First conceived of by Cronenberg in Shivers, and later homaged in Night of the Creeps, the idea of a parasitic slug making zombies of its victims, has become a facet of zombie lore all in its own right. Here director James Gunn reinvigorates the slug concept in a retrospective ode to the classic zombie movie, reminding us that not every modern concept has to begin and end with a virus of manmade origin, escaped from a military lab somewhere. No, instead combine the grotesqueness of a celestial parasite slowly mutating the cells inside its victims with the simple lives of gun-toting town folk, and one gets the recipe for a tongue-and-cheek of the splatter-gore tradition.
- DirectorJuan Carlos FresnadilloStarsJeremy RennerRose ByrneRobert CarlyleSix months after the rage virus was inflicted on the population of Great Britain, the US Army helps to secure a small area of London for the survivors to repopulate and start again. But not everything goes according to plan.After 28 weeks in isolation, zombies on the British Isles have finally begun to perish and the process of repopulating the country has begun.
Perhaps one of the first movies to deal with a 'post' post-apocalyptic world; that is to say a society that is remodelling itself to a true semblance of normality after a major zombie event. What we have then are those who have lived through the true horrors, having to reconcile with the choices they made to survive, sometimes at the expense of others. Now they must attempt to reintegrate with a wider society, sometimes naive or ignorant to the dangers and follies of the past. In this way, 28 Weeks Later proves to be quite a smart sequel to its predecessor, managing to find wholly new ground to explore. - DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsMichelle MorganJoshua CloseShawn RobertsA group of young film students run into real-life zombies while filming a horror movie of their own.Romero attempts to bring zombies into the 21st Century with a Blair Witch "found footage" type enterprise, but this time the "truth" hides away on the captured footage sent to the Internets. It may be seen as a reboot of his zombie universe, or maybe it's just a rewind to the initial days of the outbreak. In any case, it dose not take off from where Land of the Dead left off, but rather goes right back to the first few days of the zombie apocalypse. Perhaps there is some level of prescience in an era of "fake news" for the emphasis on getting one's story shared while trying to shift through the noise of what's real and what's not, but I found the theme rather forced in comparison to Romero's more subtle cynicism, such as attack on commercialism in Dawn of the Dead. Romero used stage actors to try to accentuate a course verisimilitude. I cannot say that it worked for sure; nevertheless, given the modest budget, it is a steady zombie adventure at its core, though I am not sure we feel any real depth of sympathy for the characters and this remain its real weakness. But for lovers of the genre, there are many easter eggs hidden away such as news report voice overs from directors/writers Quentin Tarantino, Wes Craven, Stephen King, Simon Pegg and Guillermo del Toro... I mean, how good is that!
- DirectorJaume BalagueróPaco PlazaStarsManuela VelascoFerran TerrazaJorge-Yamam SerranoA television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying.A late night T.V. documentary crew get more than they bargain for when they are allowed in on a ride-along with the fire brigade. REC is another movie in the "found footage" vein, but here it works exceedingly well! The entire movie, set in a claustrophobic apartment complex with tall stairwells and narrow corridors, moves at a frighteningly frantic pace, rarely letting up but for light reprieve in the form of intermittent interviews with the quirky residents. So easily the over-the-shoulder view could have become a little tiresome, but because the ante keeps doubling down and the scenario dynamics escalating, one is kept engrossed on this roller coaster ride. So too, in clever ways, do the fragmented snippets imbedded within the humorous interviews feed into our intrigue, that the mystery of the bigger picture of the virus keeps us wholly enticed.
- DirectorFrancis LawrenceStarsWill SmithAlice BragaCharlie TahanYears after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure.Third time round and you know what, it turns out it's a story that doesn't get old. This time Will Smith takes on the role of Dr. Robert Neville. Again, the doctor's world is expanded, this time with the use of CGI, enabling wild loins, gazelles and deer to freely roam the overgrown streets of New York City. Although the infected creatures aren't particularly referred to as one thing or the other, it's interesting to note that their depiction is beginning to resemble closer to a zombie than that of a vampire. Probably because by this stage the zombie association with the post apocalypse was well and truly established, whereas vampires were becoming known as those weird romantic two-hundred year old characters who hung around with crime fighting teenage chicks, still in high school.
