Five Essential Zombie Flicks

Kate Young
13th May 2016

Its Friday the 13th and what better way to spend it than with some of our favourite shambling flesh-eaters. Walkers, creepers, biters, The Infected, the walking dead - no matter what you call them, zombies hands down have to be one of the most iconic subjects to ever be born out of the horror genre. Here are some of the most essential zombie films of all time.

Zombieland (2009)

This is the ultimate guide to surviving a zombie apocalypse. Complete with rules to stick by, like always check the back seat of the car or always double tap to make sure that dead is dead dead. This film is more about laughs than gore. It's part road trip movie (even the characters are named after the places they hail from), part coming of age story. Zombieland is a tale about survival, flesh eating wannabe girlfriends, chainsaws, Bill Murray and nutritious food snack, Twinkies. The opening sequence, a montage set to Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, shows how everyday life was affected by the hostile zombie take over, but its not until you realise its zombie stripers chasing clients or a three legged zombie race that you know that this is not a movie to take its self too seriously.

Planet Terror (2007)

Rose McGowen (charmed, ex girlfriend of Marlin Manson) stars in Robert Rodriguez’s tale of terror, inspired by the great Grindhouse films of the 1970s and 1980s. The story is simple, the government makes a mistake with a biological weapon that leads to many lives lost and an outbreak of zombies. A group of oddballs band together to stop it and save the world. Filled with blood, guts, gore and girls, this movie is completely top, with cheesy lines and ridiculously high-octane action. Still, who doesn’t love a heroine who has an AK47 for a limb, Bruce Willis with a face that resembles a beehive and Fergie (of Black Eyed Peas fame) being torn apart by zombies.

Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

Giving creative birth to such films as Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Hot Fuzz and TV shows such as Spaced, Edgar Wright has one of the best track records of all directors working today. When it came out, Shaun of the Dead was truly a revelation, taking the zombie genre and turned it on its head while paying homage to the many films that have come before it. As with all great zombie films, Shaun of the Dead centres around an outbreak, however it’s the two loveable larrikins Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Ed (Nick Frost) who become unlikely heroes trying to save everyone they know while trying to repair strained relationships in the process, their main goal being “Take car, go to mums, kill Phil. Grab Liz, got to the Winchester, grab a pint and wait for it all to blow over."

Warm Bodies (2013)

A romance between the living and the dead - sound familiar? Unlike Twilight this is a warm and witty film set to get your pulse racing. Set post apocalypse and the population is divided between the zombies and humans. Our hero known as R (Nicholas Hoult) spends his days at the airport shuffling among the hordes of fellow undead. While out on the search of food (brains) he encounters Julie, who has broken through the wall that her father (played by John Malkovich) has built to separate their worlds (a playful reference to Shakespeare). It's love at first sight and when Julie is threatened, R takes it upon himself to rescue her and lead her to safety. Warm Bodies is one of the few times we get to see the world through the eyes of the dead, and watch as they teach those with a heart beat how to live out loud.

Resident Evil (2002)

This movie is all about kicking arse. Combining the very friendly genres of horror and sci-fi, Resident Evil is a stylised adaptation of the popular video game series of the same name. Alice (Milla Jovovich) who was once a security operative working for the bioengineering pharmaceutical company The Umbrella Corp, becomes a hunted enemy as she tries to bring down the company responsible for releasing the virus that is turning everyone into zombies. Teamed up with member of the special military unit, Alice leads the team on an action-packed fight for survival. They are pitted against flesh eating Dobermans, a bunker of walkers, dodging lazers and all this while playing a cat and mouse game against the Lab's AI computer program known as the red queen.