Favorite zombie movie or television show?

Cafe Society
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21

Oh and for TV shows In The Flesh is pretty good:

Though it makes the classic case of sci-fi mistake of being too eager to make their show a metaphor for modern social issues to consider what their metaphor is actually saying IMO. People who are prejudiced against former-zombies are obviously used as a metaphor to racial/sectarian* bigots IRL. But the thing is, there was this sort of zombie apocaplse where millions of people were eaten by zombies, soo the bigots really have a point in this universe, so is that the point they are trying to make? As that’s err not a good point I’d want to get behind.

22

I tend to be a traditionalist and prefer slow zombies but I’m not so hidebound that I can’t enjoy something different. My favorite zombie movie is the original Dawn of the Dead but I quite enjoy the 2004 remake as well. Hell, the 2004 remake has one of the greatest 10-15 minute opening in zombie movie history so far as I’m concerned. Dead Heat starring Joe Piscopo, Treat Williams, and a special appearance by Vincent Price is an underappreciated gem. There’s a special place in my heart for Return of the Living Dead because it was a fun movie and Linnea Quigley’s Oscar worthy performance as Trash the punk. I still want to see Juan of the Dead and I can’t wait to see Train to Busan.

But just because it has zombies in it doesn’t mean I’ll like it. I didn’t care for the Fear the Walking Dead series and didn’t watch after season one. I watched two of the Resident Evil movies but didn’t like either one.

23

Shaun of the Dead is an excellent example of a parody movie that also exemplifies the subject it parodies. It’s quite a fun movie and I can’t believe I left it off my list. It’s been a few years since I watched it so I think I’ll watch it again soon.

That is a bold choice, my friend. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone select Day of the Dead as their favorite of the first three Romero zombie flicks. But it’s been so long since I’ve seen Day that perhaps I need to watch it again and to give it a fair shake. It’s been more than thirty years I think.

24

Train to Busan is the one that I think reinvigorated the genre, not by doing anything particularly new, but just by being extremely well-produced and very, very good at its primary plot and using the sub-plots very cleverly to boost the story. Watched it three times now and its as exhilarating as ever.

25

My old roommate claims that it’s his favorite. So I had to watch it a few more times since I first saw it and dismissed it as garbage. And you know what? It’s actually not too bad, assuming you can get past some bad acting. The story itself is pretty decent.

However, it’s not even close to being in “favorite” territory.

26

My favorite zombie-adjacent thing is the Last of Us game duology. For me, to be successful in this genre, it’s not about your take on the zombies themselves, it’s about what you say about people trying to live with and survive the zombies, and these games’ narratives hit my personal sweet spot. (I acknowledge they are divisive, especially the second. This is my own opinion.) And even then, the fungal-infection idea is a nifty twist, and justifies a society that stays broken with a constantly resupplied threat of new infected, versus regular zombies that, you’d think, would rot and fall apart and eventually fade away.

If we’re limiting ourselves to movies and TV, then Shaun of the Dead wins for me.

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Movies, I like The Girl With All The Gifts, Shaun Of The Dead, Warm Bodies, Zombieland and the first Resident Evil film.

TV, I like iZombie.

28

I know my opinion is not the popular one but, for me, Day of the Dead is the perfect Zombie and Horror film.

In general terms it’s bleak, nihilistic, miserable, hopeless and depicts humans (us, the viewers) losing the fight against the threat. That’s horror.

The gore special effects are very well done. They all look a bit familiar now (and I am not claiming Day of the Dead pioneered any of them) but it’s always disappointing watching a horror film with really obvious fake effects.

In my opinion no one in the film acts out of character or does anything really stupid - other than where they have stupidity as a defining characteristic. Indeed all the characters are following their own clear motivations - even though they tend to be ultimately unhelpful.

So you have a few ‘civilians’ caught up in it. They tend to be the mechanism allowing us to see the situation which has a world being lost to Zombies and two disparate factions:

You have the soldiers who are transitioning from traditional military ‘loyally following orders’ towards ‘getting ready to mutiny’ and are a constant powder keg of pent up violence.

You have the scientists with good intentions, looking for a solution to the Zombie plague, but amorally and misguided, experimenting on dead soldiers. Although this is not known by the soldiers because that would push the soldiers over the edge.

The utter bleakness has the scientists actually onto something as they demonstrate one zombie is showing the possibility of being domesticated. While the soldiers are not impressed and not supportive of this potential breakthrough adding weight to the idea the humans are worse than the Zombies.

I could go on but for me it’s just a solid slice of Zombie Horror. Sets out to, and for me succeeds in doing this, showing how the end game of the Zombie Apocalypse is played out and, spoiler, it’s terrible.

