how about a faux zombie movie? There was a movie that was pretty much a zombie movie with Julianne moore but instead of zombies, 98 percent of the world all went blind at the same time …
The first half of the movie had a sincerely stupid plot point which i won’t spoil and the movies infatuation with the Asian actress…
Evil Dead II is in my top five favourite movies, but I’ve never considered it a zombie movie. It’s a dead/living possession movie, indeed, the hero ends up being possessed a number of times during the movie, and the great thing is how much of what he is seeing is real or not.
Train to Busan is the best delivered zombie movie of recent years to me. Just did it really well. Followup barely worth a watch though.
Cargo, an australian outback movie starring the young Bilbo (Martin Freeman) was one of the few zombie movies which I came away with hope of survival in, which is highly unusual in the genre.
I think it would be useful to post your age, or some indication of just how many zombie movies had been made by the time you were born.
I am 62, and the first “real” zombie movie I saw was (the original, B&W) The Night of the Living Dead. Even had to stay up late on a Halloween to see the uncut version (there was only broadcast TV at the time - no cable, no Blockbuster, and certainly no streaming at the time). Scared the bejeezus out of me (and my brother). So “Night” will always remain as the “scariest” of the zombie movies for me.
What I was thinking, though, was had I been born later, after the zombie genre movie had taken off, would I still consider “Night” as scary ? Which is why I think factoring in just how many zombie movies were available, when you saw your first, affects your view.
The first sequel, Dawn of the Dead, was different scary in that it struck closer to home. It was in an urban setting, in a mall. And had me thinking “what would I do ?” It was also a regular midnight movie at some of the local theaters, so I ended up seeing it a fair number of times.
More recent favorites:
Zombieland Such a hilariously practical guide to living in the zombie apocalypse (all the rules to remember). Woody at his best. And of course, Bill (f*cking) Murray !
The Girl With All the Gifts This was a nice surprize, variant on what has become such a cliche’d genre.
I’m not a huge fan of 28 Days Later or World War Z because the transformation from human to zombie takes place in seconds. Too unrealistic to me (but re-animating corpses somehow makes more sense ;-). I do appreciate “WWZ” even though it is nothing even close to the (great) book. It gives kind of a logical Achilles’ heel to the zombies, and therefore a way to fight back.
I’m only four years younger, and all of that applies to me as well
I first saw in on television in 1986 on Halloween. I don’t remember whether it was uncut or not but by the standards of the 80s the gore was rather tame.
I enjoyed 28 Days Later but World War Z was such a huge disappointment. The book was great and it would have been nice had the based the move off of it.
Agreed. The World War Z film belongs right at the bottom of the list as far as I’m concerned. Even the Resident Evil movies (which are all pretty awful IMO) do better. The book is absolutely the best thing to come out of the whole genre (books, TV, films, comics, games and all) IMO (maybe with the exception of Sean of the Dead).
+1. Thought it was great from beginning to end, including the grim denouement.
28 Days Later probably tops my list.
For television iZombie beats everything by a mile.
For movies, I’ll throw in something not mentioned yet, The Return of the Living Dead (1985) simply because it has a nude (surprise, surprise) Linnea Quigley dancing on a headstone. Plus, once she loses her clothes, they stay off for the rest of the movie. Oh, it has zombies too!
And the Cramps on the soundtrack.
While the second trilogy of Romero zombie films are generally recognized as “not good”, I feel that Diary of the Dead is worth a mention. I like the setting in that the characters are driving around and don’t REALLY understand what’s happening as civilization is unwinding from the rising zombie plague.
I forgot about that! It’s been so long since I watched it.
Wow, I’ve never even heard of that one. I got some zombie catching up to do.
Great movie. I have the original one-sheet movie poster I bought when I was in high school.
Another film that had a bit of a different take on the zombie genre was “Maggie” staring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Zombieland’s Abigail Breslin as his daughter, who becomes infected by a zombie bite. It’s a bit different in that the whole world has been changed by the zombie infestation, but didn’t just collapse Walking Dead style.
Talk about a change of pace movie for Arnold. I’ve seen the daughter in Scream Queens so it’s quite a change for her also. And pretty much straight to DVD. I’ve got to check if these are available to stream on one of the services I have.
I think this was the only zombie movie or television show I enjoyed until iZombie.