Terrifying tales of undead creatures rising from their graves or zombie infections spreading through an unsuspecting society have enthralled horror movie lovers for decades. As supernatural stories get to the heart of human anxieties, the best zombie movies tap into the fear of death and address social and political issues, as zombies serve as powerful metaphors for social woes. From deeply layered examinations of racial issues to pointed satires deconstructing consumerism, below the surface, zombie movies have a lot to say about social structures.




The greatest zombie films include some of the best horror movies of all time, as undead ghouls and infected once-human creatures served as the basis for incredible horror movie franchises. Some amazing found-footage horrors dealt with contained outbreaks as small groups of survivors struggled to survive, while others looked at the grand picture as entire populations were ravaged by an apocalyptic outbreak taking place over years and decades. Like the best horrors, zombie movies tap into innate fears and serve as spectacularly spooky cinematic experiences.


15 Rabid (1977)

Directed by David Cronenberg


The early career of director David Cronenberg was full of horror movie classics as the young filmmaker discovered his passion for body horror and twisting audience expectations. While this would come to fruition in later classics like The Fly, 1977’s Rabid was Cronenberg’s breakthrough as its sinister story of surgery spread an infection that couldn’t be stopped. Rabid was a violent and often nauseating film that embraced truly shocking frights over slow-building suspense in a zombie movie that’s impossible to forget.

14 I Walked With A Zombie (1943)

Directed by Jacques Tourneur


The zombie genre has changed a lot over the past several decades, as undead creatures often represent the underlying anxiety of contemporary times, both social and political. This made the 1940s film I Walked with a Zombie all the more fascinating as its story of Vodou rituals on a Caribbean island dealt with issues around racism and slavery. While reviews were negative when this movie was released, it’s been reappraised by critics today as a definitive zombie movie that helped lay the groundwork for modern zombie films.

13 Scooby-Doo On Zombie Island (1998)

Directed by Jim Stenstrum


While the monsters of Scooby-Doo were more often embittered capitalists than genuine supernatural threats, all this changed with the release of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. This darker direct-to-video release was the best Scooby-Doo movie of them all and traded corrupt businesspeople for genuine zombies terrorizing an island in New Orleans, Louisiana. With impressive animation, incredible music, and genuinely frightening undead pirates, Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was an excellent introduction for younger viewers to zombie movies and led to a whole new generation of horror fans.


12 28 Weeks Later (2007)

Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

The post-apocalyptic sequel 28 Weeks Later returned to the world of 28 Days Later, focusing on military forces trying to salvage a safe zone in London. As the Rage virus spread throughout the UK, survivors attempted to hang onto their lives in an increasingly fractured and distrustful world where the people were just as dangerous as the zombies themselves. While 28 Weeks Later couldn’t live up to the iconic fright of the original, it was still a worthy follow-up and a brutal thriller that explored the military reactions to a zombie outbreak as NATO, armies, and air forces all played a role.


11 Dead Alive (1992)

Directed by Peter Jackson

Dead Alive, also known under the title Braindead, was future The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson’s unique take on the zombie genre. By blending comedy with genuine terror, Dead Alive depicted a hybrid rat-monkey creature who infected the city’s population in a gory story starring a lovestruck teen and his zombified mother. While Dead Alive was badly received upon release, in hindsight, its pure tastelessness bordered on genius, and its blend of slapper humor and genuine fright made it the best zombie movie of the 1990s.


10 Zombieland (2009)

Directed by Ruben Fleischer

The all-star cast of Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Emma Stone helped make Zombieland a modern horror comedy classic that achieved the rare feat of keeping the humor consistent without taking away from the power of the zombie threat at hand. As an American answer to Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland was boosted by a strong script, great performances, and incredible surprises, including a zombified version of Bill Murray playing himself. While the sequel Zombieland: Double Tap couldn’t quite recapture the magic of the original, Zombieland proved undead comedies had a lot of life in them yet.


9 Day Of The Dead (1985)

Directed by George A. Romero

The third film in George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead series explored life years after the zombie apocalypse and showcased the entire world ravaged by the outbreak. Day of the Dead focused on a small group of survivors fending off zombies while Dr. Logan tried to condition the undead into becoming docile and domesticated. Like all the movies in Romero’s series, Day of the Dead had deeper themes under the surface, as this movie was more about how, more so than anything, it’s a lack of communication between different groups that leads to societal issues and breakdown.


