40% Of Horror Fans Agree That This Is The Best Zombie Movie Ever Made
Like the creatures themselves, the zombie genre will never really die. While it tends to come and go in terms of popularity, it's been a constant in Hollywood and around the world for decades. As the film and TV landscape has changed, zombie series, from the Living Dead to The Walking Dead, have claimed a place in the genre's ongoing legacy.
There are a ton of zombie stories — most center around some kind of virus or unexplained phenomenon that turns humans into flesh-eating monsters. Some zombie movies are great, some are awesomely bad, and some we'd rather forget, and while the core themes are often the same, the approach to storytelling is often very different.
So, we couldn't help but ask our readers: What's the best zombie movie ever made? 227,000 people responded worldwide, and rather than choosing one of the scarier options available, they resoundingly selected a genre-bending classic that still has us laughing to this day.
Forty percent of fans think Shaun of the Dead is the best zombie film of all time
When it came to picking a favorite zombie movie, Looper voters seemingly had no problem narrowing it down. Forty percent of those who voted in the poll chose Edgar Wright's practically flawless Shaun of the Dead. Given the film's cult status since it was first released in 2004, that's not a big surprise.
It's kind-of ironic that Shaun of the Dead is so many people's favorite zombie movie, since it's, at its core, a parody of the genre. It follows lethargic office worker Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his equally tuned out best friend Ed (Nick Frost), who take a while to catch onto the fact that they're living in a zombie apocalypse since everyone in their neighborhood, themselves included, was already pretty zombie-like to begin with. They make their way to the Winchester, their local pub, to wait it out, only to find themselves having to defend it, and their friends and loved ones, with whatever weapons they can scrounge up.
Shaun of the Dead may not be the scariest zombie flick, but it does a masterful job of setting up and lovingly sending up many of the genre's most popular tropes (of course, there's someone who fails to inform the group they've been infected). You don't have to love zombie movies to get the jokes — but they're a whole lot funnier if you do.
Nearly one in five fans think Train to Busan was an instant zombie classic
Though it was released just five years ago, 19 percent of fans who answered the Looper poll chose Yeon Sang-ho's Train to Busan as the best zombie movie of all time. It's easy to see why — the South Korean film offers pretty much everything you'd ever want in a film from this genre.
Train to Busan stars Gong Yoo as Seo Seok-woo, a single dad who's more focused on his job than on raising his daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an) — that is, until he takes her to stay with her mother on a commuter train from Seoul to Busan. A zombie outbreak rapidly infests the train, throwing everything into chaos. The passengers, including tough-as-nails Yoon Sang-hwa (Ma Dong-seok) have to work quickly to outrun the ravenous monsters as the train hurtles towards a destination no one is sure is safe.
What makes Train to Busan work so well is that it's not only a non-stop high adrenaline thrill ride, it's also centered on an emotional story about the bonds between families. Though the characters spend most of the film fending off zombies, many of them still feel fully fleshed out — and that makes it impossible not to root for them.
Train to Busan was a sensation when it was released in 2016, both at home and abroad — and while its sequel didn't quite measure up for some fans, it still proves the film has an indelible legacy in the zombie movie genre.
A British zombie masterpiece and a formative cult classic rounded out the list
While it was a close call, 28 Days Later came in third in Looper's poll, just behind Train to Busan, with 18 percent of the vote. Danny Boyle's eerie zombie drama — which some believe was 2002's scariest film — stars Cillian Murphy as Jim, a courier who wakes up from a coma in a deserted London hospital to learn the country has fallen prey to a fast-moving virus that fuels a deadly rage in people. These zombies aren't the slow-moving creatures we often see — they sprint, they scream, and Jim has to learn quickly that while there are some people he can trust, like fellow survivors Selena (Naomi Harris) and Frank (Brendan Gleeson), there are many others who are just as dangerous as the zombies they're fighting.
Last, but definitely not least, in Looper's zombie movie poll was the one and only Dawn of the Dead (No, not the Zack Snyder version — though that one is good, too). Though it garnered just 11 percent of the vote, George Romero's 1978 classic is in many ways responsible for inspiring a generation of zombie filmmakers.
Another 13 percent of voters chose the "Other" option, and weighed in with their choices, which ranged from recent hits like Zombieland and I Am Legend to other classics like Night of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead and World War Z. Someone even chose Michael Jackson's iconic musical short film, Thriller.
Though fans have varying opinions about what zombie film is truly the one to rule them all, the fact that there are so many amazing movies to choose from means that ultimately, anyone who's a fan of the genre comes out a winner.