25 best zombie movies of all time
Ever wonder why we are fascinated with zombie movies, where crowds of flesh-eating corpses come back to haunt the living? According to Stanford literary scholar Angela Becerra Vidergar, the idea that we as people can survive seemingly bleak situations against all odds is an appealing one.
“Even if as a society we have lost a lot of our belief in a positive future and instead have more of an idea of a disaster to come, we still think that we are survivors, we still want to believe that we would survive,” she says.
Of course, cultural fascination with the undead has existed long before “The Walking Dead” terrified audiences every Sunday. The first feature-length zombie film, “White Zombie,” was released back in 1932. While it popularized the idea of Haitian voodoo zombies, it was George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” franchise (which began in 1968) that truly popularized the modern concept of the flesh-eating undead.
More recently, movies like “Train to Busan” and “ParaNorman” have adapted the concept for a 21st-century audience, adding contemporary action sequences and cutting-edge animation to the mix. Many more zombie films, while maligned for their gory content, have gone on to become cult classics appreciated in the years after their release.
Stacker compiled horror film data from the horror-centric website They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They?, which has weighed and aggregated rankings from over 2,900 editorial lists to create the most definitive ranking of horror movies. Going from there, Stacker ranked the top 25 zombie movies on the list as of May 2020. Nearly 7,900 films were considered in total, with IMDb user ratings and Metascores from Metacritic presented here for critical and popular context.
Here are the best zombie movies of all time, starting at #25 and counting down to #1.
#25. 28 Weeks Later (2007)
- Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
- IMDb user rating: 7.0
- Metascore: 78
- Runtime: 100 minutes
- Country: UK
“28 Weeks Later” serves as a sequel to 2002’s “28 Days Later,” in which a zombie apocalypse safe zone in London is threatened. In this follow-up, the refugees’ return to England is threatened when the deadly virus that created the epidemic reemerges. Variety’s Derek Elley called it “a full-bore zombie romp that more than delivers the genre goods.”
#24. Night of the Comet (1984)
- Director: Thom Eberhardt
- IMDb user rating: 6.4
- Metascore: 59
- Runtime: 95 minutes
- Country: US
In “Night of the Comet,” two Valley Girl sisters (Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney) are left to fight against evil scientists and cannibal zombies after a comet kills almost all of Earth’s population. Maroney’s character eventually inspired Joss Whedon when he created the character of Buffy Summers.
#23. Pontypool (2008)
- Director: Bruce McDonald
- IMDb user rating: 6.6
- Metascore: 54
- Runtime: 93 minutes
- Country: Canada
Based on the novel “Pontypool Changes Everything,” this Canadian film follows disc jockey Grant (Stephen McHattie), whose day at work takes a turn for the worse when people begin turning into members of the undead. When he tries to warn his listeners, it becomes clear that the virus is transmitted through language.
#22. Train to Busan (2016)
- Director: Yeon Sang-ho
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Metascore: 72
- Runtime: 118 minutes
- Country: South Korea
A father (Gong Yoo) and daughter’s (Kim Su-an) train ride from Seoul to Busan becomes a fight to survive when a zombie infestation spreads in the vehicle. “Train to Busan” broke box office records upon its release in South Korea, and in 2020, a follow-up film called “Peninsula” came out.
#21. Dead of Night (1974)
- Director: Bob Clark
- IMDb user rating: 6.6
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 88 minutes
- Country: Canada
Inspired by W.W. Jacobs’ short story “The Monkey’s Paw,” Clark’s horror film opens as American soldier Andy Brooks (Richard Backus) supposedly dies in combat. However, when he reappears at his family home after they receive notice of his death, it becomes clear that the young man has been resurrected as a zombie.
#20. Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)
- Director: Amando de Ossorio
- IMDb user rating: 6.2
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 101 minutes
- Country: Spain
The first installment in the “Blind Dead” series sees a group of friends take on blind zombies while researching an old Spanish legend. The film has been credited with helping to spark the Spanish horror movie boom of the early 1970s.
#19. Night of the Creeps (1986)
- Director: Fred Dekker
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Metascore: 62
- Runtime: 88 minutes
- Country: US
In the world of “Night of the Creeps,” a group of teenagers intervenes when alien parasites creep into humans’ mouths and turn their hosts into murderous zombies. The movie developed an eventual cult following and has two different endings—one intended by Dekker, and one used for the movie’s release.
#18. Zombieland (2009)
- Director: Ruben Fleischer
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 88 minutes
- Country: US
After a disease turns most humans into zombies, four eccentric survivors take a road trip across the American Southwest to find a supposed safe haven in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times’ Michael Ordona praised Fleischer for “bring[ing] impeccable timing and bloodthirsty wit to the proceedings.”
#17. The Plague of the Zombies (1966)
- Director: John Gilling
- IMDb user rating: 6.6
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 91 minutes
- Country: U.K.
When a mysterious Cornish epidemic occurs in “The Plague of the Zombies,” a medical professor (Andre Morell) and his daughter (Diane Clare) discover that the source of the zombie-like virus is the village squire’s (John Carson) voodoo. The movie’s visuals later inspired many films within the zombie sub-genre, such as “Night of the Living Dead.”
#16. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974)
- Director: Jorge Grau
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 93 minutes
- Country: Italy
At the beginning of “Let Sleeping Corpses Lie,” a police officer is trailing two hippies accused of multiple homicides. Later, he learns that the murders were actually done by zombies created by chemical pesticides.
#15. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
- Director: Zack Snyder
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Metascore: 59
- Runtime: 101 minutes
- Country: US
“Dawn of the Dead” centers on a ragtag group of apocalypse survivors, who take refuge from zombies in a large Midwestern shopping mall. The film is a reimagining of George A. Romero’s 1978 cult film of the same name. Rolling Stone ranked Snyder’s version at #3 in their list of the 10 best zombie movies.
