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As "World War Z" hits theaters as the most expensive zombie flick ever made, we take a look at the best zombie movies of all-time. By "zombie movies" we mean the films that deal with the dead returning to life, with a couple of exceptions.
- Dawn Of The Dead (1978) If Night Of The Living Dead was the birth of the contemporary zombie flick, Dawn Of The Dead was its coming-of-age – bigger, bolder, more confident, and, this time, in colour.
- Day Of The Dead (1985) The final part of Romero's landmark original Dead trilogy is a more meditative affair than the previous instalments – but it's a powerful piece, with an angry resonance that continues to reverberate.
- 28 Days Later (2002) Purists will tell you it's not a zombie movie. If they're technically right, they're also totally wrong – Danny Boyle's film about a deadly rage infection reinvented and redefined what a zombie film could be, taking the idea of running infected from Return Of The Living Dead and, er, running with it.
- Shaun Of The Dead (2004) For his feature debut proper, Edgar Wright drew from Romero and Richard Curtis for the definitive rom-zom-com. Simon Pegg is the titular Shaun, a slacker entering his 30s who's forced to grow up, commit to his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield), sort things out with his step-dad, and relinquish his best friend Ed (Nick Frost) when a zombie apocalypse unfolds in London.
Apr 26, 2024 · From genre classics like ‘Dawn of the Dead’ to modern comedies like ‘Warm Bodies,’ Entertainment Weekly ranks the 30 best zombie movies of all time.
- Declan Gallagher
- IGN picks its favorites in the undead genre.
- Night of the Living Dead (1968)
- 28 Days Later (2002)
- Braindead - aka Dead Alive (1992)
- [REC] (2007)
- Train to Busan (2016)
- Dawn of the Dead (1978)
- Zombi 2 (1979)
- Zombieland (2009)
- The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
By IGN Staff, Matt Fowler
Updated: Dec 15, 2023 11:22 pm
Posted: Dec 5, 2023 11:30 pm
Spooky season may have officially ended, but that doesn't mean you have to stop watching horror movies. In honor of all things dark and macabre that go bump in the night, we're counting down our picks for the best zombie movies of all time.
Whether it's corpses rising from their graves due to unexplained otherworldly circumstances or humans being transformed into rabid monsters because of a crazed contagion, zombies have been a massive part of the horror landscape for decades. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, from 200 years ago, was an early exploration of reanimation and its dastardly consequences, but as far as movies go it was really George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, from 1968, that popularized what we now know as a "zombie," kicking off an entire wave of undead horror that played into some of our most intimate, existential fears.
So stay alert, don't get cornered, aim for the head, and always save one bullet for yourself because these are the freakiest (and sometimes funniest) zombie movies ever made! Be sure to also check out our list of the best zombie games as well.
Where to Watch: Available across most platforms including Tubi (free), YouTube (free), Hulu, Prime Video and more.
It's right there in the intro and it's largely considered a masterwork of horror so we may as well start with the granddaddy of the modern zombie genre, George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. This flick reworked and reimagined what a zombie movie could be, removing the shambling creatures from the realm of voodoo and black magic and Haitian jungles and placing them squarely in the backyard of middle-class America, with no clear explanation of the ghouls' origins but plenty of sociological and political subtext surrounding the undead things.
Where to Watch: Prime Video
One of the next big paradigm-shifting moments in zombie horror came with Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later. The zombies here still follow the basic principles of insatiable undead fiends -- they want to kill you, a bite from them will infect and assimilate you, etc -- but these mf'ers would run at you, full speed, like insane hyenas. The Return of the Living Dead, from 1985, may have pre-dated this movie with fast ghouls, but 28 Days Later made it a craze.
Yes, fast-moving zombies became the new wave in terror. No longer were you surrounded by slow, moseying ghouls. No more sleepwalking hordes. This was like being pursued by a gang of maniacs.
Our growing anxieties over infectious diseases informed this malicious movie, about a secret laboratory "rage" virus exposed to the public. Starring Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, and Christopher Eccleston, 28 Days Later is post-apocalyptic perfection, reigniting the flames of the then-dying zombie genre and creating all new reasons to be terrified. Especially the idea of a hospitalized character waking up after a month and discovering that the entire world fell into ruin in such a brief window of time (something that The Walking Dead would echo when Robert Kirkman started the comic in 2003).
Where to Watch: Prime Video
Let's backtrack a tiny by and get goofy with Peter Jackson's 1992 film Braindead -- retitled Dead Alive for its North American release - which is a gore-filled, slapsticky Evil Dead 2-inspired affair about a young man, Lionel, whose mother is bitten by a "rat monkey." She dies and comes back to life as a ravenous reanimated corpse with a rather indiscriminate palate -- she even eats dogs!
