Playing “How would I survive this” or “What would I do differently” can be fun, as can copious amounts of over-the-top blood and guts. Also, some zombie movies also happen to be comedies, so those inherently tend to be quite entertaining. What follows is not a list of the best zombie films ever, but some of the most purely enjoyable (and, as a warning, some of these also get quite dark, mixing entertainment and thrills with more somber and/or intense scenes, too).
10‘Dawn of the Dead’ (2004)
Directed by Zack Snyder
While it gets pretty intense and even downbeat at times, 2004’s Dawn of the Dead is still a ton of fun for anyone with a decently strong stomach. It gets pretty brutal as far as zombie carnage goes, but much like the 1978 film it remakes (with a fair few narrative/structural differences), it’s also a blast as a piece of escapist entertainment, being darkly funny at times, too.
The thrill of a movie like Dawn of the Dead mostly comes from the premise, which sees a group of people hide out in a large shopping mall as a way to escape the hoards of zombies that have overrun the rest of society. There are numerous opportunities for kills and set pieces in such a setting, and it’s also one of those zombie movies you can watch and quite easily think, “Hmm, what would I do?”
9‘Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead’ (2006)
Directed by Lloyd Kaufman
Packed with crude humor, ultra-violence, and lots of general grossness, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is a Troma film through and through. The studio is best known for The Toxic Avenger movies, but Poultrygeist is the best thing associated with the love-them-or-hate-them group (actually, Tromeo and Juliet is kind of great… well, great for something made by Troma).
You get out of this one exactly what you’d expect based on the title, as it’s a movie about trying to survive creatures that are zombie + chicken hybrids. Most of the humor in Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is politically incorrect, the story is nonsensical, the effects crude, and everything’s intentionally schlocky and/or stupid, but all that is also what makes it a good deal of fun, at least if you’re someone who likes tasty B-grade trash.
8‘Zombieland’ (2009)
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Zombieland is a blast of a zombie flick, throwing together a small group of flawed but endearing characters as they try to survive and achieve some wonderfully simple goals, all within a runtime that clocks in at under 90 minutes. It’s not complex by any means, even by the standards of this kind of movie, but it does exactly what you’d want it to and then proceeds to waste none of your time.
It’s also a fun movie because while there are stakes, it never gets too heavy, and is generally kind to its characters regarding who survives (well, for the most part). It had a decent yet slightly underwhelming sequel, which is, naturally, a more recent release, but 2009’s Zombieland is the much stronger film and, oddly enough, feels younger.
7‘Re-Animator’ (1985)
Directed by Stuart Gordon
But what does matter is that Re-Animator is impressively gruesome in ways that still prove gross and shocking when watched today, about four decades later. Also, it’s just very well-made as far as comedic sci-fi/horror movies from the 1980s go, and the entertainment value is high enough to make it worth mentioning here, for present ranking purposes.
6’28 Days Later’ (2002)
Directed by Danny Boyle
Supremely gritty, fast-paced, and continually intense, 28 Days Later has endured well in the 20+ years since it first came out, even if it felt wholly of its time, as an early 2000s release. It has an aesthetic and an overall unsettling vibe that makes it feel like a film reflective of its times, but since such negative feelings and global unease have hung around in the air ever since, maybe 28 Days Later is also unfortunately timeless.
5‘Train to Busan’ (2016)
Directed by Yeon Sang-ho
Train to Busan is another zombie movie that’s entertaining while also being very intense; a comedy or light-hearted zombie film it ain’t. It’s about a zombie outbreak in Korea, following a group of people who try to survive such an event while on a train, hopeful that if they can reach their destination, they may effectively escape the impacted area.
4‘The Return of the Living Dead’ (1985)
Directed by Dan O’Bannon
In a similar way to Re-Animator, The Return of the Living Dead is gross, sleazy, and unapologetically gruesome, all the while also getting weird and dark alongside being silly. It has a title that makes it sound like it belongs to the Romero “Living Dead” series, but it really doesn’t, perhaps serving as more of a parody, or just something that takes some inspiration from those movies but twists it all in a different direction.
At its core, the premise of The Return of the Living Dead is simple and might sound familiar, what with the small-town setting, the slowly growing outbreak, and the numerous grisly death scenes, but there are definite surprises to be had along the way. All the most chaotic stuff is best left unspoiled, but what can be said is that this film more than earns the right to be called a cult classic; it borderline insists it should attain such a label.
3‘Dead Alive’ (1992)
Directed by Peter Jackson
Call it Dead Alive if you want, or call it Braindead, or just call it “that very gruesome zombie movie that ends with a lawnmower hacking off dozens of limbs.” Whatever you pick of the above three options, zombie movie fans will probably know what you’re talking about. Hell, if you want, there’s actually a fourth pick: call it “That crazy B-movie Peter Jackson made a few years before he went to Middle-earth.”
Even if you go into this one knowing that it’s one of the goriest horror movies ever made, you might still be shocked by just how much blood ends up soaking every inch of this film, particularly by the end of it all. Thankfully, entertainment value and dark humor were also on Jackson’s mind when he made this, which means the film is just as fun as it is unapologetically gross.
2‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004)
Directed by Edgar Wright
Shaun of the Dead is perhaps the gold standard for parodying a movie genre while also being a great film within that same genre (actually, Hot Fuzz, too, which Edgar Wright also directed, and in which Simon Pegg and Nick Frost also starred). More than that, Shaun of the Dead does also qualify as a rom-com of sorts, and a movie about arrested development/taking control of one’s life while the world at large falls apart.
It balances many things across a fairly brief runtime, but everything comes together so well in Shaun of the Dead, and it proves immensely satisfying on multiple fronts. If it’s not the best zombie movie of all time, then it’s at least a contender, and it can quite comfortably be called the best horror/comedy zombie movie of all time; in that realm, it has little else quite on its level.
1‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978)
Directed by George A. Romero
But hey, that survival story told in Dawn of the Dead is also exciting, tense, and sometimes quite breezy/fun. It’s the zombie movie to end all zombie movies, and just about every zombie flick made since 1978 has been living in the shadow of this one. There’s spectacular carnage here, memorable characters, humor, heartbreak, and endless creativity. The film’s like the big shopping mall it’s set in, in the sense that it’s got everything.
