My 5 Best-Ever Zombie Films (No Particular Order)

[Bohemian Rap City]

Dawn of the Dead - original version 1978 (Malls and zombies and bikers, oh my!)
Army of Darkness (Bruce Campbell is the Chuck Norris of zombie films)
Zombieland (Its all about the cardio, baby)
Shaun of the Dead (Simon Pegg kicks ass)
Last Man on Earth (Vincent Price is OG)

[ThE ExEcUtIVE]

👍

[Brigand231]

Works for me mostly. I'd find room for Train to Busan in there too.

[Bohemian Rap City]

Originally posted by Brigand231:

Works for me mostly. I'd find room for Train to Busan in there too.

I almost put it in there, but Last Man on Earth was the movie that first awakened me to the genre. There are several other films I liked a LOT, but I wanted to limit it to five.

[skyfire1933]

Those are all good choices though I can't say I've seen Last Man On Earth I have seen all th others. Dawn we've discussed a bit but it's a great classic zombie epic, long but fun there are quite a few references to Romero's Dead films in SOD. Army Of Darkness (Evil Dead 3) is great as well both funny and with lots of undead plus Ash (hail to the king baby). Zombieland is another classic there a lot of references to it in SOD as well also "Thank God For Rednecks!" lol. Shaun Of The Dead another great horror comedy and also with several in-game references such as the classic line "You've Got Red On You" (though I haven't heard that one lately sadly). Last Man On Earth I know only by reputation so I can't speak on it but I do agree that Vincent Price is indeed an star of his era (I quite liked him in The House On Haunted Hill. Anyways a nice top five indeed great taste in classic zombie movies!

[Bohemian Rap City]

Check out Last Man on Earth. You can get it free from a lot of apps like Tubi, Redbox, Roku, and Prime. If you saw The Omega Man with Charlton Heston or I Am Legend with Will Smith they are all adaptations of the Novel, I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson. It is low budget and cheesy B Movie effects, but the depth of the story is very riveting. I must have watched it a dozen times while growing up.

[skyfire1933]

I did love "I Am Legend" Will Smith did a great job playing the classic tragic main character and the plot and ending especially I feel is very much in a SOD spirit. You had me at Bob Marley, Mr Smith say no more. I will see if I can find a copy somewhere BRC it sounds worth checking out thank you for the heads up.

Also on that note I'd like to let anyone whom doesn't know that Romero's classics "Night Of The Living Dead", "Dawn Of The Dead", and "Day Of The Dead" are available to watch on YT people have posted copies of all three movies in remastered HD, they look pretty amazing.

As far as modern zombie movies are concerned I highly, highly, highly recommend "Army Of The Dead" a 2021 zombie horror/heist movie and probably the best zombie movie to come out in a long time (I would argue anyways). Lots of blood, guts, and gore. Great and unique characters (the supporting cast especially was noted at the time for their performances) and epic level glimpses of a world of zeds. Since "Dawn Of The Dead" and "Zombieland" are two of your favorites I believe you'll probably enjoy this one, the opening credits alone... well I won't spoil it but trust me they'll make you sit up in your seat and go "Woah.. NOW we got ourselves a zombie movie worth watching!" or whatever lol.

[Danny Tempest]

While I definitely like the films on your list, Bohemian Rap City, I have to be that guy and point out that neither Army of Darkness or The Last Man on Earth are zombie films. Army of Darkness features deadites, which are demons/demonic spirits/demon-possessed humans & skeletons. The Last Man on Earth features vampires, though to be fair the way the vampires are portrayed in the film is very similar to how (flesh-eating) zombies would come to be portrayed. Which is really no coincidence since George Romero himself admitted that The Last Man on Earth as well as it's source novel "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson were an influence on Night of the Living Dead. Of course Romero wasn't the one who started calling the 'living dead' in his films 'zombies' to begin with. Anyway, The Last Man on Earth is a great film, despite it's low budget, and often gets underrated. So it's nice to see someone such as yourself who appreciates it. It's really quite a shame it was so hampered by the low budget because of the three film adaptations of "I Am Legend", including The Omega Man (1971) & I Am Legend (2007) (four if you wanna count the mockbuster I Am Omega that was released around the same time as the 2007 adaptation), The Last Man on Earth (1964) is the closest & most faithful to Richard Matheson's novel. Which I'm sure has everything to do with the fact that Matheson co-wrote the screenplay.

