Even the topic of death may not be included in a Western list of the most taboo subjects. And yet: People from the Northern Hemisphere and Europe have a pathological fear of dying. We think that if we stick to a strict exercise routine, consume sufficient amounts of kale, and use the appropriate high-priced supplements, we will be able to live forever. In today’s youth-centric society, “go long” has become a rallying cry.
The allure of zombie films comes from the fact that they make us face death head-on. On the contrary, death stares us down, eager to remove our skulls and add us to its ranks.
In other cases, such as “Shaun of the Dead,” zombies serve as metaphors for broader social issues, such as the growing divide between online and offline communities. Sometimes, though, zombies are just zombies—walking corpses who move around like ghosts to serve as a grim reminder that, unless some miracle happens, our last resting place is in the earth with them.
Read this article carefully it ranks the best zombie movies of all time.
#1. Zeder 1983
Most people who are just tangentially familiar with Italian horror films are familiar with the greats like Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento, etc. If, however, you come across a student of Pupi Avati, you may rest assured that they have studied the subject thoroughly. Like Fulci and Bava, Avati is a director known for their work in the horror and giallo genres. However, unlike Fulci and Bava, Avati is most known for his film Zeder, a peculiar horror-drama that offers a fresh take on the zombie film.
The film’s “macguffin” is the concept of “K-Zones,” or areas where the dead can be buried and come back to life. The trouble is that this movie has more than a touch of Pet Sematary in its DNA, and the reanimated dead have attitude problems. The tale follows a young author who, like Batman villain Ra’s Al Ghul with his Lazarus pits, seeks to understand the K-Zones and their purpose.
The film’s tone and style are reminiscent of a cross between Re-Animator and Pet Sematary. It’s well-shot and dark, with minimal zombie violence and gore but some striking visuals that will stick with you.
#2. Warm Bodies (2013)
If your significant other isn’t like the traditional Romero-style gore and splatter found in horror movies like “The Evil Dead” and “Hostel,” then “Warm Bodies” may be the perfect compromise. It’s easy to dismiss this Nicholas Hoult “rom-zom” film as simple teen fluff.
Hoult plays “R,” a somewhat depressed zombie who, along with hundreds of his compatriots, spends his days aimlessly wandering a derelict airport while the last traces of his humanity fade away. Until he first lays eyes on Julie (Teresa Parker), and something in his previously lifeless heart starts to beat anew. We then enter a “Romeo and Juliet”-esque setting, with the added danger posed by Julie’s tyrannical father.
Despite this, the most enjoyable parts of Warm Bodies are not the love subplots but the characters’ charming comradery. As the other zombies begin to experience some of the same awakenings as “R,” the minimalistic, coworker-esque small conversation between “R” and Rob Corddry’s “zombie bro” is a highlight that is cleverly interwoven into the storyline.
What’s more, Julie’s life as a teenager in a strongly secured, walled survivalist enclave is the kind of thing rarely seen in more serious, horror-centric zombie literature. Warm Bodies is a delightful surprise that will please fans of romantic comedies as well as those who enjoy zombie movies.
#3. Blood Quantum (2019)
Blood Quantum, directed by Mi’kmaq Initial Nation member Jeff Barnaby, is a zombie movie that goes for the satirical, political edge associated with the genre ever since Romero’s first journey into the realm of the living dead. The film delves deeply into the everyday atrocities of colonialism. The story is set in the early 1980s on the made-up Red Crow Indian Reservation, a location whose inhabitants have been systematically drained of hope and resolution before being thrown into a world where they’ll have to recover at least a modicum of it to live, much like Barnaby’s own childhood in Quebec.
The white townies have all turned into the living dead, but the First Nation reserve inhabitants are mysteriously impervious, and it doesn’t take long to realize who is doing the rising when the dead rise here thanks to unsettling visuals like gutted fish coming back to jerky, flopping life.
This inverts the power dynamic, turning the reservation into a fortress where whites are let in only at the discretion of their native defenders and subject to the natives’ whims for life and death. filled with inevitable hypocrisy as some of our characters accept the worst features of colonialism for their own as the Orwellian shift of “who’s in power” takes them down a dark path.
