The 8 best zombie movies of all time

Still from director Yeon Sang-ho's movie "Train to Busan" (2016) — Still from director Yeon Sang-ho's movie 'Train to Busan' (2016)

(Image credit: RedPeter Film / Alamy)

In the 1990s, zombies were out of vogue, with audiences flocking to slashers like the “Scream” franchise while studios treated the whole horror genre as an afterthought with limited commercial viability. The rise of the undead as not just a cinematic niche but as a box office powerhouse was part of an expanded investment in horror that has continued throughout the 21st century. Nearly all of these standout zombie films debuted since the turn of the century.

'Night of the Living Dead' (1968)

While the original "Dawn of the Dead" remains the most celebrated of director George Romero's undead movies, the earlier "Night of the Living Dead" is a tighter, more coherent picture. Barbra (Judith O'Dea) holes up in a farmhouse after her brother is killed by a zombie; here she finds a group of survivors, including Ben (Duane Jones), trying to survive the siege together. Because it features a "black man trapped in a house with white people who can't seem to fend off the danger themselves," the movie works as a "critique of racism in America" whose influence has had "long-reaching effects in the zombie genre," said Alissa Wilkinson at Vox. (Netflix)

The zombie genre was moribund when director Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting") turbocharged Romero's slow, shuffling revenants, turning them into virtually inescapable, fast-moving predators. Cillian Murphy plays Jim, a bicycle courier who wakes up from a coma (I'm sure you can guess how many days after the outbreak) to find that the U.K. has disintegrated after a pandemic of the "rage virus," which turns people into frothing killers within moments of exposure. Boyle's "mingling of naturalistic technique" alongside "highly surreal imagery in which red-eyed creatures attempt to devour the uninfected" makes for a memorable lesson in how "humanity gives way to the monstrous," said Cecilia Sayad at Film Comment. (Netflix)

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Less a remake of George Romero's 1978 zombie classic and more a total reimagining, director Zack Snyder borrows the shopping mall conceit and little else for "Dawn of the Dead." Ana (Sarah Polley), a weary Milwaukee nurse, barely escapes when a zombie attacks one morning. She links up with a ragtag group of survivors who barricade themselves in a mall as the undead gather outside and threaten their impromptu society.

A film that showed there’s still life in the “found footage” subgenre, this Spanish feature was so successful that it inspired a (vastly inferior) American remake. Angela (Manuela Vidal) is a TV reporter on a late-night, slice-of-life segment with firefighters when they receive a distress call from a nearby apartment building. What they find inside, unfortunately for them, is a grisly zombie outbreak that soon leads the government to seal them terrifyingly inside. The dwindling survivors panic and search for answers, and the frenetic camerawork is used to great effect to disorient the audience, making us feel like we’re in the building with the terrified residents. “Rec” is an “absolute must-see, a ferociously intense, compellingly well-crafted exercise in scaring you right out of your seat,” said Michael Gingold at Fangoria. (Tubi)

A relentless, claustrophobic action film, director Yeon Sang-ho's "Train to Busan" follows Seok-woo (Gong Yoo), a selfish, divorced father on board a high-speed train from Seoul to the southern city of Busan to see his daughter. When a virus-stricken passenger boards, she unwittingly unleashes an outbreak whose resulting ghouls make the "28 Days Later" variety look positively shambolic by comparison. A "zombie flick for people who don't really like zombie flicks," it succeeds on the basis of "strongly realized characters, emotional set-ups and payoffs and tight pacing," said Justin Cummings at Critics At Large. (Netflix)

Sometimes even a small narrative innovation can carry a film to success. That’s the case with the Australian undead feature “Cargo.” Andy (Martin Freeman) and Kay (Susie Porter) are fleeing in a boat from a zombie outbreak, along with their infant daughter Rose. When Kay is bitten, we learn that the virus takes 48 hours to fully turn you into a revenant, explained through clever government pamphlets and digital bracelets to help the infected navigate their gradually escalating symptoms. When they wait too long to face the inevitable, Andy is bitten too, setting off a race against time as he tries to find a safe place for Rose before he turns, eventually crossing paths with an Aboriginal girl named Thoomi (Simone Landers) fighting to save her infected father. It is a “very strong, at times stirring achievement: a zombie film with soul and pathos,” said Luke Buckmaster at The Guardian. (Netflix)

One-handers succeed or fail on the strength of the actor’s performance, and director Dominique Rocher struck gold by casting the Norwegian performer Anders Danielsen Lie as Sam, who wakes up in his ex-girlfriend’s Paris apartment the morning after a raging party to discover that a zombie apocalypse has engulfed the city. With a few minor exceptions, the rest of the movie belongs to Sam, who settles in for the long haul and tries to stay sane as he fends off the undead. It’s a “film more interested in the existential questions raised by an army of undead monsters than in the carnage,” even as the “flesh-crazed horde itself is framed and choreographed in some strikingly artistic ways,” said Katie Rife at The AV Club. (Prime)

Forget the odd, unfortunate title — Shudder's single, continuous take, night-of-the-outbreak zombie movie is unforgettable. When carefree party animal Romain (Milton Richie) picks up a woman in distress by the side of the road, she infects him with a virus that turns him into a killer. His girlfriend Anais (Laurie Pavy) is the heart of the film's middle third, as she accompanies the deteriorating Romain to a frenetic house party, slowly falls prey to the virus herself and triggers a terrifying epidemic. The movie "comes to feel like a seeming extension of an inescapable physiological nightmare," said Derek Smith at Slant Magazine, and director David Moreau "creates an all-consuming sense of dread and panic that almost sneaks up on you." (Shudder)

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David Faris is a professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of "It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics." He's a frequent contributor to Newsweek and Slate, and his work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Republic and The Nation, among others.

The 8 best zombie movies of all time

'Night of the Living Dead' (1968)

'28 Days Later' (2002)

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'Dawn of the Dead' (2004)

‘Rec’ (2007)

'Train to Busan' (2016)

‘Cargo’ (2018)

‘The Night Eats the World’ (2018)

'MadS' (2024)