What is your favorite zombie movie?

[Pike]

I'm a big fan of the original Dawn of the Dead. Really can't beat the classics. :squee:

[Clo]

Day of the Dead, hands down.

[Madame Adequate]

Okay. Yes. This is my jam right here.

I think a lot of praise has to be given to the original Night of the Living Dead. It is a superb piece of film that did a whole hell of a lot of things right on a pretty tight budget. It also starred a black dude as the main hero - a level-headed, competent guy who did his best to keep shit together. In the late 60s this was Kind Of A Big Deal, and even if Romero's claim that Jones simply gave the best audition is completely true, the film has serious merit nonetheless in that regard. Of course it's also superb as a film, especially if you go in like many people did without knowing a whole lot about 'zombies' and their mythos. This movie wasn't the first time they had appeared on-screen, but it codified them as the shambling corpses we know and love today as opposed to the much more voodoo-inspired zonbis that had preceded them. And it was important for horror movies more generally, being much more severe and tragic than many that had come before it.

Dawn of the Dead though, welp. Hard to top that, because it's a freaking classic in all respects to an even greater degree than Night was. The shopping mall instantly became THE iconic location for zombies, and coming a decade after Night it encapsulated new questions about society, most obviously that of rampant consumerism. And of course the whole thing comes crashing down, as it always must in a zombie flick, not because of the mindless hordes but because of boredom, hubris, and petty power struggles on the parts of the survivors. I may have to agree with Pike's OP that this is the best zombie movie ever; I can think of others that come close, but none that exceed it.

The remake of Dawn of the Dead was surprisingly great. For reasons I've expounded on before (http://home.eyesonff.com/general-chat/123652-speed-zombies.html#post2646600) I'm not generally a fan of fast zombies, but Dawn '04 did it right; they were fast and vicious as hell, but the core principles of what makes a zombie scenario interesting were still present and abundant. Similarly, the Spanish movie [Rec] had fast zombies but they did not detract from the overall experience. Compare that to, say, Left 4 Dead which is an amazingly fun game, but doesn't really hit the 'zombie' buttons very much at all.

28 Days Later is one of the better attempts of recent years again despite the speed of the infected; it's harrowing, people lose their minds, the pressure is constant, and it's generally awesome. 28 Weeks Later has some problems in setup, in that a whole lot of really dumb decisions need to be made, but once it's actually underway it's another pretty fun romp.

The other good serious zombie movie I'd highlight is Dead Set, probably the goriest one I've ever seen and a really great watch.

Zombies of course lend themselves to humor pretty well too; despite the horror they can provide they can very easily be interpreted as fundamentally ridiculous, or to create a ridiculous setting, as in the exceptional Shawn of the Dead and Evil Dead movies (the latter's not strictly a zombie series but it's good enough).

[Raistlin]

Dawn of the Dead is definitely the iconic zombie movie, and I'd probably follow it by Shawn of the Dead (which is what I watched this past Easter for Zombie Jesus Day). But I also have to give a shoutout to Dead Snow for being one of the most ridiculous movies I've ever seen.

Like MILF, I'm not a fan of fast zombies. I've never even seen 28 Days Later, but maybe I'll have to give it a try after that glowing review.

[Bunny]

Fido.

[Jiro]

28 Days Later is probably one of my favourite films let alone favourite zombie films.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Night of the Living Dead is pretty much the most perfect zombie movie ever made. Army of Darkness is pretty fucking awesome too. :p

[Laddy]

Night of the Living Dead is pretty much the most perfect zombie movie ever made. Army of Darkness is pretty smurfing awesome too. :p
Pretty much as good as it gets for me here. I'm not a huge zombie guy. I'm not against the concept, it's just never generated a truly great cinema experience for me.

Shawn of the Dead is golden, though.

[Bubba]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to jump on the '28 Days Later' Bandwagon. I was hooked from that opening scene in London and the great music that went with it.

[Chris]

Love "28 Days Later", but not too thrilled about "28 Weeks Later". "Devil's Playground" was okay, though not spectacular. I didn't mind "Zombie Diaries". :chuckle:

[Jinx]

Never seen 28 Days Later, but I've wanted to.

I'm not a huge "zombie" person.

[Shorty]

The original Night of the Living Dead, absolutely.

edit: I saw Eaters (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1753753/) at a horror film fest I went to last year and actually liked it a lot. Dunno why it only has four stars :(

Also Zombieland is cute. Planet Terror isn't necessarily a "zombie movie" but it gets an honorable mention. And White Zombie because Bela Lugosi.

[Freya]

I really liked the Dawn of the Dead remake. Like REALLY liked it as a teen. I liked the idea of fast zombies. Made them more terrifying to me.

[Madame Adequate]

Oh hell I forgot all about Zombieland, that was a barrel of fun.

[Mercen-X]

Zombie flicks f-ing piss me off. That said, the ones I can enjoy to some degree are 28DL, Doomsday (I think that virus made zombies, right? Or did it just kill people? I don't remember now.), Army of Darkness (hilarious), I haven't seen it yet but perhaps The Crazies, DOOM!, Evil Dead duology (when I realized it wasn't really meant to thrill but for laughs), Ghosts of Mars, the B-17 on Heavy Metal, I Am Legend (then again, that's likely just bias because I'm a WillSmith-slave), Pontypool (not stupid... just very, very weird).

[Shorty]

Why do they piss you off? :(

[Mercen-X]

I know for a fact that people are quite usually retarded but humanity's level of retardation is ratcheted up to ridiculous in pretty much every z-flick. I mean, this for the most part is because most of those movies involved the slow moving, more easily-managed zombies that still somehow managed to almost wipe out humanity because "omg, here it comes! it will be here eventually and all I've got are these fifteen shotguns and crapload of ammunition. How will I ever survive?" cue character death.