Blood Quantum is notable for its serious depiction of zombies, mostly free from humour, and for providing more than enough gore to please the old-school horror junkie. The film is interspersed with gorgeous (but too short) animated segments that bring a little seriousness to the proceedings. It’s distinct in a way that feels lovely and new without being jarring.
#4. ParaNorman
The second chapter in Laika’s repertoire (after the similarly stunning “Coraline”) features a zombie storyline that is both horrifying and poignant. The film’s protagonist, after all, speaks with the dead who have unfinished business.
In a possible reference to Romero’s use of zombies as symbols of society evils, Laika’s stop-motion walking dead serve as a cautionary tale about the flaws of mob rule and fear-based judgements. ParaNorman is the rare substantial zombie movie that the whole family can enjoy, thanks to its amazing voice cast (Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Casey Affleck, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, and John Goodman).
#5. “Ojuju” (C.J. Obasi, 2014)
An isolated slum in Nigeria becomes a warzone of flesh-eating zombies as the water supply becomes contaminated. When his pregnant partner starts having some weird symptoms, Romero (a funny pun to “Night of the Living Dead” director George Romero) must weigh his urge for survival against his grief. He teams up with his sarcastic pal Peju in an effort to flee the contaminated area, and the two must avoid zombieized drug dealers, ex-lovers, pals, and more.
The zombie film has a welcome twist thanks to the incorporation of anthropological details of a Lagos shantytown.
In this context, “Ojuju” transcends the conventions of horror to become more of a social and political allegory as it explores the effects of pollution in a country of 190 million people, where over half the population lacks access to clean water.
The film’s gritty, lo-fi look is well suited to the tale and genre, despite being made on a low budget by a young, adventurous filmmaker with a cast of performers mainly unknown in the West. In the end, Obasi’s slick debut is a notable twist on the Nigerian take on the zombie genre, and it announces the advent of a talent to keep an eye on.
#6. Return of the Living Dead
Produced, written, and directed by Dan O’Bannon, the picture features Clu Gulager, James Karen, Thom Matthews, and Don Calfa in their first directorial roles. Supervisor Frank and new employee Freddy accidentally release a substance that reanimates corpses and turns them into flesh-eating zombies while working on a top-secret military project in a storage warehouse.
As the plague spreads around Louisville and the monsters quench their appetite in horrifying and ludicrous ways, Frank and Freddy struggle to make it with the help of their boss and a mystery mortician.
#7. Juan of the Dead (2010)
Why do independent filmmakers have such lofty goals while making zombie movies? Juan of the Dead, directed by Alejandro Brugués and hailed as Cuba’s first zombie feature picture, is an impressively assured production.
Beyond the title, there are some parallels to Shaun of the Dead (the protagonist is a slacker, and his closest buddy is a slob), yet the overall tone is considerably more destitute and street-level than Shaun’s middle-class dullness. People in Cuba’s communist government sometimes attribute the country’s zombie problems to “capitalist dissidents,” but Juan of the Dead restores some of zombie films’ political fervor.
Our hero, Juan, is trying to capitalize on the chaos by creating a removal service for dead zombies; for a price, he and his team will come to your house and remove your loved ones. Unsurprisingly, things quickly spiral out of hand, and his loved ones become embroiled in the military’s bigger battle against the undead.
It’s an award-winning indie film because it manages to be terrifying, funny, and touching all at once. There are scenes that are reminiscent of George Romero’s flicks, but they aren’t carbon copies. The story of Juan of the Dead can enjoy without any prior knowledge of the other works in the series.
#8. 28 Weeks Later (2007)
Fans of the zombie/horror subgenre will find much to enjoy and fear in 28 Weeks Later. As well as much to admire and be frustrate with. It succeeds only partially as a follow-up to the groundbreaking film 28 Days Later from 2002.
It brilliantly transports the film’s nihilistic. Hopeless streak of terror and what one person will do to survive, most notably in the scene where Robert Carlyle’s character leaves his wife behind to run from zombies in a soul-crushing chase across the fields of England, tears streaming down his face the entire time.
