50 Best Zombie Movies Of All Time

Audiences will forever be divided between fans of fast zombies and fans of slow zombies, but we're going to proudly defend the middle ground and say that both versions of the undead have their charms. And zombie speed isn't the only division running — or shambling — through the genre. The films of the living dead have a long and varied history that includes charged politics, fierce social criticism, self-parody, terror, creeping dread, offbeat romance, manic camp, gooey gore, and more. They've chosen supernatural explanations or scientific ones, and they've said the "z" word outright or kept it hush-hush. They've done the apocalyptic, and they've done the up-close-and-personal tales of a single bad resurrection.

The best films of the genre include all of the above, and they range from flicks with microscopic budgets to major studio projects. And if want to know which ones are really worth biting into, check out our list, and you'll see which zombie movies — like zombies themselves — just won't stay dead.

Updated on September 20, 2021: We're constantly scanning the horizon for the approaching undead ... or at least for movies starring them. And when iconic new flesh-eating, brain-munching movies come out, we want you to know about it, so we'll keep this list up-to-date to reflect what's going on in one of our all-time favorite corners of horror.

You haven't missed anything: There is no "Zombi 1." Not really, anyway. "Zombi" was the Italian title for "Night of the Living Dead," and when the film proved successful, Italian students cashed in with this unofficial sequel that's actually harrowing in its own right. Disturbing and gruesome, "Zombi 2" (or "Zombie Flesh-Eaters") offers up a supernatural rather than scientific explanation for the rising dead and sends its characters on a quest to a Caribbean island. All the lurid gore and a bit of a preference for style over substance meant "Zombi 2" got an uneven critical reception, but it's a cult classic for many horror fans. And don't forget to note the exemplary score.

• Starring: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson

• Director: Lucio Fulci

• Year: 1979

• Runtime: 110 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 42%

George Romero ups both the satire and horror for "Dawn of the Dead," the second movie in his "Dead" series. Even more visceral and more openly political than its predecessor, "Dawn of the Dead" takes place after the world has accepted that society is crumbling: It's no longer the first night of the apocalypse. Some of the characters have been participating in horrific "clean-up" attempts, but they're so disillusioned that they ultimately all retreat. And where do they go? The mall, of course. It offers shelter from the zombie hordes — and every consumerist satisfaction they could want. But with the world burning outside, there's only so much hedonism can do.

• Starring: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger

• Director: George A. Romero

• Year: 1978

• Runtime: 126 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

In horror, comets tend to be bad news. Exhibit A: "Night of the Comet," where a rare astronomical phenomenon triggers the apocalypse, either reducing people to zombies or wiping them out completely. The movie centers on a handful of surviving teenagers who were accidentally shielded from the comet's effects and who now have to figure out what to do in the dangerous aftermath. But while the plot sounds serious, "Night of the Comet" keeps everything witty and fun, satirizing the genre's tropes even as it fulfills them. Fans of goofy older horror and science fiction will get a kick out of this gentle skewering.

• Starring: Robert Beltran, Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney

• Director: Thom Eberhardt

• Year: 1984

• Runtime: 93 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

Before Peter Jackson ever took on Middle-earth, he made the funny and wildly bloody zombie comedy "Dead Alive," also known as "Braindead." And if you like splashy, over-the-top horror fun, this one's for you. The zombie virus hits the world when a human is bitten by a Sumatran "rat-monkey," and it all quickly leads to comedic family dysfunction and jaw-droppingly, surreally brilliant concepts like fighting zombies with blenders and lawnmowers. Often grotesque, never in what you'd call good taste, and always enjoying itself, "Dead Alive" is as cheerful a gore-fest as you could possibly want.

• Starring: Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody

• Director: Peter Jackson

• Year: 1992

• Runtime: 101 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Like many cult classics, "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" has a lot of rough edges and some bad reviews. But this unusual little flick definitely has its fans. Its appeal starts off with a comically off-the-wall premise: A megalomaniacal theater troupe director forces his poor actors to participate in a ritual to raise the dead. It doesn't seem to work — but no worries, he can still be a domineering party host at this isolated cemetery, and he can still desecrate a corpse. But as the night goes on, the dead really do come back, making this a head-to-head battle between a supernatural evil and an all-too-human awfulness, with everyone else caught in the middle.

