"Horror" about zombies. List of the best films

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The walking dead who left their graves and went out to hunt people is very scary. Just imagine, nothing human in the look, mechanical movements and pieces of flesh hanging from the bones. And if this person was familiar to you before? Agree, the sight is terrible. That is why zombies are the heroes of many films made in the horror genre. Post-apocalyptic scenarios are also often built on the return of the dead from the other world. What "horrors" about zombies are the scariest? In this article, we will list the best films about the walking dead and offer brief descriptions of their plots. Let's start with the very first films. This is a movie for true connoisseurs of the genre who dream of learning everything about it.

First zombie movies

When was the first movie about the walking dead released? It happened in 1932, when director Viktor Galperin presented his creation to the public under the name "White Zombie". According to the plot of the film, the beautiful Madeleine is turned into a submissive, weak-willed victim by the mysterious Legendre, who lives alone in his castle. For this insidious purpose,uses voodoo magic. Legendre's idea could be successful, but Madeleine has a young man who decides to take revenge and goes to the last.

This film was a huge success with the audience. With a budget of just over $50,000, it grossed as much as $8 million at the box office. The unsurpassed Bela Lugosi starred as Legendre.

Sounds like Galperin's creation of the wartime movie "King of the Zombie", directed by Jean Yarbrough. According to the plot of the tape, a plane crashes over a small island. The pilot and two passengers survive the crash. On the island, they meet Dr. Sangre, who is fond of voodoo and has an army of the dead, which he creates with his own hands in his basement. Zombie King is not only a horror movie. This is also a comedy, the subtle humor of which will be appreciated by discerning connoisseurs of good cinema.

50s-60s Zombie Horror Movies

The list of frightening films about the walking dead continues with Plan 9: From Outer Space. This tape came out in 1959. It is interesting in that it vividly shows the ideas and fantasies of filmmakers of that time about the future and about a possible invasion of aliens on our Earth. The aliens want to turn all people into obedient robots, but for training they decide to first revive the dead in a small cemetery in America. What came of it? Nothing good. By the way, the same can be said about the film. It won the Golden Turkey award for the worst film of all time. Well, then, such “masterpieces” of the film industry as"Zombie Beavers" (2014) and the Russian film "Zombie Vacation" (2013).

In the list of films released in the 60s of the last century, the work of Ubaldo Ragon and Sydney Salkow called "The Last Man on Earth" is noteworthy. Dr. Morgan accidentally acquired immunity to a virus that destroyed all people on the planet. During the day he is all alone, and at night he is hunted by the infected. The classic plot that the audience saw in the movie "I am a legend." The secret is that these are two adaptations of the same book by Richard Matheson. That's what it's called - "I am a legend."

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

This is a classic film directed by George Romero. Perhaps every fan of the horror genre in the film industry knows about her. Well, for those who are just planning to see the picture, you should briefly familiarize yourself with the plot.

Barbara and her brother Johnny visit their father's grave. At the cemetery, young people are attacked by a strange man who himself seems to have just risen from the dead. Johnny gets into a fight with a stranger and dies after tripping and smashing his head on a tombstone. Barbara hides in a nearby house in a panic. There, the girl is not alone, but in the company of other people who want to survive. Outside - crowds of zombies. On the radio, the heroes learn that the attack is taking place on a national scale, and the radioactivity of the spacecraft, which recently returned from Venus, is to blame.

The meaning of the picture for cinema and an interesting fact

George Romero made a film that is radically differentfrom everything that was before. Zombies were no longer associated with voodoo sorcery. They have become what they are shown in modern films - bloodthirsty dead, killing and eating everyone in their path. Agree, the most terrible "horrors" about zombies show them to the audience as such.

Fun Fact: All of the resurrection extras were paid $1 each and given a T-shirt that read, "I was a zombie on Night of the Living Dead."

Other works by Romero

Perhaps the best zombie horror films made in the last millennium are the work of George Romero.

"Dawn of the Dead" (1978) is a story about four people trying to survive the apocalypse, hiding in the office premises of a hypermarket. The heroes manage to improve their life, and it seems that even from such a mess as the invasion of corpses, you can get out. But here another group of people comes into play. And they are much scarier than zombies.

Day of the Dead (1985) is about a group of scientists and the military trying to survive a pandemic. There is one bright and interesting character in the film - a "tame" zombie named Bob. It is he who eventually manages to reverse the storyline of the story.

Later, all of Romero's paintings described above were re-shot. The remakes differ from the originals, and in general they have earned good reviews from viewers and critics. Definitely a must see for fans of the genre.

New Millennium. "28 Days Later"

This is perhaps one of the first high-quality zombie films made in the 21st century. According to the plot, the uprisingthere were no dead from their graves: the population of the planet was infected with a “rage virus”. These "zombies" were alive, and they did not move slowly and mechanically, like the corpses returned to life from the films of the eighties, but were fast and able to deliver accurate blows. Four daredevils will try to escape from the attack of the infected in the film.

The tape has several alternative endings, and in 2007 a sequel to the picture called "28 weeks later" was released.

Resident Evil

In 2002, the first film called "Resident Evil" starring Mila Jovovich was released. Directed by Paul Anderson, the film was inspired by the popular Japanese video game Resident Evil.

The plot of the film is based on the confrontation between the brave girl Alice and a commando squad against a horde of zombies - people infected with a strain of the T-virus. The action takes place in the "Anthill" - the laboratories of the Umbrella corporation.

The film came out spectacular, dynamic, but received not the best reviews from critics. Many noted weak acting and poorly written dialogues, but the audience liked the picture. To date, there have been five Resident Evil films, with the sixth film scheduled for release in 2016.

Zombie Horror Top List

In the new millennium, a huge number of films about the walking dead were shot. Which of them deserve the attention of the viewer? The list of movies worth watching is as follows:

• World War Z (2013).
• "S/L/O 2" (2013).
• "Quarantine" (2008).
• Open Grave (2013).
• Reportage (2007).
• The Warmth of Our Bodies (2013).
• "Cabin in the Woods" (2012).
• I Am Legend (2007).

As you can see, 2013 pleased the audience with a fairly large number of high-quality zombie films. Here it is, the magic of the number "13".

Zombie series

The most famous and perhaps the best series about zombies is The Walking Dead. Based on comic books by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, it was created by Frank Darabont.

Since 2010, "The Walking" has been delighting fans of the genre and lovers of quality series with excellent acting and an unpredictable storyline. A group of people led by Rick Grimes survives in a world inhabited by "walkers". Now the masters on earth are not people, but these creatures. But is there a future for mankind? The audience has been looking for the answer to this question for six seasons already.

It is interesting that the word "zombie" does not appear in the series itself. The dead are simply referred to as "walkers". By the way, the creators of the project did their best, and the make-up of the extras is amazing.

The viewer is not informed about the reasons for the spread of the virus that turns people into "walkers". The heroes themselves do not know what triggered the beginning of the apocalypse, but they are looking for the answer to this question.

The creators of "The Walking" released a prequel to the beloved story of the audience. This is the series Fear the Walking Dead, which, as the director promises, will giveanswers to all questions.

What not to watch

Along with high-quality films and serials about zombies, there are also not very good works of scriptwriters and directors on a given topic. It is impossible to list them all, because there are a huge number of such tapes. You can only advise viewers to pay attention to the ratings of films and their titles. "Masterpieces" like "Dead Man and Breakfast" or "Virgin Among the Living Dead" are unlikely to give you pleasure from watching. Therefore, watch only the best "horror" about zombies and do not waste your time on bad movies.