- DirectorRobert RodriguezStarsRose McGowanFreddy RodríguezJosh BrolinAfter an experimental bio-weapon is released, turning thousands into zombie-like creatures, it's up to a rag-tag group of survivors to stop the infected and those behind its release.
- DirectorBruce McDonaldStarsStephen McHattieLisa HouleGeorgina ReillyA radio host interprets the possible outbreak of a deadly virus which infects the small Ontario town he is stationed in.This movie seems to foreshadow, with dark prescience, the rise of "Fake News"; the idea that a virus can be spread through language, turning people into irrational, crazed, violent, zombie-like beings. It is a prime example of how a zombie movie can have more to say through its subtext than just one's typical splatter and gore. It also has an interesting take in the manner in which the early hours of the outbreak are shared with the viewer; the majority of the movie taking place behind closed doors in a radio station with the unfolding zombie apocalypse coming through in unsubstantiated reports from callers-in. Not actually seeing the horror, only hearing it described, pits us in the room with protagonist with nail biting tension.
- DirectorRuben FleischerStarsJesse EisenbergEmma StoneWoody HarrelsonA shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, a gun-toting bruiser in search of the last Twinkie and a pair of sisters striving to get to an amusement park join forces in a trek across a zombie-filled America.This flick takes the conventions of zombie movies and turns them into a set of rules to survive the zombie apocalypse. Smart, slick and stylish, Zombieland shows how, even as comedy, the zombie genre really had elevated itself into the mainstream.
- DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsAlan Van SprangKenneth WelshKathleen MunroeOn an island off the coast of North America, local residents simultaneously fight a zombie epidemic while hoping for a cure to return their un-dead relatives back to their human state.Survival of the Dead is the last of Romero's zombie movies. It has it's moments, most notably the ever more inventive means in which zombie kills rack up. Unfortunately it just fails to hit a pulse; the rivalries between the two irish families just feel a little tweedy and clichéd, and though it attempts really hard to find new angles on the zombie theme, it fails to truly tread new territories. Nevertheless, it being the last zombie movie from a rear breed and true legend, we'll take it.
- DirectorTommy WirkolaStarsJeppe Beck LaursenCharlotte FrognerJenny SkavlanA ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.What could be more terrifying than zombies, more atrocious than nazis??? ...why Nazi zombies of course!!!
In general terms Dead Snow is a pretty familiar theme; youngsters go to a cabin in the wilderness for sexy shenanigans but end up systematically getting killed off one by one...what sets it apart is how it helped popularise the 'nazi-zombie' into the genre. It is not the first to do so it must be said, but for a low budget movie, it has a slick veneer which made it a very fun splatter-gore for a fanbase to engage with. - DirectorYannick DahanBenjamin RocherStarsClaude PerronJean-Pierre MartinsEriq EbouaneyAn end of the world battle between gangsters, cops and zombies.For a genre that is so full on gore, there are surprisingly few movies on this list that are as straight out action orientated as this one. The premise is simple; both police and gangster, in the height of a confrontation, find themselves plunged into the middle of a zombie apocalypse and now have little option but to work together as they move floor by floor to clear a desolate apartment block. It's like the directors (Yannick Dahan, Benjamin Rocher) go out of their way make you dislike the characters; as soon as one does something half endearing, he/she seems to shoot their mouth off in the very next scene. Nevertheless, this was always set out to be a high attrition movie and the antidote is beer, pizza and popcorn.
- DirectorJim MickleStarsConnor PaoloNick DamiciKelly McGillisIn a world of vampires, an expert vampire hunter and his young protégé travel toward sanctuary.There is a real throw back and perhaps ode to the modern zombie origins by making the creatures of the post-apocalyptic world vampires. But lets be clear here, for all intense and purposes, this might as well be classed as a zombie movie because the lines that divide the two are so well blurred by this movie, it really doesn't matter what one calls the revenant creatures that will suck blood and turn your loved ones over to 'the-other-side' by infection or otherwise. Stake Land does remarkably well with the budget it commands to really give one the sense of a world after the world. I like the idea of currency (vamp teeth) and the different type of settlements and communities that grow up out of the ashes. This is a road movie and a coming-of-age movie all rolled up in one bleak but vivid country...
