For the last two decades, the zombie horror genre has become slightly watered down with movies and TV shows that seemed a little too similar to each other. However, loyal unᴅᴇᴀᴅ fans know there is more to choose from out there other than the films everyone knows about, like Shaun of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and 28 Years Later.

The best zombie horror movies do more than just have the unᴅᴇᴀᴅ trying to kill and eat the living. They are often a harsh look at consumerism and modern-day society’s propensity to make even the living feel like the walking ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. However, many zombie movies become genre favorites because they subvert things even more.

Children Shouldn’t Play With ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Things (1972)

Children Shouldn’t Play with ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Things was a zombie movie set squarely in the political landscape of the 1970s counterculture movement. The main characters here are a small theater troupe that travels to an island off the coast of Miami, which is used as a cemetery for deranged criminals.

However, when the theater troupe director tries to use a spell to raise the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, what results are murderous zombies that decide the troupe will be their next meal. Bob Clark, who went on to direct Black Christmas, made the movie for $50,000 and sH๏τ it in two weeks. What resulted was a cult classic.

Despite the low budget, Clark got a lot of production value out of his movie, and it runs parallel with his other zombie flick, Deathdream, which is about a Vietnam veteran who died in the war and returns home with murderous impulses.

Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (2006)

In 2025, Troma came back into the public consciousness when a new Toxic Avenger remake was made and received surprisingly high critical praise. That said, it might be time to go back and look at some of the company’s more quirky, yet entertaining schlock horror releases, including its own zombie movie.

The name says it all because Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken ᴅᴇᴀᴅ features chicken zombies rising to attack a New Jersey fried chicken restaurant that was built on an ancient Native American burial ground. Like most Troma movies, this film features gratuitous gore, nudity, and ridiculous situations, all played for comedic effect.

While the entire setup sounds ridiculous, Poultrygeist received positive reviews, with a 64% Rotten Tomatoes score, and critics called it “schlocky fun.” For anyone looking for funny lowbrow zombie comedies, this fits the bill perfectly.

ᴅᴇᴀᴅ & Buried (1981)

ᴅᴇᴀᴅ & Buried is an often neglected zombie movie from the early 1980s that deserves a much bigger reputation. A sheriff in a small coastal town is undertaking an investigation involving the murder of several tourists. Meant to be a zombie comedy, the movie ended up as a disgusting gorefest with incredible zombie effects.

This is a great horror movie for people who love the twisted small-town horrors of David Lynch, but who also want some disturbing body horror. The film also features a shocking twist that turns everything on its head, revealing that nothing was as it seemed, possibly the sickest ending to a zombie movie in history.

Another reason to watch this is that Robert Englund (Freddie Krueger) had a role in it before starring in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Dan O’Bannon had script credit, and the legendary Stan Winston did the practical gore effects.

ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Alive (1992)

ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Alive (also known as Brainᴅᴇᴀᴅ outside of America) is a zombie comedy splatter film by the legendary Peter Jackson. This was Jackson’s third movie, following the B-grade horror films Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles, and was the film that got Jackson noticed and eventually led to him making The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

However, this movie is nothing like The Lord of the Rings and is more akin to Sam Raimi’s Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ films. A Sumatran rat-monkey, a hybrid of tree monkeys and a plague-carrying rat, bites a woman, and it turns her into a rabid zombie.

This movie shows Jackson’s brilliance at horrific, practical effects sH๏τ cheaply, and it even includes a scene of a lawnmower killing zombies — sH๏τ from the lawnmower’s point of view. There is also a “birthing” scene at the end of the movie that is both horrific and brilliant, and another reason zombie fans should seek out this film.

ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Snow (2009)

ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Snow is a great zombie movie for horror fans because it makes the zombies some of the most hated people in history. Nazis return from the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, seeking treasure. This first movie sees some young adults in the snowy mountains of Norway when one of them finds some old gold treasure.

However, this brings the zombies back from the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, as they were the ones who hid the stolen treasure in the mountains and won’t rest until they get it all back. This Norwegian-language film offers up some of the disgusting gore that zombie fans love, including one scene where someone grasps a zombie’s entrails when he falls from a cliff.

ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Snow is an unconventional horror movie that received positive reviews, with a 68% Rotten Tomatoes score, and earned a sequel called ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Snow 2: Red vs. ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Don’t Die (2019)

The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Don’t Die is a Jim Jarmusch horror movie. Anyone familiar with Jarmusch and his filmmaking, especially his horror projects like the vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive, knows that he does not make traditional horror releases. That is truly the case with The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Don’t Die, which is much more than a zombie movie.

Bill Murray and Adam Driver star as two police officers who investigate some mysterious things going on in their rural town. The mysteries involve zombies, which Adam Driver’s Ronnie realizes. However, there is a twist at the end that reveals this film is much more meta than it initially appears to be.

There are also some sci-fi elements and absurdist humor throughout. The acting is what makes The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Don’t Die brilliant, with Murray, Driver, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, Selena Gomez, and more delivering hilarious performances.

The Beyond (1981)

Lucio Fulci is the master of the giallo horror genre, and The Beyond is a zombie movie that is the middle part of the director’s Gates of Hell trilogy. The other two movies are City of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and The House by the Cemetery. A woman inherits a house that might be a gateway to Hell.

All three films are Italian zombie movies, with The Beyond as the best of the group. While Fulci clearly owes George A. Romero for his zombies, he also adds in a mix of the occult myths of H.P. Lovecraft and the Biblical story from the Book of Revelation.

The Beyond is known as a movie without a basic plot, but its Lovecraftian horror and the story of people trying to close a portal to Hell are chaotic and easily make it Fulci’s best film, and a zombie masterpiece.

Fido (2006)

One of the best underrated 2000s zombie comedies is Fido, a Canadian horror film that delivers a great follow-up to George A. Romero’s mythos. Directed by Andrew Curris, the zombie apocalypse has already ended, with humans winning. They turned the surviving zombies into public servants by using a neck collar that controls them.

While Romero created zombie movies that were a slam against consumerism and capitalism, as well as a criticism of authoritarianism, Fido takes the next step. In this world, it is the wealthy companies that rule the world and run things, since they are the only people who control the unᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

Fido also had a great cast, with Carrie-Anne Moss, Dylan Baker, and Billy Connolly as the тιтular zombie servant. This is a movie that was lost at sea during an era that saw Shaun of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ capture viewers’ attention, and it deserves more fans.

Versus (2006)

Versus is one of the most unique zombie movies released in the 21st century. Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura (Godzilla: Final Wars, The Midnight Meat Train), this is a zombie horror movie combined with a fantasy action thriller. This is a Japanese movie that ties zombie horror to religious undertones.

There are 666 portals to Hell on Earth, and the 444th portal is in Japan, called The Forest of Resurrection. An unnamed prisoner escapes into the forest and runs across a young woman whom some yakuza have kidnapped. He saves her, but when he kills a yakuza member, they immediately resurrect as a zombie.

The prisoner and the surviving yakuza agree to team up to battle the slowly rising zombie hordes. This is a great Japanese zombie movie that combines impressive zombie effects with entertaining yakuza action, and it all culminates in a neat apocalyptic twist that pays off the Biblical storytelling.

Cemetery Man (1994)

Cemetery Man, also known as Dellamorte Dellamore, is one of the best Italian zombie movies ever made. Rupert Everett stars as Francesco Dellamorte, a cemetery caretaker in a small Italian town who realizes that the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ are rising as zombies. He takes it upon himself to kill them again to keep them contained.

This all comes to a head when he kills a woman whom he believes is a zombie, but someone who might have been alive when he killed her. This causes him to slowly lose grip of his sanity. The movie is a blend of surreal humor and horror, offering a perfect zombie experience for fans of the genre.

As a foreign language film from the 90s, it is not one that many people talk about, and that is a shame. Cemetery Man is one of the ’90s best Italian horror movies, zombie or not, and even Martin Scorsese has called it one of the best in the genre. This is a zombie movie that deserves a bigger audience.