As for zombie films, my all-time favorite is the original Dawn of the Dead (1978). Even 45 years after its release, I think it's still the best zombie film and best piece of zombie media ever produced. It's not just an excellent zombie & horror film, but also a very intelligent & meaningful film as well. I say that if you wanna introduce someone to the zombie sub-genre of horror, you should definitely show them Dawn of the Dead first & foremost. Of course I'm a fan of all six of Romero's Dead series films. Night of the Living Dead is right up there with Dawn of the Dead and though I personally rate Dawn #1 and Night a close #2, I of course know & recognize plenty of people rate Night #1. Day of the Dead isn't far behind them and Land of the Dead I think was a great followup & gets a bit underrated. I will admit that even though I enjoyed George Romero's last two Dead series films, Diary of the Dead & Survival of the Dead, they weren't quite up to par and left something to be desired. George Romero wrote a treatment for a final film in his Dead series before his passing titled Twilight of the Dead, which looks to be on its way to getting made now. So I'm really interested to see how that turns out & how it bookends the series, though it's most definitely a shame Romero himself didn't get to make it before his passing.

A close second to Dawn of the Dead for me and a film not yet mentioned in this thread is The Return of the Living Dead (1985), which is a perfect blend of horror & comedy and hugely entertaining. Not-to-mention it perhaps features the most terrifying &/or dangerous of film zombies in the sense that not only are the zombies in The Return of the Living Dead of the running/fast moving variety, but they're also nigh invincible. Damaging the brain via the usual gunshot or blunt force trauma won't stop them, you have to completely destroy them. And of course RotLD also introduced the concept of zombies specifically wanting to eat brains.

Another zombie film I like that hasn't been mentioned yet is Lucio Fulci's Zombie (1979), aka Zombi 2 as in Italy it was marketed as a sequel to Dawn of the Dead which was titled Zombi in that country. That was much to Fulci's chagrin as I understand it because he never intended his film to be related to Romero's film. I'd say Zombie/Zombi 2 was the best of the many zombie films that started coming out of Italy during the late 70's & early 80's in the wake of the success of Dawn of the Dead.

And then there's a few old classic zombie films I really like which feature the more traditional voodoo zombies rather than flesh-eating zombies, most notably; White Zombie (1932) starring Bela Lugosi not too long after his star making performance in 1931's Dracula, I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and Hammer Film Productions' The Plague of the Zombies (1966). The imagery of The Plague of the Zombies in particular influenced a number of subsequent zombie films.

[Bohemian Rap City]

I think we are splitting hairs about narrowly defining zombie films. I think I will still consider Last Man on Earth and Army of Darkness zombie films. After all, I consider it based more on the loss of mental acuity, in which the infected lose self-awareness and become part of the virus, itself. In each zombie film, considering the onset of the genre took place in the 1930's, you might actually consider them all to be anti-communism films.

https://youtu.be/wKhOtZ3F3_k

OH....and I think fast zombies are cheating. That's why I removed them from my SoD game. I do find it interesting that in many of the films, some of the infected are more self-aware than others. I just finished a zombie series of novels by Bobby Adair entitled 'Slow Burn'. It deals with a pandemic that causes a massive fever leaving the victims dead, or mindless feeding machines. The main character is a 'slow burner' in that his fever stops before peak and he is able to maintain his self-awareness while being physically identical to the other zombies. It was a fun series. The MC has to learn how to walk the line between the normal people and the mob.

