Twenty First century zombie flicks for lovers of all different movie genres

12.Rec (2007)

Rec is a Spanish found-footage style film about a news reporter and her cameraman who find themselves in the middle of the story of their lifetime as they report on an elderly woman who accidentally locked herself inside of her apartment. They soon find out that the elderly woman was a zombie and that the infection was spreading through the building. This movie is an immersive fright-fest that will leave your heart pounding even through the closing credits. 

11. 28 Days Later (2002)

Walking Dead fans will find the opening scene of 28 Days Later oddly familiar; as the main character wakes up from a coma, he finds the hospital abandoned and begins to explore the streets of London. Left on his own to discover the disastrous events that occurred in the past 28 days, he eventually is rescued by a few other survivors and together they must figure out a way to survive.

10.Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006)

Poultrygeist is the sharknado of zombie movies. It’s a cheesy, un-PC, violent-yet-funny film that centers around a fried chicken restaurant built on ancient Native American burial grounds. The chickens that are being cooked in the restaurant begin to come back to life and try to kill the restaurant staff and customers.  If you’re looking for a corny, gory, mindless zombie movie, then this is for you.

9. Versus (2000)

This micro-budget Japanese zombie flick entails over-the-top gore as well as back-to-back action scenes. In this world, there are 666 portals to the “other side”–places where the dead come back to life.  One of these portals happens to be in Japan and is named “Forest of Resurrection.” The action mirrors that of the Matrix, in one scene, a character punches a hole (kung-fu style) through a zombie’s head. If you like gangsters, samurais or martial arts, you would probably enjoy this movie.

8. Planet Terror (2007)

Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez co-directed this goofy guts-’n’-guns movie following a sadistic doctor, an outlaw and a dancer, who ends up using a machine gun as a prosthetic leg, as they must save the world from a disease that turns people into zombies.

7. Maggie (2015)

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, this emotional movie stands out from the others in its genre due to the fact that the “zombification” process is very, very slow in this post-apocalyptic film. When the main character’s daughter catches a virus that slowly turns the infected into flesh-eating beings, he fights to be able to be with her during her last days.

6. The Girl with All the Gifts (2017)

The Girl with All the Gifts is a new, often overlooked zombie movie. In the film, a fungal disease turns the infected into “hungries”. Some children are less “hungry” than others, and are subjected to experiments, studies and school lessons by the military. One of the children stands out from the rest: Melanie catches on faster than the others and loves her teacher. When everything goes awry, she is able to escape with her teacher and a few others. This thought provoking zombie movie will make you think twice about human nature and our modern society.

5. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Shaun of the Dead is a classic horror/comedy movie–the protagonist Shaun isn’t having a very good day, his girlfriend is really mad at him, his co-workers don’t take him seriously, and to make matters worse, a zombie apocalypse is underway. Shaun must become an unlikely hero and save his friends and family, with the help of his trusty cricket bat of course.

4. Zombieland (2009)

If you like Superbad, you’re probably gonna love Zombieland. When zombies overrun the USA, apprehensive college student Columbus, sets out on a quest to Ohio to find his parents. Along the way he meets experienced zombie-slayer Tallahassee, who is on a mission to find and eat the last twinkie on earth. Later they run into two sisters, Little Rock and Wichita, who are LA-bound in search of a zombie-less safe haven. Together they all journey across America.

3. Cooties (2015)

Every teacher’s worst nightmare comes true in this zombie flick–as the gross cafeteria lunch turns all the students at an elementary school into zombies, the teachers must band together to figure out how to stop the bloodthirsty children and escape.  

2. Warm Bodies (2013)

This Romeo and Juliet adaptation is the only one to contain zombies. The main character, R, is an abnormal zombie who saves a human survivor, Julie, from an attack by other zombies. Against all odds, the two form a special relationship in their post-apocalyptic world. With the tag line “He was dead inside until he met her,” Warm Bodies is a comical twist on a classic love story.

1.Train to Busan(2016)

A Father-daughter duo embarks on a train ride across Korea to visit family when a zombie epidemic breaks out across the country. Unlike most zombies, these ones can move incredibly fast, and those attacked by zombies turn into zombies themselves in a matter of a few seconds. The passengers on the train must escape the zombies and find a safe city to stop the train in. Earning a 95% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and featured in the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, this fast paced and emotional thriller will leave you on the edge of your seat the whole time.