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ZOMBIES HAVE shuffled and snarled their way across the silver screen for nearly a century, but the genre is showing no signs of decay. The release of 28 Years Later has prove there’s still an appetite for zombie flicks – which is good news for the franchise, which already has another two instalments planned.

Over the years, zombies have evolved. George A. Romero gave them political bite. Danny Boyle made them more deadly. Edgar Wright made them funny. And today, filmmakers continue to find fresh ways to tell stories through the lens of reanimated corpses.

Don’t get us wrong, the genre is full of cheesy tropes. But good zombie films offer more than just jump scares and buckets of blood. The true greats hold a mirror up to society and show us what we might become when – sorry, if – everything falls apart.

So, as 28 Years Later sets out to become the highest grossing film the zombie genre has ever produced, we’ve rounded up the ten best zombie films ever made.

What are the best zombie movies?

10. Zombieland (2009)

This horror-comedy hybrid breathed new life into the zombie genre. Zombieland’s formula is fairly simple: self-aware humour, creative kills and a group of lovable misfits making their way across the country trying to survive the apocalypse. Jesse Eisenberg’s neurotic rule-follower, Woody Harrelson’s Twinkie-eating cowboy and Emma Stone’s no-nonsense con artist make for a quirky found-family dynamic, and leaving room for some unexpected heart.

9. 28 Weeks Later (2007)

While not directed by Danny Boyle like its prequel and sequel, 28 Weeks Later stands on its own as a worthy addition to the franchise. It trades the raw chaos of 28 Days Later for a broader look at the militarised response to the outbreak. The opening sequence alone, with Robert Carlyle fleeing through the countryside as his family is overrun, is among the most intense in zombie cinema.

8. Dawn of the Dead (2004)

A rare remake that arguably rivals its source material, Zack Snyder’s debut film injects style and energy into George Romero’s classic story. The shopping mall setting remains, but this version adds breakneck pacing, intense action and terrifyingly fast zombies. It balances survival horror with sharp character development and a killer opening montage set to Johnny Cash.

7. Braindead (1992)

Before he took to Middle-earth, Peter Jackson made this utterly bonkers gorefest which bombed upon release but has since become a cult classic. It’s one of the goriest zombie films ever made, but also one of the funniest. A mama’s boy tries to hide his zombie-bitten mother from the world, only for chaos to explode in all directions. It’s not for the faint of heart, but Braindead is a glorious reminder that zombies can be as hilarious as they are horrifying.

6. Train to Busan (2016)

Zombie apocalypses are usually global affairs. We tend to see a disease spread across the planet, with films focusing on the far-reaching implications of an outbreak. Train to Busan, on the other hand, locks its story within the confines of a high-speed bullet train. An outbreak occurs on KTX 101, departing from Seoul station, and passengers must fight for their survival as they make their way toward a quarantine zone in Busan as the virus spreads. It’s the human drama at the centre of the story that gives the film its emotional engine.

5. Day of the Dead (1985)

Often overshadowed by its siblings, Day of the Dead is George Romero’s darkest, most philosophical zombie film. Set in a claustrophobic underground bunker, it explores the breakdown of order, scientific ethics and unchecked militarism. The effects are grisly (thanks to Tom Savini’s legendary makeup work), and the character of Bub – a seemingly intelligent zombie learning how to be human – adds a tragic dimension rarely seen in the genre. Day of the Dead was ahead of its time, which is par for the course in Romero’s Dead trilogy.

4. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The godfather of all zombie cinema. Romero’s low-budget black-and-white debut created the modern zombie as we know it. Watching it, you might assume Night of the Living Dead is filled with cliches. But assuredly, they weren’t cliches when the film released. The film didn’t copy a bunch of played-out tropes, it invented them.

With stark social commentary (even casting a Black lead in 1968 was radical), a claustrophobic, paranoia-inducing setting, and an unpredictably bleak ending, Night of the Living Dead captured a world on the brink and proved you don’t need a big budget to make a statement.

3. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Dubbed the first rom-zom-com, Shaun of the Dead is both a parody and a tribute to classic zombie tropes. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s bumbling attempt to save their loved ones during a zombie apocalypse is, naturally, hilarious. Edgar Wright’s whip-smart direction makes this more than just a spoof and elevates it to being one of the most original zombie films ever made.

2. 28 Days Later (2002)

A landmark in modern horror, 28 Days Later redefined what zombies are. Danny Boyle’s sprinting ‘rage’ zombies brought a terrifying urgency to the genre, while the film’s bleak, empty London setting offered a new post-apocalyptic aesthetic that felt freshly disturbing. Cillian Murphy’s journey from confused coma patient to hardened survivor is raw and compelling, and the film’s social themes linger.

1. Dawn of the Dead (1978)

The genre’s high watermark. Dawn of the Dead takes the zombie apocalypse to the consumerist heart of America – a shopping mall – and uses it to skewer capitalism, materialism and the inherent foibles of modern society. It follows a group of survivors holed up from the apocalypse in a suburban shopping mall, despite having the means to easily reach a safer, zombie-free hiding place in the countryside. The abundance of food and goods in the mall causes the characters to adopt hedonistic lifestyles, which inevitably cannot last.

Dawn of the Dead’s relevancy as a cultural critique has meant it has aged particularly well, proving just as resonant today as it was nearly 50 years ago. Even noted horror hater Roger Ebert was a fan. While arguing that the film is undeniably “gruesome, sickening, disgusting, violent, brutal and appalling,” Ebert conceded that “nobody ever said art had to be in good taste,” – which is a decent summation of the zombie genre at-large.

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