#6 Zombieland (2009)

The Film: An outrageous, over-the-top zombie comedy. If you're expecting gruesome and terrifying you're watching the wrong film, but this is zombie comedy at its absolute best. The cast is superb with Woody Harrelson anchoring the movie with some truly great "one liners." Highly entertaining and great fun!

Synopsis: A zombie apocalypse has occurred and four strangers are road-tripping their way though the zombie wasteland trying to make it to their chosen destination. A fearful and nerdy college student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and gun-toting, Twinkie-loving, alpha male, Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) cross paths. If they can survive each others company, the zombies are no problem.

Along the way they encounter two street-wise sisters (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) heading to an amusement park where they think they will be safe. Plenty of zombie blasting and sticky situations along the way. A funny cameo appearance by Bill Murray.

# 5 Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The Film: British horror/comedy Shaun of the Dead is a scream in all senses of the word. Shaun of the Dead is “a 10 on the fun meter and destined to be a zombie cult classic”

Synopsis: There comes a day in every man’s life when he just has to get off the couch... and kill some zombies. When flesh-eating London zombies are on the hunt for a bite to eat, it’s up to slacker Shaun (Simon Pegg) un-ambitious electronics salesman, and his best pal Ed (Nick Frost) to save their friends and family from becoming the next entrée. Many zombie movies are comedies by accident, but Shaun of the Dead is deliberately and brilliantly funny, while still delivering a few delicious jolts of fear. Destined to be a cult classic.”

#4 Zombie (1979)

The Film: Lucio Fulci's genre classic Zombie. Instead of being a metaphor for consumerism like many zombie flicks, Zombie is a straight-out adventure story that ends in a horrific, apocalyptic nightmare.

Synopsis: The plot is rather straightforward, and provides a framework for extreme gore and terror. Dr. Bowles's boat floats into New York Harbor missing its crew and carrying undead passenger. The doctor's daughter (Tisa Farrow), dead set on finding out what happened to her father, teams up with journalist Peter West (Ian McCulloch) and heads to the cursed island of Matool, where a zombie epidemic is growing.

Mayhem, extreme gore and violence punctuate the atmosphere and intensity of this film (a trademark Fulci). The film even provides a unique zombie-versus-shark action sequence. Fans of apocalyptic/cannibal/zombie films should not miss this zombie flick.

#3 The Evil Dead II (1987)

The Film: This extremely stylized, blood-soaked follow-up to Sam Raimi's creepy Evil Dead isn't really a sequel . . . this is an awesome remake on a bigger budget of Evil Dead. A totally hilarious and sophisticated slapstick send-up of the terror genre.

Synopsis: Ash (Bruce Campbell), the sole survivor of The Evil Dead, continues his struggle with the forces of the dead. With his girlfriend possessed by demons and his body parts running amok, Ash is forced to single-handedly battle the legions of the damned as the most lethal, and groovy, hero in horror movie history!

Plenty of decapitations, zombies, supernatural demons, and gore. Every horror convention that exists is exaggerated with mind-blowing special effects, crossed with mocking slapstick humor.

The plot itself is a genre cliché right out of any number of horror films. Our hero visits a broken-down cottage in the woods, miles from civilization and finds a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and proceeds to unleash supernatural powers which must be defeated. This film has emerged as an influential cult-video favorite.

#2 The Dawn of the Dead (1978)

The Film: A 1978 follow-up of George Romero's classic zombie film Night of the Living Dead. The Dawn of the Dead is quite terrifying and gory with plenty of people happy meal-munching. The film is quite chilling but at the same time, just as satiric and darkly funny as the first film in its perspective on contemporary values.

Synopsis: In The Dawn of the Dead we follow the fortunes of four people who lock themselves inside a shopping mall as a safe haven from marauding zombies. While inside the mall they (humorously) immerse themselves in unrestrained consumption, preparing gourmet meals, dressing in the finest clothes they can find, taking expensive jewelry to wear, in essence raiding shops of the finer things in life. A social statement on insulated indulgence while ignoring the pleas of the masses (in this case hungry masses). One of the top spine chilling horror films for sure but it also contains some of Romero's best visual jokes ever.

#1 Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The Film: A true cult classic horror film, Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 independent black-and-white zombie film directed by George A. Romero. Romero completed the film for a mere $114,000 after only 10 years of cinematic re-releases, it grossed some $12 million domestically and $30 million worldwide.

Today, its box office receipts have to be into hundreds of millions! Night of the Living Dead has been cited by many as a groundbreaking film, and in fact the U.S. Library of Congress selected the film worthy of preservation in the National Film Registry as it is "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Night of the Living Dead spawned the contemporary 'zombie apocalypse' sub-genre of American horror films, and greatly influenced the pop-culture zombie archetype.

Cinematography & Soundtrack: What can we say here? Extremely low budget . . . Romero had only $114,000. He had a black-and-white camera and the music was purchased from the library of Capitol Records. Stock music and sound effect selections came from the music library of WRS Studio and included works by several WRS sound techs.

Synopsis: Night of the Living Dead: Undisputedly the best zombie movie ever made. Ben (Duane Jones) and Barbra (Judith O'Dea) the protagonists of the story, along with five other people, struggle to survive a night of terror while trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse that is besieged by legions of flesh eating zombies created through some mysterious reanimation process of the recently dead.