By comparison I don’t like Night of the Living Dead because the black and white filming and cheap gore effects don’t work for me. Plus the characters just seem confused - which is probably what most people would be like if the dead suddenly came to life - which leaves me underwhelmed. I do like the bleak, black humour in the ending.

Dawn of the Dead is very good. The effects are good enough. There’s so many interesting ideas (professional squads trying to clear buildings - although it’s not REALLY clear why living relatives would be so devoted to their former loved ones, the clueless ‘Good Old Boys’ sniping at Zombies in the fields thinking it’s all a game plus the intelligent idea of setting up in a shopping mall.) My objection to the film is I never liked the how and why of a roving motorcycle gang simply riding up to destroy everything. Seemed like it was just bolted on to the film to create a big action set piece. Another satisfyingly bleak ending though.

TCMF-2L

29

This reminds me of the zombie comedy Fido, which no one else has brought up yet. Probably because it’s merely good, not great, and is unlikely to be anyone’s favorite. But since you reminded me of it, I’ll just throw in that it’s okay enough and is worth a watch.

30

Been a while since I watched it (and I only watched it once) but I never got an Irish Troubles feel from it. I thought it was primarily a gay prejudice thing and also a general outsiders prejudice.

What I do recall with disappointment was the first episodes introduced a mysterious bunch of scientists giving the (partial) cure and suggestions they had deliberately started the infection. Then mysterious ‘Government Officials’ soon appeared. I was getting interested in this.

Then the main narrative changed to a mysterious cabal of the undead who were getting organised to… Possibly rebel against the mysterious Government Officials? So I was interested in seeing how these two strands tied together.

And then for the final episodes (before the premature cancellation of the show) the main narrative seem to jettison all the scientific and political stuff and introduced all this supernatural stuff. Seemed like a different show.

TCMF-2L

31

Hey I posted a clip a couple of posts up !

I’d agree it’s not up there with the greats but definitely worth watching. It beats out Zombieland in the comedy zombie genre, which I thought was thoroughly underwhelming though bill murray was cool of course.

32

I prefer House and House II: The Second Story. I prefer my zombies in parody.

33

Ooo, sorry, missed that. I saw the B&W thumbnail and assumed it was something else. My bad.

34

Not necessarily “favorites,” but not previously mentioned in this thread:

The Ghost Breakers (1940) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Noble Johnson as old school zombies (though he is technically only catatonic in the first).

Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)

With radio controlled atomic-powered zombies, you’d think this would have been much better. The song by Roky Ericson and the Aliens is better than the movie.

Invisible Invaders (1959)

Same director as Creature with the Atom Brain rehashes the plot device as aliens reanimate corpses.

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

Iconic zombie action with Tor Johnson and Vampira.

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964)

A dude is hypnotized to carry out killings in what is technically a non-zombie movie with one of the greatest titles ever. Cinematography by Joseph Mascelli (he wrote the American Cinematographers Manual, first ed.), Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsgimond.

The Astro-Zombies (1968)

Dr. DeMarco (John Carradine) and his hunchbacked assistant create a zombie (dude in rubber mask) from dead bodies, but it gets out of control. Meanwhile, the CIA’s Wendell Corey is drunk and evil crime lord Tura Satana lounges on a couch.

Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1972)

This used to be on late night pretty much every weekend. It’s generally unwatchable, but corpse Orville gives a good performance both before and after being reanimated by an occult ritual led by an a-hole movie director.

Shock Waves (1977)

Nazi zombies are created by ex-Nazi Peter Cushing in surprisingly effective and creepy low-budget thriller.

Kung Fu Zombie (1981)

I know I saw this, but I don’t remember a single thing except that it starred “Elton Chong” on the VHS box.

Cemetery Man (1994)

Okay comedy of cemetery worker dealing with nightly zombie action while pursuing surreal romance.

35

Some of those are deep, deep cuts! I forgot about Shock Waves and I’ve never seen Cemetery Man but I did see this review on Youtube.

36

I liked The Santa Clarita Diet an awful lot, though mostly for the endless wise-cracking.

What zombie film is it where you have zombies walking on the seabed, attacking sharks? I don’t think that one was actually good, however.

37

Zombi

38

Don’t you mean Zombi 2?

39

I meant one of those, yes.

40

Definitely wins the best zombie film sequel that’s not actually a sequel. Maybe the best sequel of all time that’s not actually a sequel (IIRC it was named Zombi 2 in the hope non-English speaking audiences would think it was a sequel to Night of the Living Dead)

I’ve not seen it since I saw it recorded from British TV on VHS, I remember it being solid. The shark on zombie fight stands out and the twist ending, but my main memory is how even by the standards of zombie films the characters made some DUMB decisions.