- DirectorBreck EisnerStarsRadha MitchellTimothy OlyphantDanielle PanabakerAfter a strange and insecure plane crash, an unusual toxic virus enters a quaint farming town. A young couple are quarantined, but they fight for survival along with help from a couple of people.A loose remake of the Romero's movie of the same name (1973), this version, in contrast, has all the shine of a big Hollywood production; borrowing tropes, scares and cliches from every corner of the genre and beyond. As an entertaining, but not overly silly movie, it works! It manages to capture quite well that feeling of intrusion from outside forces as the town folk are corralled and segregated into groups without much explanation. It's interesting to see that, while Romero tried to separate himself from the "zombie" label by making his original purely an infection movie, here director Breck Eisner draws very much on zombie associations in his vision by having his infected showing popping veins and skin tone discolouration.
- DirectorAlejandro BruguésStarsAlexis Díaz de VillegasJorge MolinaAndros PerugorríaA group of slackers face an army of zombies. The Cuban government and media claim the living dead are dissidents revolting against the government.Zombies have arrived on the shores of Cuba, and while the establishment denies it has a problem, Juan and his eclectic group of down-and-out friends turn their skill sets into a zombie clearing service.
At its surface this is just another zomcom with all the usual tropes and gags, but dig a little deeper and Juan of the Dead is a subtle insight into the fabric of Cuban life. I'm sure Romero would be proud that the genre he seeded, could still turn up subversive commentary on life and society. - DirectorJeremy GardnerStarsJeremy GardnerAdam CronheimNiels BolleThe personalities of two former baseball players clash as they traverse the rural back roads of a post-plague New England teeming with the undead.If hipsters are given the freedom to make a movie about zombies, this is what it looks like! It may prove a little too "artistic" with it's slow pace and lingering shots, off-action cuts and meandering, musical montages. But it creates an ambience wholly unique to zombie universe; that is to say, a sense of normality! Even mundanity. Yes, Ben (Jeremy Gardner) and Mickey (Adam Cronheim) might well be just too normal dudes who managed to survive within the first few months of a zombie outbreak. As with life, it's just circumstance that brought them together; their relationship to one another is often tender, sometimes frail and sometimes boarders on abuse, but most of all, it's just simply human.
- DirectorMatthias HoeneStarsRasmus HardikerHarry TreadawayMichelle RyanA gang of bank robbers fight their way out of a zombie-infested London.As one might gather from the title, this is an all out Zom-com. It may not be on the same par as Shaun of the Dead, but it certainly has its moments; a Zimmer frame escape has to be one! Or the beautiful line, "We've bounced back from worse things than this", to encompass the character of the true cockney. Look it, don't expect too much from it, but on some rainy day afternoon, with a few beers and pizza, it just might be what the doctor ordered.
- DirectorMarc ForsterStarsBrad PittMireille EnosDaniella KerteszFormer United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop a zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatens to destroy humanity itself.This is a movie which tends to divide die-hard zombie fans. Nevertheless I think there is a lot to take away from it. First off, it shows how the zombie movie managed to well and truly elevate itself into the mainstream; World War Z commanding a worthy block-buster budget, top CGI and an A-list leading man, Brad pitt. But it's also of note how they manage to make this a 'Bigger Picture', exploring it as a world wide event! Sure, it's far from the first movie to remind you that the entire world has succumbed to infection, but to my mind, it plays something more like an international spy movie than a typical zombie movie. Normally a protagonist's world is greatly reduced in a zombie event, often unable to utilise even the most basic gizmo or device as the sky falls down around them, but for Brad Pitt's character, Gerry Lane, every asset still available by the International Community is laid at his feet to jet him around the world in an attempt to track down the source of the infection. This, at least, is new territory for your typical zombie movie.
- DirectorManuel CarballoStarsEmily HampshireKris Holden-RiedShawn DoyleIn a post-zombie world, where the infected live normal lives, their retroviral drug is running out.The Returned explores the possibility of a world after a zombie outbreak, trying to get back to the normal rhythms of life where a revolutionary drug helps to suppress the zombie virus... the only catch? The supply is running out! And so The Returned explores entirely new ground for a zombie movie. What would it mean to be infected, reliant on a drug? What suspicious and prejudice would the rest of society hold? What lengths would you be willing to go to make sure you have a stockpile? And what ethical issues would that raise? This is a thinking person's zombie movie.
