My Top 20 Zombie Films

by **Hobb** Thu 9 Jul 2015 - 22:54

Frankenstein 1931
Mary Shelly's Monster is closer to a Bladerunner 'Replicant' than zombie, but the movie's mute, shambling, working-class Monster is every zombies' great-grandfather. Karloff is a god.
White Zombie 1932
The scene in the Haitian sugar factory takes Blake's "dark satanic mills" and puts them in a colonial context to create one of the greatest scenes not just zombie history but in movie history.
Revolt of the Zombies 1934
The zombies are moved to another French colony (Cambodia) and set in the context of WWI's industrial slaughter pioneering the concept of zombies as not just labourers but soldiers.
I Walked With A Zombie 1943
A Gothic melodrama set in Haiti. The inescapable ghosts of colonialism, slavery and adultery combine to make a modern Greek tragedy with local musicians and voodoo priests playing the fatalistic Furies.
Invisible Invaders 1959
A Sci-Fi 'weirdies' where aliens are possessing dead bodies to take-over Earth. This film not only gives genre context to the foundational next film but stands on its own as solid thriller. {Ed Wood's 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' is another of this type}
Night of the Living Dead 1968
This is the Zombie break in history, the new template that all later zombies will follow. This low-budget movie had the raw nihilistic power to transfer the very soul of zombies from Haiti to Pittsburgh. [Though these were 'ghouls' not zombies.]
Deathdream 1972
Goes back to the horrific 'Monkey Paw' motif and modernizes it when a mother wants her young son to 'return' from 'Nam no matter what the cost. A uneasy, bitter horror film made while the war was still being fought. [Canadian]
Dawn of the Dead 1978
If NoTLD is the Zombie Old Testament, this is the New Gospel - it takes the NoTLD's Twilight Zone concept and makes it a 'world'. Romero had such a good time making this it ends optimistically amongst the gore. A smart movie that does far more than just criticize consumerism.
Zombi 2 1979
'Dawn' spawned a wave of gory Italian knock-off and if I have to choose one to represent this explosion of cinematic entrails it might as well be the one where a zombie fights a shark.
Night of the Comet 1984
'Valley Girls with Uzis versus Zombies'. If this concept was made today it would be wretched - but in 1984, with some seriously charismatic lead actresses and a deep sense of campy fun it came out great.
Day of the Dead 1985
No one want to hang around with yelling macho soldiers so this film can be a test - but the scientist Logan, his gory lab and, especially his test-subject Bub make it all worthwhile. The greatest scientist-zombie pair since Dr.Calgari.
Return of the Living Dead 1985
Made by the co-producer of NoTLD, it updated Romero's 'hippie gothic' to 'splatter-punk' - a genre more amenable to my teen tastes. Network's James Karen gives a hilarious performance. The 'Repo Man' of Zombie movies
Re-Animator 1985
Stuart Gordon took all the queerness, camp, and gore implicit in Lovecraft's original tale and cranked it to eleven. Jeffrey Combs is the perfect as Hebert West. Double-bill this with Flatliners (1990) for a night of med-students gone wild.
Dellamorte Dellamore (aka Cemetery Man) 1994
In between viewings of Killing Zoe and Man Bites Dog I would watch this and feel my film horizons opening up. To me this film is the 1990s in all its stylish, experimental, smart-ass, ironic glory.
Fido 2007
Pause 'Day of the Dead' half-way through and play this to give 'Bub' a truly happy ending. Almost too sweet but the 1950s suburban post-Zombie Apocalypse setting is wonderful. [Canadian]
Deadgirl 2008
Given human history it is a given that guys will start fucking the zombies - so might as well tackle this subject in an intelligent, serious manner.
Otto - Or Up With Dead People 2008
Depression was always the clearest zombie metaphor to me. The feeling of being scooped-out, soul-less, dead inside. This film captures this feeling with a touch of gay porn and a pound of art-house.[Canadian]
Pontypool 2008
Zombies are scariest when then don't just moan but gibber - now make their gibbering the vector for transmission and you got a nice little horror film set in a radio-station.[Canadian]
Zombieland 2010
Zombie parodies have been done since the 1940s 'Zombies on Broadway' but this comedic homage to Romero's mythos is the best (despite 9-11 polluting everything zombie). Harrelson and Murray are demi-gods.
Juan of the Dead 2011
Someday Haiti will make a zombie movie and return the monster to its roots, until then this Cuban film brings zombies back to Caribbean in an intelligent, fun style. I like to think this movie influenced Obama's 2015 rapprochement...

by Seth Shadow Thu 9 Jul 2015 - 23:12

Well I'll be entertained for the next two weeks

by funkymonk Sat 11 Jul 2015 - 4:08

great list. There a couple i missed. just had a vivid and intensely melancholy dream about zombies last night or the night before.

Saw cemetery man when i was like 13 and had a huge impact on my developing psyche. the lone man who's only human companion is intellectually stunted, the hopelessly inescapable routine, the silent dignity of it, something about it spoke to me. Bleakness, love temporary and fleeting before death. It also had boobs. In a time before the internet there was showcase. am i ever fucking grateful i didn't have the internet when i was 13.

I didn't see Night of the Living Dead until my first year in university. I clearly remember thinking- now this is art

Now that I think of it both movies had pretty gutsy endings, especially night.

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My Top 20 Zombie Films

My Top 20 Zombie Films

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