#14. White Zombie (1932)
- Director: Victor Halperin
- IMDb user rating: 6.3
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 69 minutes
- Country: US
Considered to be the first feature-length zombie film, “White Zombie” focuses on a young man who asks for a witch doctor’s help in drawing a woman he desires away from her fiancé. Things backfire when she becomes an undead slave instead.
#13. Cemetery Man (1994)
- Director: Michele Soavi
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 105 minutes
- Country: Italy
A cemetery custodian’s job becomes much more tedious in “Cemetery Man,” when the dead start rising and he’s forced to kill them a second time. More recently, Bloody Disgusting's Drew Dietsch described it as “yet another reminder that genuine genre masterpieces frequently came out of the 1990s.”
#12. The Beyond (1981)
- Director: Lucio Fulci
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Metascore: 38
- Runtime: 87 minutes
- Country: Italy
When a young woman (Catriona MacColl) inherits an old Louisiana hotel in “The Beyond,” she finds out that the property was built over an entrance to Hell. Because of this, reanimated corpses and an entire host of supernatural creatures terrorize her and her friends.
#11. Zombie (1979)
- Director: Lucio Fulci
- IMDb user rating: 6.9
- Metascore: 54
- Runtime: 91 minutes
- Country: Italy
In this sequel to the re-edited Italian version of George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead,” a young woman named Anne (Tisa Farrow) travels to a remote Caribbean island in search of her missing scientist father. There, they find that the island has been cursed by voodoo, resurrecting zombies who attack any and all visitors.
#10. [Rec] (2007)
- Directors: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Metascore: 69
- Runtime: 78 minutes
- Country: Spain
“[Rec]” follows a TV reporter (Manuela Velasco) and cameraman (Pablo Rosso) who are covering a firefighter intervention and become trapped in an apartment building where a virus is turning occupants into zombies. Since its release, the movie has been celebrated as one of the strongest entries in the found footage genre.
#9. Day of the Dead (1985)
- Director: George A. Romero
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Metascore: 60
- Runtime: 96 minutes
- Country: US
In the third entry in the “Night of the Living Dead” series, tensions flare when a small team of scientists and soldiers are forced to live together in an underground bunker during a zombie apocalypse. Romero described “Day of the Dead” as “a tragedy about how a lack of human communication causes chaos and collapse even in this small little pie slice of society.”
#8. The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
- Director: Dan O'Bannon
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Metascore: 66
- Runtime: 91 minutes
- Country: US
Early on in “The Return of the Living Dead,” three hapless employees at a medical supply warehouse unknowingly release a gas into the air that reanimates the dead into zombies. The creatures differ from zombies in many other films in several ways—they can run, can speak, and can’t be killed by being shot in the head.
#7. Re-Animator (1985)
- Director: Stuart Gordon
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 105 minutes
- Country: US
Loosely adapted from H.P. Lovecraft’s “Herbert West-Reanimator,” this horror-comedy stars Jeffrey Combs as Herbert, a medical student who has invented a serum that can re-animate corpses. Drama ensues when another doctor (David Gale) attempts to claim the invention as his own, all while people are rising from the dead.
#6. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
- Director: Jacques Tourneur
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 69 minutes
- Country: US
“I Walked with a Zombie” follows Betsy (Frances Dee), a nurse who is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner (Christine Gordon), who has become afflicted thanks to the island’s history of zombification and voodoo. While working on the film, producer Val Lewton asked writers to use Charlotte Brontë's “Jane Eyre” as inspiration.
#5. Dead Alive (1992)
- Director: Peter Jackson
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Metascore: 54
- Runtime: 104 minutes
- Country: New Zealand
In “Dead Alive,” lead character Lionel (Timothy Balme) tries to hide his zombified mother (Elizabeth Moody) in the basement, but her escape creates a neighborhood-wide epidemic. The film has received more attention years after its release, once Jackson became a well-known director for “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
#4. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
- Director: Edgar Wright
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 76
- Runtime: 99 minutes
- Country: UK
When a zombie apocalypse hits an English town, 30-something slacker Shaun (Simon Pegg) is forced to step up and protect his loved ones from the safety of a local pub. While the movie has become a cult-favorite comedy film, some scholars argue that it’s an example of how post-9/11 cultural anxieties were realized within zombie cinema.
#3. 28 Days Later... (2002)
- Director: Danny Boyle
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 113 minutes
- Country: UK
Opening a month after an incurable virus has spread throughout England, “28 Days Later…” centers on four survivors, who attempt to find shelter and come to terms with their new reality. Bloody Disgusting ranked the movie #7 in their list of the top 20 horror films of the decade, writing, “Zombie movie? Political allegory? Humanist drama? ‘28 Days Later...’ is all those things and more—a genuine work of art.”
#2. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
- Director: George A. Romero
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Metascore: 59
- Runtime: 127 minutes
- Country: US
In this sequel to “Night of the Living Dead,” David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Gaylen Ross play zombie apocalypse survivors who barricade themselves inside of a shopping mall in hopes of survival. Rotten Tomatoes’ critical consensus praises “Dawn of the Dead” as “one of the most compelling and entertaining zombie films ever made.”
#1. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
- Director: George A. Romero
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 89
- Runtime: 96 minutes
- Country: US
Romero revolutionized horror with “Night of the Living Dead,” which sees a group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in a remote farmhouse while fighting off flesh-eating creatures that have risen from the dead. The film features Duane Jones as the first Black lead in the horror genre.
