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I’m going to eat your brains and gain your knowledge
My latent obsession with zombies was awakened when I saw Zombieland a few months back. Since then, I’ve been on a bit of a project to rewatch the old ones and see some new ones.
Here’s my ranking (including a creep and gore scale from one who’s very squeamish about horror films). Anyone have any other recommendations for me?
* Fido. My favorite zombie movie of all time (so far). Mad Men meets civil rights awareness meets some pretty gruesome ghouls in this one. The best premise of all: the living have enslaved the undead as personal servants. And this adorable little zombie flick features a boy named Timmy for Lassie — I mean Fido — to rescue.
*** Planet Terror: Robert Rodriguez takes on the genre to give us the squirting blood, big explosions and outrageous asskicking we’ve come to expect from him. Plus scantily clad longlegged babes and killer cameos that bring back from the dead Tarantino, Willis, Brolin, Rodriguez and others. Some might argue the ghouls are not technically zombies, but they have a similar genesis to the ones in Night of the Living Dead. This is a disgustingly hilarious movie. Another viewing and this one could tie Fido, for sure.
These next three are almost a tossup for me. . .
**Zombieland. A rollicking good time. Lots of head smashing, a cute little love story, a theme park, and Woody Harrelson as the zombie asskicker. What’s not to love? I was particularly enamored of the graphics and the wicked narrator.
**28 Days. This movie scared the living shit out of me. For days. Somebody told me recently the bad things weren’t zombies, so I’ll have to watch it again. But there was a murderously apocalyptic virus involved. I guess they were awfully fast for zombies . . .
Night of the Living Dead: I understand this was the original modern zombie movie. I just watched it for the first time this month. Quite scary, despite the low budget and bad acting. I was surprised at how good it was.
* Shaun of the Dead: Slacker loser becomes zombie-killing hero – mostly with a cricket bat. Some serious gore amidst the laidback humor
Dawn of the Dead: The first one I remember seeing. The zombie mall rats are too funny. And somehow, despite the 70s ick, I really cared about the characters and their relationships with one another.
Still on my list to see . . . 28 Weeks, and remakes of Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead.
What did I miss?
*** Well defined guts, squirting blood, and major violence
** Looked back too soon and was scared to stop at redlights on the drive home
* Ducked and covered to avoid gore in several scenes
No stars: Didn’t have to cover my eyes at all!
Categories: Uncategorized
zombies
3 weird sisters 
Another good one is “Dead-Alive” from down under, I believe. Infamous lawnmower scene.
Watched “Black Sheep” recently. Not zombies, per se, more were-sheep, but still pretty good with a sense of humor.
Thanks! I’ll check out Dead-Alive.
What’s your favorite?
“Dead-Alive”, aka “Brain Dead”, was Peter Jackson’s third feature film, and still holds some kind of record for sheer volume of gore. For glorious no-budget splatstick, his first film, “Bad Taste”, may be worth checking out. No zombies though.
“Army of Darkness” is the third Evil Dead film. Do Deadites count as zombies though?
Fido is good, but I love the Evil Dead one and two, for the low budget paint-the-woods-red over the topness.
Evil Dead II – Army of Darkness has got to be the best EVAR over-the-top camp horror movie.
Thanks for the tip on Fido – I’ve added it to the Netflix cue. Zombieland comes out on Tuesday, so it’s up first.
Title Pedantry:
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
Elsewise, I’m with you on all the ones I’ve seen. Robert Carlysle in 28 Weeks Later is…Nah, you have to see it.