- DirectorJonathan LevineStarsNicholas HoultTeresa PalmerJohn MalkovichAfter a highly unusual zombie saves a still-living girl from an attack, the two form a relationship that sets in motion events that might transform the entire lifeless world.Probably the most "pop" movie on the list, again it's a movie that exemplifies how the genre had moved into the mainstream – a zombie romance to bring your girlfriend along to. Inevitably it makes a big U-turn on the cynicism and fatalism normally associated with a regular zombie movie; the idea that love can get the heart beating again. Still though, the metaphor works well when translated into the idea that maybe we're all just zombies in a repeat a routine life, and that a little sparkle in one's life to help elevate it from the mundane, can actually be infectious and help lift other's in their lives too. It's not all roses, there is some dark comedy; the notion of eating an ex's brain to get his memories to hit on his girlfriend is pretty messed up!
- DirectorJeff BaenaStarsAubrey PlazaDane DeHaanJohn C. ReillyA young man's recently deceased girlfriend mysteriously returns from the dead, but he slowly realizes she is not the way he remembered her.Sometimes zombie movies aren't as much about the zombies as we may think they are. Life After Beth, for example, uses the zombie premise to explore relationships, allowing it to go places with its dark comedy where a straight movie might not dare. For young Zach Orfman (Dane DeHaan) being bereaved of his girlfriend Beth (Audrey Plaza), it must seem like the end of the world... and then the world nearly does end when the dead start to rise along with the sudden reappearance of Beth, but now as an overbearing, over possessive zombie girlfriend. Really, one could read it as being a movie as much about out growing relationships as it is about flesh eating zombies.
- DirectorHenry HobsonStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerAbigail BreslinJoely RichardsonA teenage girl in the Midwest becomes infected by an outbreak of a disease that slowly turns the infected into cannibalistic zombies. During her transformation, her loving father stays by her side.A zombie movie starring no other than Arnold Schwarzenegger! I know what your thinking, but no... Instead this turns out to be a surprisingly touching movie taking a rather different trajectory to your regular zombie flick. Set in a world that is trying to get to grips with a recent zombie outbreak, where there is an unusually long incubation in the infection period, Wade Vogel (Schwarzenegger) must come to terms with the fact that his daughter is going through some changes.
- DirectorYeon Sang-hoStarsGong YooJung Yu-miMa Dong-seokWhile a zombie virus breaks out in South Korea, passengers struggle to survive on the train from Seoul to Busan.I'm trying to think of what it is exactly that makes this movie stand out more than all the other zombie movies in recent times, and yet it seems to have all the regular conventions and clichés to my mind of a regular zombie movie, from the standard array of societal dissected characters, right down to absent father trying to reconnect with his daughter... it hits the pulse, it has the right tone; that unquantifiable blend of humour versus tension; and an undeniable premiss, that maybe you're safer on the train than off it! I think its the pace; those relentless, hordes of z-o-o-mbies. Perhaps the best zombie movie since Danny Boyle made them go faster, this is one train you won't want to miss.
- DirectorColm McCarthyStarsSennia NanuaFisayo AkinadeDominique TipperA scientist and a teacher living in a dystopian future embark on a journey of survival with a special young girl named Melanie.Who inherits the Earth? This is a nice take on the Zombie apocalypse, drawing on many creative themes previously explored and a few wholly original too. We start in a military complex akin to something like "Day of the Dead" with familiar military vs civilian dynamics. The story quickly turns into a road trip as the military complex falls and the eclectic group must journey through countryside and urban dwelling alike, to find the next safe-heaven. There are echoes of the infamous Star Trek "Miri" episode (original series), with tribes of vicious feral children hunting in the vacant streets. True too, is a sort of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" origin to the celestial virus and its organic growth. But the movie makes all these threads its own and stitches them into a finely rounded fabric that feels original in its own right.
