Nia DaCosta‘s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple may not have made as much money at the box office as Danny Boyle and Alex Garland‘s 28 Years Later, but the reviews were just as good. That wasn’t a surprise. After all, DaCosta had already delivered a great sequel to one iconic horror franchise with 2021’s Candyman, and The Bone Temple is packed with fears, whether it be the infected themselves, or Jack O’Connell‘s psychotic cult leader Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal. As good as it was though, there have been 10 other zombie films throughout history which delivered the frights even better.
10
‘The Night Eats the World’ (2018)
There’s a good chance you’ve never seen the first one on this list. If you haven’t, you’ve missed a great, underrated zombie flick. The Night Eats the World is a French film co-written and directed by Dominique Rocher, and stars Danielsen Lie as Sam, a man on the run during a zombie outbreak in Paris. He carries the movie as a person alone at the end alone trying to survive the undead who want to eat him alive.
The Night Eats the World does a great job of building up Sam’s character first before all Hell breaks loose, so that the audience will be on edge rooting for him to make it. That lone character makes it impossible for the viewer not to put themselves in his shoes. It is a bit of a slower movie which isn’t for everyone, but one big thing helps set itself apart from other zombie flicks: these ghouls don’t make a noise, making their silent approach all the more threatening and terrifying to watch.
9
‘The Sadness’ (2021)
The Sadness is one of the most twisted and gory movies of recent memory and that’s not hyperbole. Written and directed by Rob Jabbaz, the Taiwanese film centers on a virus outbreak no one is taking seriously. They do soon enough though, because the virus turns the infected into bloodthirsty monsters. All Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina Lei) want to do is make it through this day, but it’s going to be near impossible. These zombies are filled with an extreme amount of rage.
It’s difficult to have a zombie movie without gore, so while it might not be a shock to see blood flow in The Sadness, the intensity of it is unnerving for even the biggest gore hounds. It’s a dark, depressing, and sick movie in the best way possible. The practical effects could be too intense for some, but if you can stomach it, this is one zombie movie you’ll never forget.
8
‘Dawn of the Dead’ (2004)
Zack Snyder‘s Dawn of the Dead came out during the height of 2000s reboots of horror classics. Reimagining George A. Romero‘s masterpiece could have been a disaster. Instead, it works by doing its own thing with compelling, original characters. The premise of human survivors of a zombie apocalypse taking refuge in a shopping mall is still there, but everything else is switched up, creating an unpredictable film.
The biggest change is moving away from Romero’s green, slow-moving zombies to hordes of runners. Anyone can get away from a shambler, but these ghouls are scary because there is no chance of escape. Dawn of the Dead is a fun time, and also one of high anxiety. From the first scene to the last, and the shocking ending, Snyder’s love letter to Romero is nearly as good as what it came from.
7
‘Day of the Dead’ (1985)
After two highly successful instant zombie classics, Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero returned to the subgenre for the last entry in his original trilogy. Day of the Dead focuses on a group of scientists living with the military in an underground bunker, hidden away from the zombie outbreak that has ended the world, but it’s just a matter of time before the monsters get inside.
Unlike Dawn of the Dead, with its big mall setting, Day of the Dead‘s dreary, underground setting is claustrophobic. That gets even worse once the zombies invade because there’s nowhere for the living to go. The zombies look more disgusting and horrifying this time around, and the gore is turned up a notch, especially with one shocking death scene in particular. Perhaps even scarier than the creatures is the man in charge, Captain Henry Rhodes (Joseph Pilato).
6
‘Zombie’ (1979)
1979’s Zombie goes by several names. Also known as Zombi 2 and Zombie Flesh-Eaters, the Italian film is directed by horror icon Lucio Fulci. Here, the director moves away from giallo to a zombie outbreak with a plot centered on a group of survivors on the run from the undead in New York City.
Zombie is one of the most chilling zombie movies ever made. Great attention to detail was taken in making the ghouls look as gnarly as possible. There is plenty of realistic gore, including one of the most uncomfortable scenes in horror history with an eyeball that will make you scream and squirm in your seat. The ending of the zombies slowly invading Manhattan is as bleak as it gets. Humanity is doomed.
5
‘Train to Busan’ (2016)
Train to Busan came out during a time when a lot of people were getting sick of the zombie fad brought on by The Walking Dead. However, what director Yeon Sang-ho created was so good that his South Korean film reignited a dull genre. The movie works on a simple premise: a flawed father, Seok-Woo (Gong Yoo), fights to save his daughter, Su-An (Kim Su-an), when thousands of people become infected and turn into the super fast moving living dead.
It’s easy to create fears when your story is about a father and his young daughter. Every single time a zombie gets close, it causes you to recoil, afraid that these people you’ve come to love so much are about to die. The zombies here are an immense threat. While Train to Busan has its share of gore, that’s not what it’s about. It’s the impossible numbers to overcome that are so terrifying all the way to the heart-shattering ending.
4
‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968)
The one that started it all! George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead created the template for all zombie films to follow as the terrified Barbra (Judith O’Dea), having just watched her brother be killed by cinema’s first ever modern zombie, seeks shelter in an abandoned farmhouse with a group of survivors. They board up the doors and windows, but will their hideout hold through the night?
Night of the Living Dead is a deeply political film due to Romero’s inclusion of a Black man, Ben (Duane Jones), as the hero leading a group of white people. It’s a scary-as-hell film too. Modern audiences might find it a little dated, but Romero’s original classic doesn’t need a lot of gore. The terror is found in the anticipation and the viewer’s ability to imagine what they would do if they were in the same situation.
3
’28 Days Later’ (2002)
There have been four films in the 28 Days Later franchise so far. 28 Weeks Later is better than its given credit for and 28 Years Later was fantastic. Still, none of them can beat what Danny Boyle and Alex Garland created the first time out. The original movie stars Cillian Murphy as Jim, a man who wakes up from a coma in the hospital to discover that the world has come to an end.
Instead of typical undead zombies, the monsters of 28 Days Later are still technically alive but transformed by a rage virus which gives them an insatiable desire to kill anything they see. Before other similar movies did it, Boyle’s movie made his zombies runners and a type of ghoul never seen before. From the moment Jim steps out into an empty London, until the very end, this one does not stop.
2
‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978)
The second movie in George A. Romero’s original trilogy, Dawn of the Dead, came out 10 years after the first. With the world engulfed by the living dead, a group of survivors take to the skies in a helicopter and find safety in a shopping mall. There, they hide out and create a new life, until it all goes to Hell when some less friendly humans show up.
Dawn of the Dead nearly makes the top spot on this list if not for the fact that modern audiences might find these bright green zombies a little silly looking. Still, the movie works because of Romero’s script and Tom Savini‘s effects. The slow-walking zombies never stop, and every single time they snatch one of our heroes, it’s heartbreaking. Savini’s makeup brought the horror alive with some of the sickest looking kills of the subgenre.
1
‘REC’ (2007)
A found footage zombie film? Now we’re talking! In 2007, the trope popularized by The Blair Witch Project had become overdone, but Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza‘s Spanish offering, REC, made it fresh again by not using found footage to be lazy but to freshen up what had been done before. In the movie, a reporter named Ángela (Manueal Velasco) takes a camera crew into an apartment building with a group of firefighters where the worst of horrors are found.
REC is a super intense thrill ride. The film used the already popularized approach of faster moving creatures and turned it up a notch. The found footage factor limits the viewer’s field of view, creating scene after scene of effective jump scares with monsters jumping out of every dark hallway. The documentary style puts the viewer inside the camera, as if we are living in the action. It all leads to a shocking finale that will have you afraid of going up in your attic ever again.