Zombie Films: A Retrospective
by PDZombie | created - 02 Aug 2013 | updated - 08 Dec 2022 | PublicA historical look at the most representative films of the zombie genre in all of the possible permutations: voodoo, technology, infectious, demonic, parody, etc.
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1. White Zombie (1932)
Passed | 69 min | Horror
A 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.
Director: Victor Halperin | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, Joseph Cawthorn, Robert Frazer
Votes: 11,646
Once upon a time there was a plantation in the caribbean...
2. The Walking Dead (1936)
Passed | 66 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
After hapless pianist and ex-con John Elman is framed for murder, he is resurrected by a scientist after his execution.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Boris Karloff, Ricardo Cortez, Edmund Gwenn, Marguerite Churchill
Votes: 3,058
And everyone thought the name was original...
3. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Frances Dee, Tom Conway, James Ellison, Edith Barrett
Votes: 13,655
Jane Eyre of the zombies.
4. Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)
Not Rated | 79 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Evil aliens attack Earth and set their terrible "Plan 9" into action. As the aliens resurrect the dead of the Earth, the lives of the living are in danger.
Director: Edward D. Wood Jr. | Stars: Gregory Walcott, Tom Keene, Mona McKinnon, Duke Moore
Votes: 40,380
As seen on Tim Burton's 'Ed Wood'
5. The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
When a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant vampire hunter.
Directors: Ubaldo Ragona, Sidney Salkow | Stars: Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, Giacomo Rossi Stuart
Votes: 21,476
Not really a zombie film, but the most important influence for the narrative, especially for NotLD.
6. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Not Rated | 96 min | Horror, Thriller
A 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.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman
Votes: 138,945 | Gross: $0.09M
The original...
7. Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)
PG | 101 min | Horror
Medieval knights executed for their black magic rituals come back as zombies to torment a group of vacationing college kids.
Director: Amando de Ossorio | Stars: Lone Fleming, César Burner, María Elena Arpón, José Thelman
Votes: 6,403
I went to the crusades and I all I got was to be dead alive...
8. Tales from the Crypt (1972)
PG | 92 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Five strangers get lost in a crypt and, after meeting the mysterious Crypt Keeper, receive visions of how they will die.
Director: Freddie Francis | Stars: Joan Collins, Peter Cushing, Ralph Richardson, Geoffrey Bayldon
Votes: 12,995 | Gross: $1.70M
"Poetic Justice" segment
9. Dead of Night (1974)
PG | 88 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A young soldier killed in the Vietnam War inexplicably shows up at his family home on the night of his death.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: John Marley, Lynn Carlin, Richard Backus, Henderson Forsythe
Votes: 5,998 | Gross: $0.03M
Vampire zombie vietnam veteran.
10. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974)
R | 95 min | Horror
A 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.
Director: Jorge Grau | Stars: Cristina Galbó, Ray Lovelock, Arthur Kennedy, Aldo Massasso
Votes: 9,308
Disrespect the enviroment, raise the dead...
11. Sugar Hill (1974)
PG | 91 min | Action, Crime, Horror
When her boyfriend is murdered by mobsters, Sugar Hill decides not to get mad, but BAD. She asks the voodoo priestess Mama Maitresse to summon Baron Samedi, the Lord of the Dead, to help ... See full summary »
Director: Paul Maslansky | Stars: Marki Bey, Robert Quarry, Don Pedro Colley, Betty Anne Rees
Votes: 2,298 | Gross: $0.03M
Blaixplotation!
12. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Unrated | 127 min | Horror, Thriller
During an escalating zombie epidemic, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter and his TV executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross
Votes: 128,440 | Gross: $5.10M
Mall of the dead (forget the remake and his superdirector)
13. Zombie (1979)
R | 91 min | Horror
Strangers 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.
Director: Lucio Fulci | Stars: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver
Votes: 30,681
Prequel to nothing...
14. Dead & Buried (1981)
R | 94 min | Horror, Mystery
Sheriff Dan Gillis investigates eerie deaths in a sleepy coastal town.
Director: Gary Sherman | Stars: James Farentino, Melody Anderson, Jack Albertson, Dennis Redfield
Votes: 14,887 | Gross: $0.22M
I see dead people...
15. The Evil Dead (1981)
NC-17 | 85 min | Horror
Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker
Votes: 232,191 | Gross: $2.40M
Slapstick Gore...
16. Creepshow (1982)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
"Creepshow" is a 1982 movie that tells five grisly tales from a children's comic book: a murdered father rising from his grave, a bizarre meteor, a vengeful husband, a mysterious crate's occupant, and a plague of cockroaches.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Hal Holbrook, Leslie Nielsen, Adrienne Barbeau, E.G. Marshall
Votes: 53,151 | Gross: $21.03M
"Father's Day" segment
17. Day of the Dead (1985)
Not Rated | 101 min | Horror, Thriller
As 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.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Jarlath Conroy
Votes: 74,300 | Gross: $5.80M
Cold war social metaphor
18. Re-Animator (1985)
Unrated | 84 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
After 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.
