With 28 Years Later all set to be one of the biggest horror hits of summer 2025, there’s no better time to look back at zombie movie history. And, because the subgenre has become so expansive since George A. Romero kicked it off in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead, we’re restricting things to just the past 20 years. So, anything from 2005 to 2025 was fair game. This means, while it’s fantastic, Shaun of the Dead did not apply, nor did 28 Days Later or the underrated Return of the Living Dead. For that matter, the classic Romero Dead trilogy was exempt. However, there were three other Romero zombie movies that were considered, and one of them even made the cut.
Videos by ComicBook.com
These are the best of the best, though, so don’t expect the lucrative World War Z, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Army of the Dead, or anything from the Resident Evil film franchise here. Furthermore, zombies had to be the main focus, so The Cabin in the Woods was excluded. What’s your favorite modern zombie movie? It’s likely below.
10) Cooties
If there’s a smaller-budgeted zombie comedy from the 2010s that favors comedy and works well doing so, it’s Cooties. It plays with zombie movie tropes in a way that Life After Beth only tries to (though the latter does have a strong performance by Aubrey Plaza).
Cooties follows the faculty of an elementary school as they try to survive their students. Not because the kids are particularly rambunctious, but rather because they’ve all been infected with a virus courtesy of some bad chicken nuggets.
Stream Cooties on Prime Video.
9) Quarantine
One year after none other than George A. Romero tried (and failed) to make a found footage zombie film with Diary of the Dead, it was done well by John Erick Dowdle with Quarantine. A tense, claustrophobic film, Quarantine (the remake of 2007’s Rec, so consider this entry an endorsement of them both) is the story of a reporter who tags along with a pair of L.A. firemen as they respond to a call in an apartment building filled with people infected by a vicious strain of rabies.
Quarantine is an especially well-acted found footage film, without standout work from lead Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter), Jay Hernandez (Suicide Squad), and Columbus Short (The Losers). It’s also a movie where no one is safe, and if you’re expecting your favorite character to survive, don’t get your hopes up.
Rent Quarantine on Amazon Video.
8) Warm Bodies
It was only a matter of time before a zombie romantic comedy made its way to the big screen, and what better inspiration could there be than Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet? Warm Bodies follows Julie (Teresa Palmer), a survivor of the zombie apocalypse. While on a supply run, she encounters R (Superman‘s Nicholas Hoult), a member of the undead who doesn’t remember much with his former self, but believes his name began with an “R.”
Warm Bodies is charming, and it makes the romance angle at least semi-believable by having the undead essentially zombies who have the ability to return to life. Well, provided they can find love. While John Malkovich and Rob Corddry steal their scenes, Warm Bodies is fully Hoult and Palmer’s movie, and their chemistry helps it sail.
Stream Warm Bodies for free with ads on The Roku Channel.
7) Land of the Dead
Romero directed three Dead movies after his classic trilogy. The first of those was Land of the Dead and, while it’s more of a very good film than a great film, it’s ten times better than the subsequent Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead combined.
We pick up years after the events of the original trilogy. These days the zombies are actually starting to learn. They can collaborate; they’ve developed certain survival tactics (it helps they basically rule the world). Not to mention, they’re starting to remember who they were as humans. This is the most interesting element of the film, as the human characters are all fairly meh. That said, Robert Joy, John Leguizamo, and Dennis Hopper all steal their scenes.
Rent Land of the Dead on Amazon Video.
6) Anna and the Apocalypse
A woefully underappreciated zombie flick that also serves as a fun watch each year come Christmastime, Anna and the Apocalypse is an energetic undead musical with a lot on its mind. This British film follows the youth of Little Haven, a small town that has been invaded by the living dead.
The high school seniors fight their way through the zombies to get to their parents, but the fear dawns on them that their parents are already gone. Anna and the Apocalypse functions well on several fronts, including horror, comedy, action, and as a coming-of-age film, but its greatest strengths are the songs and the performances by the mostly unknown young cast members.
Stream Anna and the Apocalypse on Peacock.
5) Overlord
The closest John Carpenter ever came to making a zombie movie was a few scenes in 1994’s In the Mouth of Madness. But Julius Avery’s Overlord (from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot banner) is essentially a Carpenter movie not directed by Carpenter himself, and it works like a charm.
Overlord is intense from moment one to the closing credits. It starts out as a straightforward war movie and, once things take a turn down Nazi genetic experimentation lane, you get the sense the soldiers are yearning for a standard battlefield.
Stream Overlord with a Paramount+ add-on on Apple TV Channels.
4) 28 Weeks Later
A perfect sequel to 28 Days Later while also standing apart from it quite a bit, 28 Weeks Later is an impressive continuation of what was established in Danny Boyle’s 2002 classic. The infected now outnumber the living, and now NATO’s London-based safe zone is being overrun by teeth-gnashers who hope to get their dinner and outnumber us even more than they already do.
Like 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later comes equipped with three major elements: a phenomenal opening scene that sets the frantic tone, an ability to keep that frantic tone going, and a wide array of characters both likable and not so likable. Robert Carlyle nearly steals the movie as Don, the man who abandons his family to the infected in the opening scene, but Rose Byren, Imogen Poots, Idris Elba, and Jeremy Renner all stand out in their (early career) roles.
Stream 28 Weeks Later on Hulu.
3) The Crazies
Between Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero directed 1973’s The Crazies. And it’s one of his better films. But the remake is even better.
For one, it’s led by Timothy Olyphant, which is always a good thing. Two, it wears its tense nature on its sleeve even better than the original film did. These aren’t zombies in the traditional sense, so much as they are small town residents infected by a biological agent, but you believe they’ll kill you just as much as one of the zombified shoppers in Dawn of the Dead.
Stream The Crazies (2010) with a Starz add-on on Apple TV Channels.
2) Zombieland
Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland is a minor comedy classic for several reasons. First and foremost, there’s the chemistry between Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin. Then there’s its way of having fun with the zombie apocalypse, e.g. Columbus’ (Eisenberg) rules. Lastly there’s its curveball of a Bill Murray scene, which was totally out of left field and funny in theaters back in 2009 and remains funny now.
Why does it remain funny? One reason is because Murray is clearly having fun poking fun at himself and his playing the title character in two Garfield movies. But the other reason is the more important one: Zombieland has a great script. We love the characters it introduces, and while 2019’s Zombieland: Double Tap isn’t as good, it was great to see the gang again.
Rent Zombieland on Amazon Video.
1) Train to Busan
Nearly 10 years later, Korean zombie rollercoaster ride Train to Busan is getting a U.S. remake and it’s easy to see why as Yon Sang-ho’s film is one of the best undead-focusing films ever made. The plot primarily focuses on the passengers of a high-speed, one of whom is a woman on the verge of becoming a zombie.
Once she does, all hell breaks loose. Passengers are infected left and right, and those who remain learn that the whole country is now facing this epidemic. One of the passengers is Seok-woo (Squid Game), a fund manager who values his work far more than quality time with his daughter. He’s currently taking her to her mother’s house, which is her birthday wish. Now he has to balance keeping her alive and dealing with the fact that the company to which he devotes so much time actually had a hand in this virus coming to be.
Stream Train to Busan on Netflix.
Most Viewed
-
(Photo by Bruce Glikas/Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic)