- DirectorBurr SteersStarsLily JamesSam RileyJack HustonFive sisters in 19th century England must cope with the pressures to marry while protecting themselves from a growing population of zombies.This will not be to everyone's taste, and well I can understand. Nevertheless, there is something delightful to be gleamed from a purely novel experiment: In many ways, the zombies are actually only ever secondary in any zombie movie. They are the metaphor for our fear, represented as an external danger out there. Really, in truth, most zombie movies end up centring around the interpersonal relationships of those trapped inside trying to survive - trying to survive the zombies, and more importantly, trying to survive each other! In the end of the day, when it boils down to it, maybe a Jane Austen script works with as much legitimacy as any other script when one fits it into the heightened context of zombies. Why not?
- DirectorRod BlackhurstStarsLucy WaltersGina PiersantiAdam David ThompsonA young woman struggles to survive on her own in the wake of a mysterious epidemic that has killed much of society, and forced her deep into the unforgiving wilderness.Early zombie movies tended to focus on the incongruous aspects of societal groupings and their inevitable implosion, usually symbolised by the zombie horde breaking through the defences. Perhaps with a greater awareness towards mental health issues, contemporary movies began to shift focus on the devastation isolation itself can bare. Ann (Lucy Walters) is subsisting alone deep within the mountainous wilderness, but she is barely what one could consider surviving! She must learn to forgive herself first, if she is going to reintegrate with other survivors. In this way, perhaps, the zombie metaphor shifts to represent those demons inside our own head.
I like how in this movie, the two characters we come in contact with don't necessarily turn out the way we might first expect them to. The dynamic between Olivia (Gina Piersanti) and Chris (Adam David Thompson) look odd at first to say the least, and Chris says some things which might quite naively suggest ulterior motives. But this only plays well to put us in the mindset of Lucy who must make a leap of faith if she is to trust others, and herself; and to take on the responsibilities that living within community requires. - DirectorWilliam KaufmanStarsJohnny StrongLance HenriksenLouis MandylorA vengeful drifter takes up with a group of survivors in an abandoned police station during an apocalypse overrun by blood-hungry creatures.Daylight's End is another example of mixing revenant distinctions as the virus infecting creatures that have ravaged the world are actually best described as vampires, though it's a superficial distinction as, once again, it being a post-apocalyptic world, it might as well be classed as a zombie movie. This is a gun toting flick, playing the suspense vs action well without having to be too smart or intellectually stimulating. It's an aggressive world where everyone's first instinct is to mistrust and generally with good cause! Perhaps it plies the 80s style agro a little heavy, but hey, you know what you're in for right from the start.
- DirectorTrey Edward ShultsStarsJoel EdgertonChristopher AbbottCarmen EjogoSecure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son. Then a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.So this is not a zombie movie! ...or is it? What it is that comes at night is never really explained. It is something that is feared. Or is it simply fear itself? All we know for certain is that a virus has overrun the planet and most of the population are presumably dead. Those few survivors live with a resounding paranoia and guard jealously what few commodities they possess. To let a stranger into one's home, could be inviting infection into one's house; to let a stranger escape though, could be inviting back even further danger. This has all the traits and hallmarks of a great zombie movie without ever having need for zombies. Don't expect to be given all the answers. Sometimes events are inexplicable, and when we can't easily explain them away, well, this only adds to the fear and paranoia. We learn that the only thing more terrifying than a horde of zombies at one's door, is the deathly silence of the wood. It resonates with a burning anxiety.
Perhaps a good movie to illustrate the better qualities of a zombie movie for those who just can't manage to move past the suspension of disbelief usually required. - DirectorDavid FreyneStarsElliot PageSam KeeleyTom Vaughan-LawlorA disease that turns people into zombies has been cured. Society discriminates against the once-infected zombies, as do their own families, which causes social issues to arise. This leads to militant government interference.I add this movie because it deals with an interesting concept: what if the infection can be cured? What if infected patients have to deal with the horrors they committed, remembered as a dim yet vivid dream? And how would society accept them back? What troubles would arise for their reintegration against a backdrop of fear and suspicion? Perhaps the movie fails to hit the pulse to make it a great movie, nevertheless its expansion on the zombie theme at least makes it a title of note for the zombie lover.