8 [REC] (2007)

Directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza

The Spanish horror movie Rec leaned into supernatural concepts of the occult and demonic possession and was one of the best found-footage horror movies ever made. With a nightmarish atmosphere, Rec featured a demonic zombie outbreak that acted similarly to a virus and brought together a conspiracy of exorcism and the Vatican. As a truly intense story of an apartment building under siege by supernatural forces, Rec was the best example of the Spanish film industry’s underrated contributions to horror.


7 Re-Animator (1985)

Directed by Stuart Gordon

Re-Animator was the greatest H.P. Lovecraft adaptation of them all, as it blended comedy, horror, and sci-fi into a cult classic about a medical student trying to revive the dead. With elements of Frankenstein and the unknowable terror of cosmic horror, Re-Animator was a gory, grotesque, and genius mix of humor and horror that was as funny as it was frightening. While Re-Animator was expanded into a series with sequels Bride of Re-Animator and Beyond Re-Animator, the original was this franchise at its best.


6 Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

Directed by Edgar Wright

The comedy horror Shaun of the Dead perfectly balanced hilarious satire with witty scares in a gloriously gory release that worked on all fronts. From director Edgar Wright and starring its co-writer Simon Pegg, Shaun of the Dead would be the first release in the excellent Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, which broke down genre films and stood as one of the best comedy film series of all time. With a story about a 29-year-old slacker named Shaun (Pegg) trying to make it to the pub in the wake of a zombie outbreak, Shaun of the Dead was a stylish satirical success.


5 The Return Of The Living Dead (1985)

Directed by Dan O’Bannon

The Alien screenwriter Dan O’Bannon paid tribute to George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead series with his own punk rock take on undead creatures of the night in The Return of the Living Dead. As the first movie to feature brain-eating zombies, this cult horror-comedy featured the social outcasts of a small town dealing with hordes of brain-hungry zombies risen from the grave due to a toxic rainfall that reanimates corpses. With plenty of unique energy and an idiosyncratic sense of humor, The Return of the Living Dead was the definitive comedy-horror release of the 1980s.


4 Dawn Of The Dead (1978)

Directed by George A. Romero

A horde of zombies in Dawn of the Dead

The first sequel in George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead series, Dawn of the Dead, expanded upon the world of the original and once again was a layered deconstruction of societal issues. This time, Romero addressed rampant consumerism as the ongoing zombie outbreak took over a shopping mall, and mass hysteria took hold over those who had barricades within. As a razor-sharp satire aimed at an increasingly fractured society, the release of Dawn of the Dead in the late 1970s foreshadowed the economic chaos and stern individualism that would take hold amid Reaganism and Thatcherism throughout the 1980s.


3 Train To Busan (2016)

Directed by Yeon Sang-ho

The South Korean action horror Train to Busan was a terrifying showcase of the deadly threat of fast-moving zombies. Telling the story of a workaholic father and his young daughter traveling from Seoul to Busan, all hell broke loose when the train became overrun by a zombie outbreak, and the group of survivors must do everything in their power to make it to the safe zone in Busan before they themselves get infected. While Train to Busan was filled with plenty of fast-paced action, what made this movie so effective was the emotional resonance of its father-daughter story.


2 28 Days Later (2002)

Directed by Danny Boyle

Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland made the greatest zombie movie of the 21st century with 28 Days Later. After a highly contagious, aggression-inducing virus spread caused by an infected laboratory chimpanzee, Jim (Cillian Murphy) awoke from a coma to discover a society in tatters as he walked through empty streets and soon came face-to-face with the devastation that had taken hold. As a truly iconic zombie movie, 28 Days Later only feels more relevant today following the societal shutdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, as viewers can relate even more closely to the horrors of an unstoppable virus.


1 Night Of The Living Dead (1968)

Directed by George A. Romero

Modern zombie movies would be entirely different without Night of the Living Dead, which reinvented the genre and laid the groundwork for every undead horror that followed it. With a still relevant story of fear, trust, and racial division, Night of the Living Dead broke down cinematic boundaries and was a 1960s cult classic that still holds up to this day. As an apocalyptic vision that turned into a sprawling franchise taking place in the decades following its zombie outbreak, Night of the Living Dead was a trailblazing movie whose influence on horror cannot be understated.




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