• Starring: Alan Ormsby, Valerie Mamches, Jeff Gillen

• Director: Bob Clark

• Year: 1972

• Runtime: 85 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 42%

Zombies get an epic, action-filled movie that spans the globe in "World War Z." One-time United Nations agent Gerry Lane serves as the point man for this apocalyptic story, as the responsibility of keeping his family safe intersects with old UN connections who want his help in the crisis. Ranging from the United States, South Korea, Israel, Wales, Nova Scotia, to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Gerry and his allies work to find the origins of the zombie plague — which may be their only hope of ever creating a vaccine. Suspenseful and adventurous, "World War Z" benefits from its international perspective.

• Starring: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale

• Director: Marc Forster

• Year: 2013

• Runtime: 115 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%

The long-running "Dead" series jumps back in time with the found-footage movie "Diary of the Dead," which follows several film students during the early days of the zombie apocalypse. They stop filming their horror movie and start filming the horror around them, documenting the confusion and despair of a world in chaos. "Diary of the Dead" has a bracing cynicism to it, not hesitating to show people becoming opportunistic and uncaring. Several of its set pieces are downright grim. That can make the movie feel blunt, but it can also give it real power. And in its focus on crowdsourced, internet-delivered info and live video of unfolding events, it still feels current.

• Starring: Michelle Morgan, Josh Close, Shawn Roberts

• Director: George A. Romero

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62%

"Black Sheep" lets you know what you're in for right from the tagline: "Get ready for the violence of the lambs." And if you like that, you'll almost certainly like the wild and woolly zombie-sheep movie that follows. Brothers Angus and Henry Oldfield grow up together on a sheep farm, but when their father dies, let's just say they grieve differently. Henry becomes terrified of sheep, and Angus devotes his life to turning them into ravening, flesh-eating beasts whose bite will change humans into sheep-human hybrid zombies. Toss in some environmental activists for additional conflict and add in a lot of entertaining gore and body horror, and you're in for a treat.

• Starring: Nathan Meister, Danielle Mason, Peter Feeney

• Director: Jonathan King

• Year: 2006

• Runtime: 86 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

Joon-woo is just an ordinary gamer who happens to be at home when the zombie apocalypse (the rage-virus kind) strikes. Suddenly, he's barricaded into his family's apartment — helpless, separated from everyone he loves, and just trying to survive. As communication networks go down, water gets cut off, and his food supply is ruined, Joon-woo gets more and more reasons to despair. Then, unexpectedly, he finds out that he's not as alone as he thought. Connecting with another survivor, Yoo-bin, gives him hope and a reason to fight. "#Alive" is a strong, well-crafted, and universally relatable story of an ordinary person in an extraordinary situation.

• Starring: Yoo Ah-in, Park Shin-hye, Jeon Bae-soo

• Director: Cho Il-hyung

• Year: 2020

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

An energetic historical horror-comedy film with a fine cast, "I Sell the Dead" brings two professional graverobbers face to face with the supernatural. When Willie and Arthur make the mistake of removing a garlic wreath and wooden stake from a corpse, they open up a new world of horror and financial opportunity. They've discovered the existence of the undead, and they're going to use it to their advantage. But there's a wrench in the works — the House of Murphy, a family of rival grave-robbers. Competition, terror, and twists then combine to bring "I Sell the Dead" to a strong finish.

• Starring: Dominic Monaghan, Larry Fessenden, Ron Perlman

• Director: Glenn McQuaid

• Year: 2008

• Runtime: 85 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

Sometimes the power of love can even overcome the urge to eat brains. That's the lesson in "Warm Bodies," a sweet and definitely unusual romantic comedy where a zombie named R. (he doesn't remember the rest) falls in love with a living girl named Julie. The attraction R. feels seems to be bringing him back to life — restoring his heartbeat and a little bit of his language — but it's not all adorable since the movie doesn't shy away from the inconvenient fact that R.'s feelings for Julie stem partly from the fact that he ate her boyfriend's brain. Cute but not toothless, "Warm Bodies" combines some original worldbuilding with nice performances.

• Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry

• Director: Jonathan Levine

• Year: 2013

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

It's hard to find love, and it's even harder when you're Francesco Dellamorte, town pariah and caretaker of a cemetery where the dead sometimes come back to life. "Cemetery Man" is the pitch-black comedy of Dellamorte's longing, despair, and eventual disconnection from reality, as all his attempts at romance fail horrifically. A passionate connection with a young widow ends when her undead husband emerges and fatally bites her, but Dellamorte is still tormented by seeing her everywhere, with the same actress recurring in multiple roles. And that's far from his only problem. When he slides into confusion and indiscriminate murder, we almost understand. The surreal and dark "Cemetery Man" is really one of a kind.