[Danny Tempest]

Respectfully we'll have to agree to disagree on the matter. I mean do The Last Man on Earth & Army of Darkness feature undead creatures/monsters? Yes they do, I can certainly concede that. But neither the vampires of The Last Man on Earth or the deadites of Army of Darkness are zombies, and surely a prerequisite for a film to be classified a zombie film is to actually feature zombies in it. In any case, I don't suspect there's anything I'm gonna say that'll change your mind on the matter and if you still wanna consider them zombie films, then hey so be it, that's your prerogative and I take no issue with that. As I said to start, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

As for fast zombies, I suppose that's a matter of to each their own. I know some people don't care for fast zombies, some people simply have a preference to either slow zombies or fast zombies, and some people don't have any preference & don't care. I personally fall into the latter category. Whether the zombies are slow & shamble or are fast & sprint doesn't particularly matter to me. I'm fine with either type of zombie and both types have been featured in media, be it films or video games or whatever, which I like & enjoy.

[Bohemian Rap City]

Can I still include films featuring Bob Hope..... or Democrats?

[WillieSea]

Originally posted by Bohemian Rap City:

Can I still include films featuring Bob Hope..... or Democrats?

Don't forget the brain dead hoards...

[Danny Tempest]

Originally posted by Bohemian Rap City:

Can I still include films featuring Bob Hope..... or Democrats?

LOL. You do you. 😁👍

[Danny Tempest]

I'm gonna throw another zombie film out there in this thread for anyone who reads through it and may be interested; The Video Dead (1987). I watched it last night for the first time in years and was reminded how different & unique it is among zombie films. It's not one of the more well known zombie films, but along with Dawn of the Dead & The Return of the Living Dead, it was actually one of the first zombie films I remember seeing as a kid. It was a low budget & straight-to-VHS release, and thus as you might expect the acting wasn't of the best quality, but the makeup & special effects are quite good & definitely above average for a film of this sort. What makes the film distinct & standout among other zombie films though is the premise of a cursed/possessed/haunted/supernatural (I'm not entirely sure how to described it) television set which plays a film titled "Zombie Blood Nightmare" and acts as a gateway for the zombies from said film to enter the real world. Beyond just that, the zombies themselves are also different; rather than the usual mindless, ravenous flesh-eating zombies acting purely on instinct, the zombies in The Video Dead are self-aware & have agency over themselves, they kill people but don't really eat them and they have a particular aversion to mirrors because it shows them how hideous & decaying they are. All in all, The Video Dead definitely isn't the greatest zombie film you'll ever watch, but it's a unique & entertaining one and definitely worth viewing at least once for anyone who's a fan of the genre. It's currently free to watch on streaming services Amazon Prime & Tubi as of this post, for anyone interested.

[Friendly Ghostface]

Originally posted by Bohemian Rap City:

Dawn of the Dead - original version 1978 (Malls and zombies and bikers, oh my!)
Army of Darkness (Bruce Campbell is the Chuck Norris of zombie films)
Zombieland (Its all about the cardio, baby)
Shaun of the Dead (Simon Pegg kicks ass)
Last Man on Earth (Vincent Price is OG)

I don't wanna be that person.

Army of Darkness isn't a zombie movie and Last Man on Earth isn't a zombie movie.

[WillieSea]

Originally posted by Friendly Ghostface:

Originally posted by Bohemian Rap City:

Dawn of the Dead - original version 1978 (Malls and zombies and bikers, oh my!)
Army of Darkness (Bruce Campbell is the Chuck Norris of zombie films)
Zombieland (Its all about the cardio, baby)
Shaun of the Dead (Simon Pegg kicks ass)
Last Man on Earth (Vincent Price is OG)

I don't wanna be that person.

Army of Darkness isn't a zombie movie and Last Man on Earth isn't a zombie movie.

Read post #7.