His kids, the film’s genuine protagonists, aren’t nearly as exciting as the military suits who have closed down England to clean up after the Rage virus. The film also breaks the unspoken rule that there shouldn’t be a “lead zombie” in a zombie film.
The plot loses its genuine tension when Robert Carlyle’s Don is infects and escapes; from that point on. We know the kids aren’t in any actual danger during any of their encounters with the infected. As zombie Don is still unaccounted for. The audience’s ability to take the other infections seriously is diminishing if they know that the plot hinges on the presence of this one sick individual at the climax.
Despite this, the combat scenes in 28 Weeks Later are well-filming and terrifying in their realism. There are certain problems, but the opening sequence alone is so impressive that we can overlook a lot.
#9. Pontypool
Pontypool isn’t your standard zombie story; instead, it’s a thoughtful reflection on modern culture. The film, directed by Bruce McDonald, is an adaptation of Tony Burgess’ horror book Pontypool Changes Everything.
There were deaths in a doctor’s office, and a radio host just got the news. The crisis escalates when a radio station receives an audio threat, leading to the quarantine of the whole town. The film stands out for its clever subversion of the typical zombie film formula and its hyperbolic societal satire.
#10. Train to Busan
Not only does Yeon Sang-“Train ho’s to Busan” (2016) have a nail-biting train trip through a zombie apocalypse à la “Snowpiercer,” but it also features unexpected, violent bursts of hilarity.
In “The Age of Shadows,” Gong Yoo plays the role of Seok-woo, a financial worker who is preoccupied with his profession and neglectful of his family (his wife and daughter reside in Busan). In honor of her birthday, Seok-Woo has offered to accompany her on a train journey from Seoul to Busan, where her mother resides.
A virus of unknown origin spreads swiftly aboard the train, turning passengers into zombies in shockingly short order. This turns what is suppose to be a pleasant trip for a father and daughter into a nightmare. Hyung-deok Lee (2010’s “The Housemaid”), the film’s cinematographer, places the audience in cramped train seats and uses balletic movement to show how Seok-woo and a group of passengers are trying to live, while turning on each other.
Despite the gruesome violence at the beginning and end of the film, the ending is surprisingly personal and touching.
#11. Zombie (Lucio Fulci, 1979)
One of the most brutally post-apocalyptic zombie tales. “Zombie” has makeup effects that surpass even those of “The Walking Dead” special effects master Greg Nicotero in their gruesomeness. Directed by Lucio Fulci, the gory spectacle has a very ancient. Almost biblical, feel about it.
A literal interpretation of Judgment Day will see the resurrect dead not having gone to an afterlife but rather having their own bodies reviving to stand judgment for their misdeeds. As shown in the way they claw their way out of their graves and then walk around covered in dirt. (The fact that their ultimate fight occurs within a church serves to emphasize this point.)
The plot concerns an heiress (Tisa Farrow, whose “acting” proves why she is Mia’s far lesser-known sister) who travels to a Caribbean isle in search of her missing father. Only to catching up in a zombie infestation that quickly spreads. Serving as something of a bridge between the Haitian origins of zombie lore and the Romero-style zombies we’ve seen ever since “Night of the Living Dead.”
The brutal sequences stand out, with Fulci competing with the eye-slitting scene from “Un Chien Andalou.” However, the general strangeness of “Zombie” is what sets it apart. This is best shown by the film’s most well-known scene: a chilling underwater chiller in which a zombie and a shark try to devour one other simultaneously.
#12. World War Z
This 2013 zombie apocalypse horror film is one of the greatest works producing in the genre in the 21st century. Veteran United Nations investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) travels the globe in quest of proof to halt a zombie outbreak.
Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Ludi Boeken, Matthew Fox, Fana Mokoena, David Morse, Elyes Gabel, Peter Capaldi, Pierfrancesco Favino, Ruth Negga, and Moritz Bleibtreu all perform fantastic work alongside Pitt in the picture. The film, directed by Marc Forster, takes its name from a book written by Max Brooks in 2006.
Therefore, these are the best zombies in our opinion. Leave a comment with your top zombie film selections and suggestions for others to add to our list.
