With director Danny Boyle returning to the zombie world he crafted with28 Days Later, it’s an exciting time for zombie films. If you’re familiar with his first film in this saga, you’ll recall there was an energy present in the zombies that was as fast as the editing. The acclaimed director injected some much-needed nitro into the decaying zombie sub-genre.
While you can easily rewatch28 Days Lateron Pluto TVandits sequel on Tubi, that might not be enough. So why not gorge yourself on the juiciest of zombie movies that streaming services have to offer?
2017
Runtime
1 hour 33 minutes
There’s no zombie film quite likeAnna and the Apocalypse, mainly because there’s no other Christmas zombie musical to compare it with. Anna, a suburban teenager, has her life thrown into chaos when a zombie outbreak threatens the holiday season. With her bickering friends, she’ll fight and sing her way to survival, enduring all the brutality and musical numbers that come with a darkly comedic apocalypse.
There’s a gleefully weird vibe to howAnna and the Apocalypseswirls with its mixture of genres. While the characters are relatable enough to feel bad when they become menu items of the flesh-chewers, the musical numbers are a campy treat for the ears. In addition to making great use of zombies roaming inside a high school, you’ve gotta love a film with a zombie dressed up as a snowman and decapitated by a seesaw. It’s one of the fewhorror films perfectly suited for the Christmas season.
Tubi
Anna and the Apocalypseplaces musical numbers and a Christmas setting on top of a zombie invasion for a charming and comical mixture of genres.
2014
1 hour 41 minutes
Dead Snowwas pretty wild with its tale of Nazi zombies in the snow, butDead Snow 2: Red vs. Deadis even wilder. Picking up where the last film left off, the hapless Martin hasn’t seen the last of the Nazi zombies that murdered his friends. Now there are Russian Red Army zombies that have risen from the grave, ready to wage war against the Nazi zombie army.
There’s extra absurdity in howRed vs. Deadtakes the zombie concept and steers it towards a more over-the-top invasion of undead fascists. There’s more fun to be had with the grander displays of vast zombie armies duking it out in the streets. It’s not every film that can boast a zombie driving a tank, and this sequel embraces the unorthodox weirdness of it all, going satisfyingly over-the-top with its blood and guts.
Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Deadposes an absurd war of zombie Nazis versus zombie Russians.
2011
1 hour 35 minutes
It’s the only film that bickers about the differences between zombies and a redneck zombie torture family.The Cabin in the Woodsdirectly toys with the conventions of horror by posing that a shadowy organization orchestrates all of it. An unfortunate ensemble of teenagers becomes the latest target, but soon unearths the underground organization managing the bloodshed.
While zombies ultimately become the centerpiece of the carnage,The Cabin in the Woodsis more of a monster mash in its satirical approach to the horror genre. It’s a film that relishes the tropes while also treating them with a skewering nature. The joke is much more delicious when realizing that the bureaucracy of an office environment betting on teenage monster murders is a reflection of how Hollywood and audiences in general view horror movies.
Amazon Prime Video
The Cabin in the Woodsuses a zombie massacre as a stage for poking fun at the genre and its assembly.
2019
1 hour 43 minutes
Jim Jarmusch is not precisely a director you’d expect to helm a zombie film, given his filmography of dry dramedies. But he manages to wield an all-star cast through an absurd zombie outbreak withThe Dead Don’t Die. Various characters are followed as they navigate a rural community, struggling to stay alive while approaching the undead with unorthodox methods and even offering meta commentary.
The film is worth watching for the ensemble alone, boasting the talents of Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Iggy Pop, and Tom Waits, among others. Jarmusch gives them all such charming roles, with Murray playing a wry police chief and Swinton a sword-wielding funeral-home director. It’s a weirdly offbeat zombie film that dabbles in a little bit of everything, taking a deadpan approach to the undead.
Netflix
The Dead Don’t Dieis a dry zombie comedy with an all-star cast used for absurd roles in a rural setting.
2004
1 hour 39 minutes
Overflowing with zip, wit, and grit,Shaun of the Deadis a charming cocktail of gruesome zombie horror and dry British comedy. The titular Shaun (Simon Pegg) finds his dreary life taking a chaotic turn when zombies overtake London. He quickly concocts a plan to save his mom and rounds up his friends to hold up in the pub to ride out the apocalypse. Of course, as with most zombie films, that’s a plan easier said than done.
As one of the early works of director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz), there’s a lot of charm to howShaun of the Deadplays with horror while still making you care about the characters. Shaun’s plans of hurling certain records at the undead are amusing, but you also feel for the fear of losing his mother. While also featuring over-the-top violence, the film served as a strong foundation for Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy that includesHot Fuzz,The World’s End. You may never hear Queen the same way again, making for one of themost memorable horror comedies.
Peacock
Shaun of the Deadmerges Edgar Wright’s speedy direction/editing with the bloody nature of zombie films for a picture that is equal parts terrifying and hilarious.
1985
If you ever wondered when the trope of zombies craving brains became so prevalent, the undead crave it inThe Return of the Dead. When a gas-based military experiment goes wrong, flesh-eating zombies roam through Kentucky. The absent-minded Frank and Freddy will have to work alongside others to survive a night of odd terror amid human-munching corpses rising from their graves.
Mixing the grotesque with the goofy,The Return of the Living Deadturned the zombie sub-genre on its decapitated head. It features many campy and punk elements that fuse, including a surreal nude dance amid a graveyard. It also features one of the most nightmarish of zombies, with the big-eyed and exposed-jawed Tarman, calling out for brains that he can devour.
The Return of the Living Deadestablished many zombie movie hallmarks while also having a lot of fun with the undead scenario.
1 hour 36 minutes
For the horror fan who loves a good one-take shot,One Cut of the Deadis a bloody cinematic treat. While a Japanese film crew struggles to keep a zombie film on budget, they may have stumbled onto the ultimate movie when a real-life zombie outbreak occurs. They struggle to survive as the camera keeps rolling and the zombies continue to attack.
One Cut of the Deadis a wonderfully meta film about filmmaking, considering it was itself shot on a shoestring budget of roughly $25,000. While the one-shot premise is a daring endeavor, the biting mixture of satire and media commentary made for an unforgettable zombie picture. The film was such a hit that it led to a sequel TV special and French remake,Final Cut.
shudder
One Cut of the Deadmerges satirical low-budget filmmaking with a wry zombie horror.
1968
While George Romero’sNight of the Living Deadwasn’t the first zombie film, it firmly grounded what made the horror sub-genre so gruesomely delicious. The film finds an unlikely ensemble trying to fight off zombies by barricading themselves inside a house. The tension of survival, however, soon gives rise to feuding over the best way to escape the undead and their insatiable hunger for flesh.
Romero’s zombie classic not only established the bloodier aspects of the genre but also the broader themes that can be explored through mindless monsters. The decaying connections between people reflected the bigotry of the 1960s, even if it was seemingly by accident. With Romero’s follow-up,Dawn of the Dead, which focuses on consumerism, the director proved that a film about the undead eating guts could have brains as well.
Night of the Living Deadis the zombie classic that came to define how horrific and topical the genre can be.
With so many flavors of zombie films out there, it’s a sub-genre that can’t be so simply reduced to hordes of undead violence. As I’ve listed here, some musicals and comedies can satisfy any mood. There’s more than one way to film a tale of decaying flesh, as Danny Boyle and other directors have proven time and time again that zombie films never stay dead.