- DirectorRobin AubertStarsMarc-André GrondinMonia ChokriCharlotte St-MartinIn the aftermath of an infectious outbreak, inhabitants of a village in rural Quebec find themselves confronting an invasion of ravenous zombie-like beings.I feel this movie could fade away into the myriad of zombie images if I were not to write a passage down about it. It plays out something like an episode of The Walking Dead season IV where they're on the road again. It's altogether quite serious, and yet it has some slapstick dark comedy thrown in at unexpected moments. In its quiet, subtle way, it leaves some of the most haunting, ghostly imagery imprinted on the mind, something like of a recurring dream. As in The Cured (2017), it hints at maybe a sort of pack mentality or unconscious motive shared by the zombie horde. Is there a celestial theme also suggested by the strange furniture shrines erected? Maybe the best aspect of this movie are the unanswered qualities, allowing us to vicariously live the anxiety of the protagonists.
- DirectorBen HowlingYolanda RamkeStarsSimone LandersMartin FreemanMarlee Jane McPherson-DobbinsAfter an epidemic spreads all over Australia, a father searches for someone willing to protect his daughter.Some zombie bites will turn their victim over to the other side in a heart beat; some bites are quite uncertain as to when the change might occur (normally at the least convenient moment), but others you can set your watch by them... quite literally! This is a zombie movie with a premise and it takes itself quite seriously too. But I like that about it. It's a quiet world without the hordes that we expect from other movies. Some of the humans are even beginning to fight back or etch out their own corner in the world. Just at the time when one becomes complacent, that's the moment when fate will come back and bite you... time to set your affairs in order!
- DirectorJohn McPhailStarsElla HuntMalcolm CummingSarah SwireA zombie apocalypse threatens the sleepy town of Little Haven - at Christmas - forcing Anna and her friends to fight, slash and sing their way to survival, facing the undead in a desperate race to reach their loved ones. But they soon discover that no one is safe in this new world, and with civilization falling apart around them, the only people they can truly rely on are each other.This zom-com takes a fun approach, mixing genres by making a zombie musical! There's probably not a whole lot original in the storyline itself, though there are some very imaginative zombie kills; my favourites perhaps taking place in a bowling ally, a zombie head placed between two bowling balls.
- DirectorShin'ichirô UedaStarsTakayuki HamatsuYuzuki AkiyamaHarumi ShuhamaThings go badly for a hack director and film crew shooting a low budget zombie movie in an abandoned WWII Japanese facility, when they are attacked by real zombies.The self-awareness and irony of an low-budget, independent movie is brought to the next level with this very smart and quite comic movie. It keeps reinventing itself with unexpected layers that really makes you wonder just where it is going next! Not just for lovers of the zombie movies in itself, but also for those who enjoy the process of film making as a whole.
- DirectorDominique RocherStarsAnders Danielsen LieGolshifteh FarahaniDenis LavantThe morning after a party, a young man wakes up to find Paris invaded by zombies.As with Here Alone (2016), The Night Eats the World focuses primarily on a theme of isolation. After obliviously sleeping through a zombie outbreak, Sam (Anders Danielsen Lie) wakes to find himself trapped inside an apartment block, surrounded on all sides by zombies with no connecting buildings. Sam has everything he needs to subsist within the building, nevertheless he comes to discover that simply subsisting is far from surviving.
This is an excellent example of the duality at work within a good zombie movie: at its most superficial level, zombies walk the Earth and Sam has to fight each and every day to survive. But a more metaphoric interpretation is to see the zombies and the apartment complex as representing the manner in which we create islands of isolation in our minds, and see Sam's adventure as the importance of breaking out of those confines. - DirectorJulius AveryStarsJovan AdepoWyatt RussellMathilde OllivierA small group of American soldiers find horror behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day.A mission movie in the style of 'Where Eagles Dare' or the like, the idea that evil nazis are engineering mutant zombies seems to fit quite naturally into the theme. There's perhaps nothing entirely unique to the plot other than the period setting; nevertheless it works quite well and if nothing else, remains highly entertaining.