Where to Watch: Prime Video
Ping-ponging back to something utterly terrifying, Rec is not only a tremendous zombie movie but it's also one of the best found-footage horror films of all time. This Spanish classic stars Manuela Velasco as a reporter who responds to an emergency call at a quarantined apartment building. Inside, an undead infection has spread and Rec becomes an absolutely nightmarish siege/survival story that utilizes the format brilliantly. Skip the American remake, 2008's Quarantine, and check out the original for some ground zero terror. Arguments can be made that the monsters in this aren't "zombies'' in the purest sense (it's a mix of rabies and...something biblical?) but we're not that pedantic.
Where to Watch: Prime Video
Just when we thought fast-moving zombies may have run their course (after The Walking Dead almost fully dominated the zombie game last decade), Train to Busan dropped and absolutely devastated us. Managing to capture the intensity that World War Z was only partially successful with, Train to Busan is a basic "World quickly crumbling due to zombies everywhere" format done with expert flare and care. It's gripping, emotional, and next-level ferocious. One of the many films of the past 20 years that shined a much-deserved spotlight on South Korean cinema, Train to Busan utilized intense action, full characters, and social commentary to tell the tale of a father trying to get his young daughter somewhere, anywhere safe, as civilization dissolves from under their feet.
Where to Watch: Netflix, Starz, and Peacock.
Launching into its scary story with only the slightest of explanations, George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, made 10 years after his original zombie game-changer, is both a thrill ride and a mood piece. Returning to the zombie genre he himself launched, Romero got to go bigger here in terms of production, special effects, and themes.
Where to Watch: Shudder, AMC+
While the movie doesn't actually have any connection to the original Zombi (a recut-for-Europe version of Romero's Dawn of the Dead), this film sparked a zombie movie craze across Europe and made Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci a horror icon. The flick follows a group of people searching for a missing man on a tropical island where a doctor is desperately searching for the cause of a recent epidemic of the undead. Zombi 2 is known for its sensational zombie antics -- such as the notorious eye-gouging, and jugular-biting moments -- as well as (wait for it...) zombie vs. shark wrestling! The 1979 movie was released in the U.S. as Zombie.
Where to Watch: Netflix and AMC+
Ruben Fleischer's zany meta-take on zombie movies, that occasionally crosses over into parody, was a uproarious star-studded splatterfest with both action and heart. Zombieland stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse who, after some comedic struggles, form a found-family in the midst of hell on Earth. All while trying to adhere to the "rules" of zombie apocalypse survival in order to best secure their future. At its core, Zombieland is a clever family road trip movie littered with undead dangers.
Where to Watch: Prime Video
Zombie comedy isn't necessarily a recent thing, however. 1992's Braindead notwithstanding, The Return of the Living Dead landed in 1985 and emphasized laughs over screams.
After the release of the original Night of the Living Dead, director George Romero and his then-partner and co-writer John Russo went their separate ways to make their own follow-ups to the hugely successful film. Russo reportedly got the rights to the term "Living Dead," and that's how the Return series was born -- a group of films of greatly diminishing returns, so to speak, that bears some similarities to Romero's oeuvre but plenty of differences as well.
The original Return of the Living Dead remains a classic, standing tall above the pack due to writer-director Dan O'Bannon's (Alien) comedic take on the material, as well as the now de rigueur zombie hunger for "braaaiiinnnsss!!!!!" that was first established here. O'Bannon's undead also distinguish themselves with their ability to run, and run fast, rather than simply stagger along, as well as with their inability to be "killed" (beyond incineration or having an A-bomb dropped on them, that is). And the unwinnable scenario that the director places his characters in is dark, dark, dark, despite the humor of the film.
- Night of the Comet (1984) Director: Thom Eberhardt. Writer: Thom Eberhardt. Cast: Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Robert Beltran, Sharon Farrell, Mary Woronov, Geoffrey Lewis.
- Dead Snow (2009) Director: Tommy Wirkola. Writers: Tommy Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen. Cast: Vegar Hoel, Stig Frode Henriksen, Jeppe Beck Laursen, Charlotte Frogner, Jenny Skavlan, Ørjan Gamst.
- One Cut of the Dead. Writer/director: Shin'ichirō Ueda. Cast: Takayuki Hamatsu, Mao, Harumi Syuhama, Yuzuki Akiyama, Kazuaki Nagaya. One of the most thrilling things you can do right now is enthusiastically recommend the film One Cut of the Dead to a friend, because for at least 15 minutes that friend will think you've lost it.
- Cemetery Man (1994) Director: Michele Soavi. Writers: Gianni Romoli, Tiziano Sclavi. Cast: Rupert Everett, François Hadji-Lazaro, Anna Falchi, Fabiana Formica.
40 Essential Zombie Movies. The zombie: Without remorse and pity, driven by a single hunger, and damn near impossible to put down permanently. There have been times since their introduction...
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On this list of the best zombie movies of all-time, you’ll find classics to cult faves, zom-coms to nauseating splatterfests, and even a few that predate George A Romero.