Director: Stuart Gordon | Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale
Votes: 71,411 | Gross: $2.02M
Inspired by Lovecraft...
19. The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
When 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.
Director: Dan O'Bannon | Stars: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews
Votes: 68,803 | Gross: $14.24M
Brains!
20. Demons (1985)
Not Rated | 88 min | Horror
A group of random people are invited to a screening of a mysterious movie, only to find themselves trapped in the theater with ravenous demons.
Director: Lamberto Bava | Stars: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento
Votes: 26,515
That's what you get for watching imitations of the Evil Dead, being possesed by demons.
21. Night of the Creeps (1986)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Alien brain parasites, entering humans through the mouth, turn their host into a killing zombie. Some teenagers start to fight against them.
Director: Fred Dekker | Stars: Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow
Votes: 26,067 | Gross: $0.59M
Alien parasites reanimate the dead.
22. The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
R | 98 min | Fantasy, Horror
An anthropologist goes to Haiti after hearing rumors about a drug used by black magic practitioners to turn people into zombies.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae, Paul Winfield
Votes: 27,622 | Gross: $19.60M
Real voodoo zombies.
23. Pet Sematary (1989)
R | 103 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
After tragedy strikes, a grieving father discovers an ancient burial ground behind his home with the power to raise the dead.
Director: Mary Lambert | Stars: Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne, Brad Greenquist
Votes: 114,896 | Gross: $57.47M
Sometimes they come back... as a different King adaptation.
24. Night of the Living Dead (1990)
R | 92 min | Horror
When the unburied dead return to life and seek human victims, seven refugees shelter in a house in the Pennsylvanian countryside.
Director: Tom Savini | Stars: Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, Tom Towles, McKee Anderson
Votes: 45,460 | Gross: $5.84M
Rise of the Remakes.
25. Braindead (1992)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A 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.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody, Ian Watkin
Votes: 103,210 | Gross: $0.24M
Kiwi Oedipus Dead.
26. Cemetery Man (1994)
R | 105 min | Comedy, Horror
A cemetery man must kill the dead a second time when they become zombies.
Director: Michele Soavi | Stars: Rupert Everett, François Hadji-Lazaro, Anna Falchi, Mickey Knox
Votes: 23,299 | Gross: $0.25M
Bury them once, kill them later.
27. Bio-Zombie (1998)
Not Rated | 94 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A group of young shoppers and employees must band together when a zombie outbreak over runs their Hong Kong shopping center in the middle of the shopping day.
Director: Wilson Yip | Stars: Jordan Chan, Emotion Cheung, Sam Lee, Yiu-Cheung Lai
Votes: 2,725
Attention to all shoppers...
28. Wild Zero (1999)
Not Rated | 98 min | Comedy, Horror, Music
Only legendary Japanese garage rock band Guitar Wolf can stand between a race of aliens from destroying earth with an army of zombies.
Director: Tetsuro Takeuchi | Stars: Guitar Wolf, Drum Wolf, Bass Wolf, Masashi Endô
Votes: 3,793
Rock & Roll zombies vs. Aliens
29. Versus (II) (2000)
R | 119 min | Action, Drama, Fantasy
There are 666 portals that connect this world to the other side. These are concealed from all human beings. Somewhere in Japan exists the 444th portal.... The forest of resurrection.
Director: Ryûhei Kitamura | Stars: Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, Kenji Matsuda
Votes: 13,722
Gates of hell open for yakuza action.
30. Stacy: Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies (2001)
80 min | Comedy, Horror
Girls surrounding 17 years old are affected by an illness that make her to be 'Stacies': they feel a strange and momentary happiness until they become zombies.
Director: Naoyuki Tomomatsu | Stars: Norman England, Tomoka Hayashi, Yukijirô Hotaru, Ryôichi Inaba
Votes: 1,675
Dead japanese school girls (before J-Pop).
31. Resident Evil (2002)
R | 100 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
A 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.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson | Stars: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Ryan McCluskey, Oscar Pearce
Votes: 288,091 | Gross: $40.12M
Game Over for the living dead.
32. 28 Days Later (2002)
R | 113 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Alex Palmer
Votes: 444,875 | Gross: $45.06M
Zombies could be real...
33. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Horror
The uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesman and his layabout roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse.
Director: Edgar Wright | Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis
Votes: 593,318 | Gross: $13.54M
A Romantic comedy with zombies.
34.