- DirectorAbe ForsytheStarsLupita Nyong'oAlexander EnglandJosh GadA washed-up musician teams up with a teacher and a kids'-show personality to protect young children from a sudden outbreak of zombies.With such an array of zombie movies out there, its hard to find an idea which is wholly original. This zombie movie, Little Monsters, manages to create a novel premise: to keep the horrors of the unfolding zombie apocalypse from a class of innocent, little children...even when you're right in the thick of it!
Unfortunately the movie itself is a little slow at getting started, building on a lot of background jargon that is honestly quite unnecessary, but as soon the zombies start to appear, the whole film moves up a gear. Lupita Nyong'o plays the part of Miss Caroline so warmly and with such reassurance that one could well imagine a class of small children having the upmost adoration and follow her instruction with unquestioning faith. The other characters have their moments, but really they're just window dressing. - DirectorBertrand BonelloStarsLouise LabèqueWislanda LouimatKatiana MilfortA man is brought back from the dead to work in the hell of sugar cane plantations. 55 years later, a Haitian teenager tells her friends her family secret - not suspecting that it will push one of them to commit the irreparable.Zombi Child takes a rather refreshing trajectory in the zombie lore, choosing to go right back to the root of the myth. There will be no blood splatters or explicit violence, no disease transmissions or even biting... instead there is a subtle discourse on the affects of colonialism and the influence the currents of capitalism still maintain over the most vulnerable in society.
- DirectorJeff BarnabyStarsMichael GreyeyesElle-Máijá TailfeathersForrest GoodluckThe dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi'kmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague.Blood Quantum builds upon the Robert Neville story (I am Legend novel, 1954) by making not just one man, but an entire ethnic community immune to a virus that has turned the rest of society into living dead. It's an interesting take on the regular zombie story, especially since the inhabitants of the Red Crow Indian Reservation now find themselves as custodians over the white survivors seeking refuge, who are particularly vulnerable to the disease. The old timer Sheriff Traylor (Michael Greyeyes) and his son Joseph (Forrest Goodluck) want to build an inclusive community. Ultimately, as with any good zombie flick, the movie bears out with true pessimism to the universal darkness of the human heart, as Traylor's other son, Lyson (Kiowa Gordon), fails to let go his fostering contempt and grows ever more volatile.
The most entertaining moments of the movie come when the old timers clear out a service station with their ever more inventive ways of decapitating zombies, delivering high contenders for zombie kill of the week, month or even possibly year! - DirectorLee Min-jaeStarsJeong Jae-yeongKim Nam-gilUhm Ji-wonWhen a pharmaceutical company's illegal experiments inadvertently create a zombie, the strange Park family finds it and tries to profit from it.This little number from South Korea is a blend of screwball and dark comedy. It takes a delightful fresh look on the genre as a whole, with as many twists and turns as one is not ever entirely sure what direction it is heading.
- DirectorIl ChoJo Il HyungMadeleine MartinStarsYoo Ah-inPark Shin-hyeJeon Bae-sooThe rapid spread of an unknown infection has left an entire city in ungovernable chaos, but one survivor remains alive in isolation. It is his story.With its smart integration of contemporary technological trappings, I feel this is the movie Ramero would have loved to have made when he attempted his 'Diary of the Dead'. It echoes very strongly also of 'The Night Eats the Wold', set in the isolation of an apartment block with Oh Joon-woo (Ah-In Yoo) awaking to find himself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. There is something delightfully reassuring for the viewer's self-conceit, witnessing Joon-woo's inadequacies, surviving the initial outbreak merely due to his hermit existence as an online gamer and growing in his survival prowess only by slow and steady degrees. Ultimately this movie proves to be about that most human of desires - of belonging.
- DirectorZack SnyderStarsDave BautistaElla PurnellAna de la RegueraFollowing a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.Director Jack Snyder returns to a zombie theme for this high budget, special effects, popcorn-guzzling movie. The premise is promising: something like a heist movie meets Dawn of the Dead! But I'm not sure it delivers on that promise. The heist angle is a little light-weight and silly, and makes little sense in the bigger context of the plot as a whole, especially as the twists and double crossing unravel. In all, the script is a little haphazard; story threads that go nowhere and a hundred and one plot contradictions, but if you're looking to turn your brain off and not think too hard and long, it delivers where it needs with some good special effect visuals.