Zombies are classic horror monsters. The undead make the living feel alive and fear death at the same time. Through belabored crawls and heavy moans, the inevitable fills anxious minds. Hearts and feet are pounding as the brain-dead ghouls process nothing but hunger. As the outbreak brings about societal collapse, there are a few zombies who leave an impression that never dies.
10 28 Weeks Later (2007) - Don
28 Weeks Later is a post-apocalyptic horror disaster film about a London family separated by a zombie virus. They reunite, but the mother is quarantined for being an asymptomatic carrier. The father risks visiting her and getting infected, causing him to endanger the safe zone.
Why It Makes the List
Having to protect your family from a changing world presents the fear of uncertainty. Don is a family man who is given the chance to see his family again. The moment is bittersweet, knowing that the one who loved them would come to hurt them.
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9 Day of the Dead (1985) - Bub
Day of the Dead follows a group of survivors living underground in the Florida Everglades. They go to Fort Myers to search and rescue any surviving humans. Their efforts to rebuild society are practical, but complicated. Dr. Logan attempts to domesticate captured zombies like Bub, while some of the hotheaded soldiers are against it. Arguments lead to disaster as the experiment takes a turn for the worse.
Why It Makes the List
Bub has vague memories of his past life. He is not completely a lost cause, as he maintains some parts of his humanity. When one of the soldiers kills Logan, a bereaved Bub gets a gun to avenge his caretaker. A zombie is creepy, but a zombie with a gun is horrifying.
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8 Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Bloated Woman
Dawn of the Dead is a remake of the 1978 George A. Romero horror film. Survivors hold up in a shopping mall as the world turns into zombies. The group figures that victims only reanimate if the infected bite them. Running low on supplies and killing off their contaminated members forces them to escape the mall.
Why It Makes the List
The stock characters in zombie films are often background filler. The zombie baby, perhaps the first in the entire apocalypse, is killed as soon as it wakes up. The bloated woman died like so many contaminated people, but her transformation was unnerving.
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7 Dead Snow (2009) - Standartenführer Herzog
Dead Snow takes place in the snowy landscape of Norway, where students are hunted by Nazi zombies. The Nazis were a death squad during World War II who pillaged and committed mass murder in the region. Locals staged an uprising, causing the Nazis to flee and freeze to death. When the campers disturb their treasure trove, they both go to war.
Why It Makes the List
Standartenführer Herzog is the leader of his Nazi regime. His greed and unflinching tyranny are forever a product of his time. In the same way that zombies desire flesh, Herzog desires to dominate without hesitation.
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6 Land of the Dead (2005) - Big Daddy
Land of the Dead follows factions of society in zombie-torn America. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has returned to a feudal system for their survival and security. Meanwhile, the rich are protected in their high-rise building, leaving the rest to fend for themselves. Among the hordes of the undead are more intelligent zombies as well.
Why It Makes the List
The gas station attendant known as "Big Daddy" is one smart zombie. He begins to lead his fellow zombies underwater through a river to overpower the barricaded city. Big Daddy spares other survivors, looking to exist another way.
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5 Night of the Living Dead (1968) - Karen Cooper
Night of the Living Dead is the quintessential zombie movie that revolutionized the horror genre. Seven Pennsylvanians are trapped inside a farmhouse as reanimated corpses attack their rural town. They take shelter and defend themselves for as long as they can until reinforcements arrive.
Why It Makes the List
Group dynamics and social commentary aside, Romero's film takes away everyone's innocence in a painful fashion. The innocence of a family's daughter, Karen Cooper, is made sad and menacing. As she succumbs to her bite, Karen eats her father and stabs her mother.
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4 The Return of the Living Dead (1985) - Tarman
The Return of the Living Dead zombies are created by a toxic gas spill released from a medical supply warehouse. The toxin reaches a cemetery that experiences life after death. The undead must feed on brains to avoid rotting, while the living find a way to destroy their onslaught.
Why It Makes the List
Zombies are already dead, they can't be killed. The irony and futility make for great horror comedy. Tarman is the epitome of this grisly reality, as his body is still kicking after being stowed away in the warehouse basement.
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3 Shaun of the Dead (2004) - Ed
Rogue Pictures
Shaun of the Dead is a British zombie invasion film following Londoner friends Shaun and Ed. Their hard-luck lives become living nightmares as the zombie apocalypse takes over their friends, family, and favorite pub, the Winchester.
Why It Makes the List
Shaun's mediocre life as an electronics salesman needs a best friend like Ed. He was there when the zombies killed Shaun's stepfather and his mother. He even sacrificed himself so that Shaun could live. Ed is still there for him, too, playing video games as his undead friend.
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2 Warm Bodies (2013) - R
Warm Bodies is a necrophiliac love story about a zombie named R. He can relive the memories of the people he eats, giving him the feeling of life. When he devours the boyfriend of Julie Grigio, his love for her grows, and they overcome the zombie apocalypse together.
Why It Makes the List
The million-dollar question is: are zombies still human after they turn? R answers this question by sharing what it means to be reanimated. His inner world is lost to the living, a feeling that is not so different for people when they are still alive.
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1 Zombieland (2009) - Clown Zombie
Zombieland is the home of the grave and the land of the deceased. Survivors are traveling the country in search of a safe haven. A group decides to go to the rumored Pacific Playland amusement park after seeing wasteland for miles.
Why It Makes the List
When the group arrives, zombies fill the once-empty park due to the lights and sounds of the rides. A theme park character dressed as a clown tries to stop them. The clown zombie, with a bloody, rotten smile, is killed in the funniest way possible: with a strongman game hammer.
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