Masters of Horror (2005–2007)
Episode:
Homecoming
(2005)
Not Rated | 58 min | Horror
A hotshot White House speech writer deals with the publicity nightmare of his life when recently deceased soldiers return from beyond the grave.
Director: Joe Dante | Stars: Thea Gill, Jon Tenney, Terry David Mulligan, Beverley Breuer
Votes: 4,422
Dead veterans vote against war politicians.
35. Land of the Dead (2005)
R | 93 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
The 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.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: John Leguizamo, Asia Argento, Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper
Votes: 100,729 | Gross: $20.70M
Social Metaphor about the Bush Years.
36. Fido (2006)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
In 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 ... See full summary »
Director: Andrew Currie | Stars: Kesun Loder, Billy Connolly, Carrie-Anne Moss, David Kaye
Votes: 30,135 | Gross: $0.30M
Douglas Sirk meets George Romero and talk about Tim Burton.
37. REC (2007)
R | 78 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying.
Directors: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza | Stars: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza, Jorge-Yamam Serrano, Pablo Rosso
Votes: 196,344
Found footage of zombies created by religious fanatism.
38. 28 Weeks Later (2007)
R | 100 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Six 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.
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo | Stars: Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne, Robert Carlyle, Harold Perrineau
Votes: 293,449 | Gross: $28.64M
Zombies could be real, again...
39. Colin (2008)
Not Rated | 97 min | Action, Drama, Horror
Our hero Colin is bitten by a Zombie; he dies and returns from the dead. We follow him as he wanders through suburbia during the throes of a cadaverous apocalypse.
Director: Marc Price | Stars: Alastair Kirton, Daisy Aitkens, Leanne Pammen, Kate Alderman
Votes: 1,646
No to be or not to be...
40. Dead Snow (2009)
Not Rated | 91 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.
Director: Tommy Wirkola | Stars: Jeppe Beck Laursen, Charlotte Frogner, Jenny Skavlan, Geir Vegar Hoel
Votes: 69,974 | Gross: $0.04M
Nazi zombies (pardon the redundancy)
41. Diary of the Dead (2007)
R | 95 min | Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A group of young film students run into real-life zombies while filming a horror movie of their own.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Shawn Roberts, Todd Schroeder
Votes: 49,220 | Gross: $0.96M
New media, old zombies.
42. Deadgirl (2008)
R | 101 min | Horror
Two high school boys discover an imprisoned woman in an abandoned mental asylum who cannot die.
Directors: Marcel Sarmiento, Gadi Harel | Stars: Shiloh Fernandez, Noah Segan, Candice King, Eric Podnar
Votes: 19,828
The Perversity of romanticism.
43. Pontypool (2008)
Not Rated | 93 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A radio host interprets the possible outbreak of a deadly virus which infects the small Ontario town he is stationed in.
Director: Bruce McDonald | Stars: Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly, Hrant Alianak
Votes: 35,430
44. Survival of the Dead (2009)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
On 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.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Joshua Peace
Votes: 22,506 | Gross: $0.10M
Undying conflicts won't stay dead.
45. Juan of the Dead (2011)
Not Rated | 92 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
A group of slackers face an army of zombies. The Cuban government and media claim the living dead are dissidents revolting against the government.
Director: Alejandro Brugués | Stars: Alexis Díaz de Villegas, Jorge Molina, Andros Perugorría, Andrea Duro
Votes: 10,988 | Gross: $0.02M
Re-Viva la revolución!
46. Warm Bodies (2013)
PG-13 | 98 min | Comedy, Horror, Romance
After 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.
Director: Jonathan Levine | Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich, Lio Tipton
Votes: 243,411 | Gross: $66.38M
Dead Romeo + Living Juliet
47. Contracted (2013)
Not Rated | 84 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
After being drugged and raped at a party, a young woman contracts what she thinks is an STD; but, it's actually something much worse.
Director: Eric England | Stars: Najarra Townsend, Caroline Williams, Alice Macdonald, Matt Mercer
Votes: 16,450 | Gross: $0.00M
Always use a condom...
48. World War Z (2013)
PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
Former 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.
Director: Marc Forster | Stars: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale
Votes: 718,606 | Gross: $202.36M
Zombie blockbuster... for zombie audiences.
49. Life After Beth (2014)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A young man's recently deceased girlfriend mysteriously returns from the dead, but he slowly realizes she is not the way he remembered her.
Director: Jeff Baena | Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon
Votes: 23,800 | Gross: $0.08M
Just plain weird, but I liked it.
50. The Walking Dead (2010–2022)
TV-MA | 45 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Sheriff Deputy Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma to learn the world is in ruins and must lead a group of survivors to stay alive.
Stars: Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan
Votes: 1,080,288
Hopefully it will become the neverending zombie film as the comic creator intended.
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