Dear Zombie Fans,
Some movies just don’t want to die.
For this installment of our A-Z series with WatchMojo, we’re celebrating the undead. If you find it hard to believe we can do a whole video just on zombie movies, you must have been hiding in a bunker the past 20 years. Enjoy!
As usual, we gave ourselves some guidelines:
- Best film per letter
- Skip articles in the title (the, an, a, etc.)
- Final list should encapsulate the genre
In this case, the last rule could have been specified to limit the number of George A. Romero entries. But really, the genre has exploded so much since his seminal creations that finding a good balance wasn’t much of an issue.
Dare we say, it was a no-brainer.
And with that, here’s a bit more of what we learned along the way:
TOP DECADE: 00s
The Walking Dead gets a lot of credit for making Zombies a mainstream phenomenon, but the genre was already roaring when the TV series debuted in 2010. We have 10 films from the 2000s on the list, when zombie films really ran the gamut of hit comedies (Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland), independent darlings (Pontypool, Virus) and big budget remakes (I Am Legend, and the unlisted Dawn of the Dead).
HARDEST LETTER: R
The letter with the most options is probably D (so many movies start with the word ”Dead”), but the best options start with R. To think we didn’t pick Return of the Living Dead, [REC], or any of the Resident Evil movies says a lot. In fact, the one we were most tempted to use was the fantastic Canadian film Ravenous. But we already had three other Canadian films on the list (go figure), and so we went with the ultimate expression of just pure fun and mayhem.
CHEATED OUT: Zombi 2
We have no good excuse. We used it for our Best HorrorA-Z list, so obviously it should be on the Zombie list. But it’s not, and avoiding repetition will understandably be considered a brain-dead choice.
BEST BATTLE: Dawn of the Dead vs Dawn of the Dead
No really. The 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead is more important than people realize, resurrecting the Zombie genre, launching Zack Snyder’s career, and introducing most people outside of Canada to Sarah Polley. Plus, it’s still incredibly rewatchable. It wasn’t going to win, but the fact it can put up a fight is impressive.
SPECIAL CONSIDERATION: King of the Zombies
The zombies in this film are more like possessed people than the resurrected Romero type, but it definitely qualifies. And it’s just fun to have a film this old on the list.
Think your list would be better? Let us know.
Sincerely,
Dear Cast & Crew