• Starring: Rupert Everett, François Hadji-Lazaro, Anna Falchi

• Director: Michele Soavi

• Year: 1994

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 60%

The sharp, brutal, and adrenaline-fueled "28 Weeks Later" is a worthy follow-up to its predecessor. Most of its action takes place later in the rage zombie apocalypse and centers on one troubled family. In a crucial moment, Don abandoned his wife, and while he found safety in a heavily protected safe zone sector, he's haunted by what happened — and when his adult children show up, he can't bring himself to tell them the whole truth. Against the rules, they go looking for closure, hoping only for some family photos. Instead, they find their mother, apparently still human after all ... but is everything as it seems? And could this family's choices have global ramifications?

• Starring: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner

• Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 110 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

Once humanity gets used to zombies, anything could happen, and in "Fido," we've managed to turn them into domestic servants. With their control collars on to manage their hunger, the undead in this bright, "Leave It to Beaver"-style world make great additions to any household ... aside from a few accidental murders. Little Timmy names his family's new zombie Fido, and the two form a close bond — not unlike a boy and his dog — in the middle of a lively plot about resumed outbreaks and the overzealous ZomCon corporation. This is a gentle satire with a surprising amount of heart and just the right amount of bloodletting.

• Starring: Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connolly, Dylan Baker

• Director: Andrew Currie

• Year: 2006

• Runtime: 91 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

Part of the gleefully over-the-top homage double-feature "Grindhouse," Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" deals with grotesque, biochemically altered zombies on the loose in small town Texas ... and soon, the world! The movie splits its charms between its colorful characters — especially the tough and sultry Cherry Darling, who winds up using a gun as a prosthetic leg — and its gruesome and sometimes off-the-wall storytelling. (Wait for that bin Laden revelation because it's a doozy.) Rodriguez is mimicking old-school exploitation movies, so don't be surprised by all the adult content, but do enjoy this mash-up of familiar tropes and bonkers execution.

• Starring: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Michael Biehn

• Director: Robert Rodriguez

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 86 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

In "The Serpent and the Rainbow," a pharmaceutical company sends anthropologist Dennis Alan to Haiti, hoping that he can get a sample of the "zombie" drug used in certain rituals. This is a bad idea, and everyone Alan meets in Haiti tells him to leave while he still can, especially since the country is in the middle of political upheaval. But Alan doesn't listen, and his actions stir up both an opportunist and a true practitioner of the brainwashing and soul-stealing zombie process. "The Serpent and the Rainbow" is a deft look at a man completely over his head, and it's particularly effective at evoking the terror of being buried alive.

• Starring: Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae

• Director: Wes Craven

• Year: 1988

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%

In the funny and surprisingly sunny "Little Monsters," escaped experimental zombies make a beeline for a kindergarten class field trip. Somebody needs to swing into action to protect the kids, so luckily, we have adult characters as well. Meet Miss Audrey Caroline, their teacher, and failed musician Dave, the down-on-his-luck uncle of one of the boys. They have a pending possible romance, but the zombies — and ridiculous, secretly sleazy children's TV presenter Teddy McGiggle — sort of get in the way. Between musical performances and slaying the undead, however, they might just make it work. "Little Monsters" stands out for its different milieu and light touch.

• Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Alexander England, Kat Stewart

• Director: Abe Forsythe

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 94 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

Kids deserve their zombie movies too, and for that, there's no better flick than the charmingly spooky "ParaNorman." Poor Norman is a sweet kid who's ostracized and bullied at school. It's hard to be normal when you can talk to the dead and even your own family can be a little wary of you. But when an unfulfilled ritual unleashes zombies and the spirit of a wrongfully accused witch on the town, Norman is the only one who can come to the rescue, and saving everyone will require all his empathy, as well as all his pint-sized heroism. This is a children's movie that even adults can happily settle down with, full of moving moments, good characterization, and gorgeous stop-motion animation.

• Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Anna Kendrick

• Directors: Sam Fell and Chris Butler

• Year: 2012

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

Every now and then, a zombie movie will delve into the Haitian stories of zombification, but few have done it as well as the sophisticated and thoughtful "Zombi Child." In this film, Haitian history — as ancient as belief and as recent as the 2010 earthquake — hits France, as teenage Fanny befriends a Haitian immigrant named Mélissa. Fanny wants to use Mélissa's family's knowledge of Vodou to heal her broken heart, but the attempt plunges her into the nastily horrific legacy of colonialism that the movie depicts with chilling matter-of-factness. This is a zombie drama as much as a horror movie, one that's deeply interested in looking at the psychological effects of all the ways one person — or culture — can overwhelm and control another.

• Starring: Louise Labeque, Wislanda Louimat, Adilé David

• Director: Bertrand Bonello

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 103 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

A contaminated water supply brings a plague of violence to the small town of Ogden Falls. The infected turn hyper-aggressive, even killing those closest to them, and the effects can set in slowly enough to give you time to realize what's happening to you. In the midst of all this are David and Judy Dutton, a sheriff and doctor who are expecting their first child. They soon discover that as bad as the toxic influence is, the government containment efforts may be even more dangerous — and even more ruthless. This sharply written, suspenseful, and well-cast film is one of the few remakes that outshines its source material.

• Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson

• Director: Breck Eisner

• Year: 2010

• Runtime: 101 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%

An infectious rage spreads through the Korean countryside in "The Wailing," where family love meets the inexplicable. Jong-gu — a well-meaning but not especially skilled or experienced detective — gets saddled with the task of investigating a sudden rash of brutal homicides ... ones where the perpetrators all sport disturbing physical symptoms. Soon, Jong-gu's own daughter is infected. It may all come back to a new arrival to the area, a Japanese man. Or it may, terrifyingly, come back to the devil himself. "The Wailing" is a wild crisscross of possessions, religious horror, chaos, and rage zombies, and it packs a huge punch.

• Starring: Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, Chun Woo-hee

• Director: Na Hong-jin

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 156 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%

As if a hot New York summer isn't bad enough, the darkly creative film "Mulberry Street" adds zombies into the mix, crafting a grotesque, urban gothic atmosphere. Sewer rats are biting Manhattan residents, spreading a plague that makes its victims turn rat-like — and zombie-like — themselves. It's a crowded city, and suddenly, everyone is a threat. And for main character Clutch, his daughter Casey, and the people in his overwhelmed apartment building, any help on the way may not come until it's too late.

• Starring: Nick Damici, Kim Blair, Ron Brice

• Director: Jim Mickle

• Year: 2006

• Runtime: 85 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

"Army of the Dead" brings a dash of cross-genre fun to the table, giving us possibly the world's first zombie-heist movie. A zombie-infested Vegas is about to get permanently wiped off the map, so someone offers down-on-his-luck veteran Scott Ward a deal: Get past the quarantine protocols and past all the zombies, and break into a casino vault containing $200 million. It's an opportunity Ward's not going to pass up. "Army of the Dead" combines all the traditional heist movie satisfactions — especially the thrill of getting a crack team together — with all your zombie needs, and Ward's arc with his estranged daughter provides some real heart.

• Starring: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick

• Director: Zack Snyder

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 148 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%

"Pontypool" keeps its zombie scares intimate and chilling. Radio host Grant Mazzy finds himself reporting on more news than he ever thought possible in the small town of Pontypool, Ontario. There are violent, cannibalistic rioters outside, and the folks at the radio station have just received a message in French. Translating it warns them that the virus is spread linguistically ... and unfortunately, it terminates with, "Do not translate this message." Too late. The radio station itself is now in danger, along with Grant and his station manager. "Pontypool" may move too slowly for some, but its subtle chills, unusual approach, and persistent unease reward patient viewers.

• Starring: Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly

• Director: Bruce McDonald

• Year: 2008

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

"Train to Busan" ups the ante on its zombie action by setting almost the whole movie on a train. It's like a thrilling combination of "Snowpiercer" and "Dawn of the Dead." Seok-woo is trying to relieve his guilt over accidentally neglecting his daughter by getting her to Busan so she can celebrate her birthday with her mother, but this father-daughter venture takes a sharp turn when a zombie infection starts to spread. One of the infected is even on the train, forcing the disparate passengers to band together to try to protect themselves in the face of overwhelming odds.

• Starring: Gong Yoo, Kim Su-an, Ma Dong-seok

• Director: Yeon Sang-ho

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 118 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%