The second reason is that there is usually absolutely no story. Just a bunch of carnage. Critics like to complain that action movies have little-to-no or very ridiculous stories while offering big dumb action-filled fun. Z-flicks on the other hand, without story, are no fun. Unless you're some f-ing retard who's just as easily entertained stomping on an ant hill and watching the insects scatter because that is what encompasses the f-ing vast majority of z-flicks. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with watching ants when they're taking on other insects for the sake of food or territory or when they're building a home. But if they're just scrambling around at random and you find this entertaining, you've truly nothing worthwhile to live for have you?

[Shorty]

What are you talking about that has no story? Take 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead. Hell, Walking Dead has an amazing story.

It's true that it may be difficult to distinguish one zombie film from the next because they do all have similar characteristics and basic plotlines (ie, outbreak of some kind, destruction, end of world, how do we survive), but how well the stories are written and how well the characters and their ability to overcome the problem at hand (stay alive) is what distinguishes a good zombie film from the carnage and crap that you seem to be referring to.

Lumping them all together as "no story" is wrong. :colbert:

[Mercen-X]

I also liked Quarantine (I know, it's originally supposed to be REC but let's face it, that's a dumbass title). I somehow neglected to mention the RE series. I didn't really like the entire Serpent and the Rainbow movie, but I loved the concept of zombies being created through drugs, not trying to make humanoid-weapons but essentially living puppets for various underground crime purposes.

[Jinx]

my favourite zombie movie is eoff

[drotato]

The 28 Days Later Series is awesome.

[Madame Adequate]

I know for a fact that people are quite usually retarded but humanity's level of retardation is ratcheted up to ridiculous in pretty much every z-flick. I mean, this for the most part is because most of those movies involved the slow moving, more easily-managed zombies that still somehow managed to almost wipe out humanity because "omg, here it comes! it will be here eventually and all I've got are these fifteen shotguns and crapload of ammunition. How will I ever survive?" cue character death.

The second reason is that there is usually absolutely no story. Just a bunch of carnage. Critics like to complain that action movies have little-to-no or very ridiculous stories while offering big dumb action-filled fun. Z-flicks on the other hand, without story, are no fun. Unless you're some f-ing retard who's just as easily entertained stomping on an ant hill and watching the insects scatter because that is what encompasses the f-ing vast majority of z-flicks. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with watching ants when they're taking on other insects for the sake of food or territory or when they're building a home. But if they're just scrambling around at random and you find this entertaining, you've truly nothing worthwhile to live for have you?

You are completely missing the point of zombie movies, and zombies as a whole. Find my previous post and click the link therein.

You're also really mad about people liking zombie movies, so I'm gonna go ahead and turn on mod mode right here:

Please refrain from calling members "f-ing retards". Even if you really really don't like things they do like - MILF :ichigo:

[Shiny]

Is this a trick question?

All of Romero's films except Diary of the Dead. Wasn't too crazy about that one. Sad to say I think it may be his last zombie film.

Mercen-X is clearly trolling just to troll, so I will ignore most of his post.

Over the past few years we've had greats like 28 Days Later, Quarantine, Dead Snow, and Zombieland. I actually quite like the commentary these films are making about our current state. But yes, there's gore, but if it's a great zombie film it's always more than that.

[Mercen-X]

My apologies to anyone I might've offended with my colloquialism. MILF's correct that I've obviously missed the point of z-flicks, but my jab was not meant for people who enjoy "zombie movies" for what they should be. My experience with z-flicks is fairly limited. In truth, I don't hate the movie so much as I hate the term. "Zombie movie" makes me think of a film wherein the crisis is simply a mass of rampaging unkillable monsters, undead humans or no, and wherein the characters either live or die but there's really no story and no character development and no sense of urgency or suspense. Truly "stomping an ant hill." It's my opinion that the good ones are just "films which happen to have zombies." I guess that's a frustrating mouthful, but whatever.

[themagicroundabout]

My favourite zombie film is Braindead also known as Dead Alive

[Shauna]

Oh man, zombie movies. Pretty awesome, love 'em. I dunno what my favourite would be!

I'm gonna watch the rest of the Romero movies that I've not seen yet (Land, Diary, the remakes) and then I think I'll have seen all of them. Then I will be in a good place to choose a favourite. :p

[Shoeberto]

Night of the Living Dead is a goddamn classic of both black and white cinema and the zombie genre and is absolutely necessary for everyone ever. It's also public domain due to a legal snafu, so there's no excuse.

The original Dawn requires some patience but it's fantastic. I didn't appreciate it as a teen but as I grew older I liked it a lot more. The remake is great, but you can tell the difference in directors - Zach Snyder is much more flashy and action-oriented than Romero.

28 Days Later is brilliant and I love Danny Boyle to death. So much style, such a great exploration of characters, and "In The House... In A Heartbeat" is one of the greatest pieces of film score ever.

Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland need no introduction, though I prefer the former.

I think Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness require mentioning, because fuck you, you better hail to the king, baby.

[Lonely Paper Star]

It's hard to choose just one. [REC] is near the top of my general horror movie list, but 28 Days Later, Zombieland, Night of the Living Dead, and Dead Snow were all awesome as well. Can't think of anymore zombie movies other than the ones already mentioned. I've only seen the first season of The Walking Dead; I know the second is on Netflix but I just haven't gotten around to it. ;<