Do you like eating brains and staggering around in a murderous cannibalistic haze? These just might be the movies for you.
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead debuted in 1968 as a black and white horror flick. In the opening shots we see Barbra being teased by her brother in a graveyard, “There're coming to get you, Barbra”! Later, Barbra holes up in a farmhouse with Ben, a stranger who is also fleeing the zombies. A news bulletin tells us that radiation from a Venus space probe had entered Earth's atmosphere and was a cause for the undead chaos. Ghouls can be stopped by a gunshot or blow to the head. If you are looking for a happy ending, keep looking. Barbra is lost in a crowd of ghouls and then we see Ben being shot by the authorities, mistaking him for a “Ghoul”. This film is the seed for all zombie movies to come.
Dead Alive (Brain Dead)
Brain Dead debuted in 1992 in New Zealand directed by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings). It was released in the United States as Dead Alive. After a rare monkey bite Mom turns into a zombie. Trying to keep up appearances, the son drugs zombie-mom to keep her passive. But zombies will be zombies, and chaos ensues with people being bitten and changed. Soon, the house is filled with drugged and hidden zombies. The final zombie scene is gory and horrific with blood and body parts everywhere. Even intestines are undead. They keep coming. The only solution is to grab a lawn mower and mow and shred the bodies into tiny parts. Over 300 liters of blood were used in the last gory scene.
Fido
Andrew Currie directed -Fido, a Lion's Gate film, and stars Carrie Anne Moss of the Matrix debuted in 2006. Keeping up with the Jones's means getting your own zombie. The organization, Zom Con keeps zombies in order after the Earth passed through a cloud of space dust. Now the fashionable thing to do is to use zombies for free labor or keep one as the household pet. Who needs dog as kid's best friend when you can have a zombie? Keep your zombie on a leash or there could be trouble. Helpful hint; bury neighbors in the flowerbeds and nobody will be the wiser.
Resident Evil
In this zombie flick, the girl kicks ass! Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, this movie was based on a video game and produced two sequels. Resident Evil: Apocalypse in 2004 and Resident Evil: Extinction in 2007. The zombies are infected by the T-Virus and then infected others with contagious bites.
28 Days Later
28 days later was directed by Danny Boyle. A guy wakes up in a deserted hospital. I loved this zombie flick because the zombies didn't shamble along slowly giving their victims ample time to flee. They came after unlucky people at a dead run. With such violent zombies there was barely any survivors
Dawn of the Dead
Directed by Zack Snyder, a 2004 remake of the 1978 version with the same name. An off-duty nurse discovers that a contagion is killing people and turning them into zombies. A group gathers together at a shopping mall to try and survive. A memorable scene includes a pregnant woman dying in labor but then giving birth to a horrible zombie infant. The end of the movie is ambiguous to whether the group lives (setting things up for a sequel) or dies but I like to think the planet was taken over by the zombies.
Prince of Darkness
Directed by John Carpenter and released in 1987, one could argue whether this is a zombie movie or a movie about Satan. It's a chilling combination of both and is decidedly dark. It is not just a chomp and feast fest but actually has a decent plot that blends science with religion. Satan tries to bring his dad the anti-God into this world by possessing a student. Note that Alice Cooper plays a zombie.
Pet Semetary
A family moves into a new house near a mysterious cemetery. Unfortunate the cat dies. Instead of getting a new cat at the shelter like a normal person, the son buries it in a supernatural place and the cat is resurrected. So when their toddler son dies the Father tries to bring him back too. Murder and mayhem ensue. I wanted to include something written by Stephen King because he is great. King's novel Cell would make a great zombie flick so I hope some filmmaker licks it up soon.
