Top 50 Zombie Films
by nick_townley | created - 14 Oct 2014 | updated - 20 Oct 2014 | Public50 must-see zombie flicks
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1. Dead Set (2008)
TV-MA | 28 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
During a fictional series of Big Brother, a zombie outbreak occurs, but the house-mates are unaware of the impending doom outside of the Big Brother House.
Stars: Paul 'Bubble' Ferguson, Jaime Winstone, Andy Nyman, Riz Ahmed
Votes: 20,907
Weak premise, but perfectly executed and terrifying. Not technically a movie, but close enough for this list - MUST SEE!
2. 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: 128,521 | Gross: $5.10M
It was extremely difficult to not have this one at the top of my list. This might be the perfect zombie flick and would not argue anyone who says it should be number one.
3. 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: 139,045 | Gross: $0.09M
Made zombies what they are today. Can not imagine what this would have been like to see in the 60s.
..."They're coming to get you, Barbara"
4. 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: 232,312 | Gross: $2.40M
Using the term "zombie" a little liberally when it come to Sam Rami's masterpiece. Funny, frightening and perfectly campy. Have to love the camera work.
5. 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: 68,865 | Gross: $14.24M
Zombie films can not be more fun than "Return of the Living Dead." A perfect mix of amazing makeup, humor, gore and quintessential 80's horror.
6. 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: 593,681 | Gross: $13.54M
This one needs no explanation - Who doesn't love this movie?
7. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
R | 101 min | Action, Horror
A 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.
Director: Zack Snyder | Stars: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer, Jake Weber
Votes: 272,321 | Gross: $59.02M
Truth be told I wasn't a huge fan of this remake when it first came out, but I've changed my mind and it's difficult to not give the credit it deserves. "Dawn of the Dead" is one of the more frightening zombie films made.
8. 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: 445,317 | Gross: $45.06M
Debatable whether "28 Days Later..." can be considered a zombie film as technically infected do not die, but screw it - this is one of the most intense horror films I've seen.
9. Planet Terror (2007)
R | 105 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
After 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.
Director: Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodríguez, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton
Votes: 223,176
10. 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: 30,141 | Gross: $0.30M
Pleasantville with zombies - great story with even better cinematography. This film should have had more hype around it eight years ago.
11. 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: 196,481
12. Zombieland (2009)
R | 88 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
A 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.
Director: Ruben Fleischer | Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin
Votes: 620,968 | Gross: $75.59M
13. 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: 26,095 | Gross: $0.59M
14. Evil Dead II (1987)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Horror
Ash Williams, the lone survivor of an earlier onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits, holes up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley DePaiva
Votes: 181,847 | Gross: $5.92M
"Evil Dead II" nails pure campy fun with plenty of gore and violence.
15. 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: 35,458
Infection through words? Despite sounding like a big stretch for a zombie film, "Pontypool" changes your mind very quickly.
16. 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: 30,700
"Zombie fights a shark" - Every review ever written for "Zombi 2"
17. 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: 45,483 | Gross: $5.84M
Quality of this remake isn't far off from the original, but with so many great zombie movies out there I couldn't put it higher on the list.
18. 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: 103,255 | Gross: $0.24M
19. 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: 71,471 | Gross: $2.02M
20. 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: 74,337 | Gross: $5.80M
21. 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: 719,072 | Gross: $202.36M
22. 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: 19,836
23. 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: 23,319 | Gross: $0.25M
24. 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: 27,641 | Gross: $19.60M
25. Quarantine (2008)
R | 89 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A television reporter and her cameraman are trapped inside a building quarantined by the CDC, after the outbreak of a mysterious virus which turns humans into bloodthirsty killers.
Director: John Erick Dowdle | Stars: Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris, Columbus Short, Jay Hernandez
Votes: 77,320 | Gross: $31.69M
26. Army of Darkness (1992)
R | 81 min | Comedy, Horror
When Ash Williams is accidentally transported to 1300 A.D., he must retrieve the Necronomicon and battle an army of the dead in order to return home.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie
Votes: 194,290 | Gross: $11.50M
27. Dead Air (I) (2009)
Not Rated | 90 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Logan Burnhardt is the ego-king of the airwaves, but his unflappable persona is put to the test when a terrorist bio-attack unleashes a plague of flesh-ripping maniacs on Los Angeles.
Director: Corbin Bernsen | Stars: Corbin Bernsen, Patricia Tallman, Bill Moseley, Larry Drake
Votes: 2,487
28. 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: 9,315
29. 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: 69,993 | Gross: $0.04M
30. 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: 243,504 | Gross: $66.38M
31. Dance of the Dead (2008)
R | 87 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
On the night of the big High-School Prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn't get dates to the dance.
Director: Gregg Bishop | Stars: Jared Kusnitz, Greyson Chadwick, Chandler Darby, Carissa Fowler
Votes: 11,969
32. Aaah! Zombies!! (2007)
Not Rated | 90 min | Comedy, Horror
Turning the zombie film on its head, this film is an oddball comedy from the perspective of the brain munching monsters themselves.
Director: Matthew Kohnen | Stars: Matthew Davis, Julianna Robinson, Michael Grant Terry, Betsy Beutler
Votes: 3,510
Originally titled "Ahh! Zombies!!" - Unique take reminiscent "Dale & Tucker vs. Evil"
33. 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: 288,292 | Gross: $40.12M
34. Day of the Dead (2008 Video)
R | 86 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
When a small Colorado town is overrun by the flesh hungry dead a small group of survivors try to escape in a last ditch effort to stay alive.
Director: Steve Miner | Stars: Mena Suvari, Nick Cannon, Michael Welch, AnnaLynne McCord
Votes: 21,793
35. City of the Living Dead (1980)
Not Rated | 93 min | Horror
A 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.
Director: Lucio Fulci | Stars: Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi
Votes: 19,346
36. Flight of the Living Dead (2007)
Unrated | 89 min | Horror
A mad scientist is transferring a dead woman in a freezer with an armed guard on a plane to Paris. After slight turbulence, the freezer breaks down and she awakens, turns into a zombie, and infects all on board.
Director: Scott Thomas | Stars: David Chisum, Kristen Kerr, Kevin J. O'Connor, Richard Tyson
Votes: 9,527
37. Doghouse (2009)
Not Rated | 89 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A group of men, heading to a remote village to help one of their friends get over his divorce, soon discover that all the women have been infected with a virus that makes them man-hating cannibals.
Director: Jake West | Stars: Danny Dyer, Noel Clarke, Emil Marwa, Lee Ingleby
Votes: 22,852
38. Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
R | 94 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Survivors of the Raccoon City catastrophe travel across the Nevada desert, hoping to make it to Alaska. Alice joins the caravan and their fight against the evil Umbrella Corp.
Director: Russell Mulcahy | Stars: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Oded Fehr, Iain Glen
Votes: 205,453 | Gross: $50.65M
39. Mutants (2009)
R | 95 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
In the middle of a zombie apocalypse, a resourceful couple hides out in an isolated abandoned building. The woman is pregnant and the man is infected, slowly transforming into the kind of inhuman monster they are trying to escape.
Director: David Morley | Stars: Hélène de Fougerolles, Francis Renaud, Dida Diafat, Marie-Sohna Condé
Votes: 4,261
40. Last of the Living (2009)
Not Rated | 88 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A contagious virus is turning everyone into zombies, and the only hope for survival lies in the hands of three couch potatoes.
Director: Logan McMillan | Stars: Morgan Williams, Robert Faith, Ashleigh Southam, Stacey Stevens
Votes: 1,839
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