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.

[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 trout 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 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 smurfing awesome too.

[Laddy]

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

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 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).