Zoombies (2016)

Zoombies (2016) poster
Rating: ★★
Zombie Zoo Animals

From The Asylum, the company that brought the world Sharknado and 2-Headed Shark Attack, a film about a zoo filled with zombie animals. Played more seriously than you might expect, this falls just between The Asylum’s usual corner cutting and the odd moment of effectiveness

Zombieworld (2015)

Rating: ★★★
Anthology of Zombie Short Films

In the same vein as ABCs of Death and V/H/S films, this is a multi-director anthology of zombie-themed short films. As always in an anthology, the episodes vary but these are of a generally good quality with the standout being the side-splitting episode in which Jesus faces a zombie horde

Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)

Zombies of Mora Tau (1957) poster
Rating: ★★
Zombie Sailors Guard a Treasure

A zombie film back from the days before zombies wanted to eat brains and could only be despatched with a bullet in the head where they were instead figures out of voodoo – in this case undead sailors guarding a treasure. A mildly interesting if never entirely standout B movie of the era

Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009)

Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009) poster
Rating: ★★
Zombie Social Satire

The social metaphors of George Romero’s original zombie films has been missing from the modern equivalents. This takes them up again with great enthusiasm, making a critique of USA attitudes post 9/11, hammering its message home with all the subtlety of a 26-point headline

Zombies Have Fallen: Vengeance Runs Deep (2017)

Zombies Have Fallen: Vengeance Runs Deep (2017) poster
Rating: ½
Psychic Powers

The title gives the impression this is intended as a zombie film take on the action film Olympus Has Fallen. The confusion you have in watching is that this is actually a film about a girl with psychic powers on the run. Brief zombie scenes turn up later in the show to justify the title but feel that they have strayed in from another film.

Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)

Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) poster
Rating: ★★★
Zombie Comedy

Zombieland has been elevated to the status of a classic of the zombie genre; I found it enjoyable but probably overrated by people who haven’t seen enough other works in the genre. The question going into this sequel is whether it can strikes the same notes.

Zombiechrist (2010)

Rating:
Resurrected Jesus on the Rampage

Bill Zebub is a micro-budgeted filmmaker who contends to be the most offensive filmmaker of all time. Yes, the film features a zombie Jesus who spends his time violating women who parade in a state of undress

Zombie Town (2023)

Zombie Town (2023) poster
Rating:
R.L. Stine Adaptation/Zombies Emerge Out of a Film

An adaptation of an R.L. Stine book, a work of safe anodyne horror about zombies trapped inside a film overrunning a town

Zombie Shark (2015)

Zombie Shark (2015) poster
Rating: ★★
Gonzo Killer Shark Film

A fairly typical entry in the gonzo killer shark fad. The filmmakers have clearly had a title idea that they were able to sell but not too many ideas how to make it work. Director Misty Talley offers a sufficiently tongue-in-cheek approach to overcome most shortcomings

Zombie Nation (2004)

Zombie Nation (2004) poster
Rating:
Zombie Film

Not to be confused with tv’s Z Nation, this for a time ranked on the IMDB’s Worst Films of All-Time list . It’s been called the Worst Zombie Film Ever made, although I’d suggest other contenders

Zombie Honeymoon (2004)

Zombie Honeymoon (2004),poster
Rating: ★★
Zombie Relationship Drama

The surprise in seeing this after the tide of gonzo mash-ups and wacky title collusions that has taken over the zombie genre in the latter half of the 00s is that, despite the title, it is a zombie film that is playing itself seriously, emerging as another variant on the zombie relationship drama (*)

Zombie Holocaust (1980)

Zombie Holocaust (1980) poster
Rating: ½
Italian Zombie/Cannibal Film

One of the most extreme films among the early 1980s fad for Italian zombie films, which it also manages to merge with the Italian cannibal film. Beyond the provision of gore effects, there is not much else to the film

Zombie Fight Club (2014)

Zombie Fight Club (2014) poster
Rating: ★★★
Zombie Outbreak

It is mind-boggling to think how you could combine zombies with Fight Club, the classic anti-capitalist manifesto about brawling clubs and split personality … Such an idea proves too challenging for this Taiwanese effort but we do get a solid zombie version of The Raid

Zombie Cop (1991)

Zombie Cop (1991) poster
Rating: ★★
Police Officer Resurrected from the Dead

Low-budget film from J.R. Bookwalter about a police officer resurrected from the dead via voodoo

Zombie Ass: The Toilet of the Dead (2011)

Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead (2011) poster
Rating: ★★
Gonzo Japanese Horror/Zombie Ass Parasites

Completely insane gonzo Japanese horror that feels like it is made by a mad scat fetishist involving parasites that emerge out of people’s asses. The film is driven by its outrageously perverse imagery but for all that is haphazard and incoherent when it comes to explanatory rationale

Zombeavers (2014)

Zombeavers (2014) poster
Rating: ★★½
Mutant Zombie Beavers

Gonzo killer animal and zombie films have been hugely popular in recent years – it was probably inevitable they meet, This hits a height with the deliriously ridiculous images of zombified human-beaver hybrids on the attack

Xombies 3D (2011)

Xombies 3D (2011) poster
Rating:
Norwegian Zombie Film

Amid the vast horde of low-budget zombie films of the 00s, this Norwegian effort in 3D emerges as possibly the worst. It has no discernible plot, while the gore only consists of cheap digital overlays that looks like Monty Python cutout animation

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014)

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014) poster
Rating: ★★½
Zombie Apocalypse

Australian zombie film that comes with a hyperactive fierceness and energy that reminds of early Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson. On the minus side, the zombie genre is now so creatively strip-mined that the film never offers anything original

World War Z (2013)

World War Z (2013) poster
Rating: ★★★½
Zombie Apocalypse

I went into this wondering what new things it could find to do with such an overworked genre as the zombie apocalypse but ended up gently surprised. Not a film that reinvents the wheel for the zombie genre but spins the basics out into a tight, exciting, international locale hopping survival story

When Good Ghouls Go Bad (2001)

When Good Ghouls Go Bad (2001) poster
Rating: ★★½
Children's Halloween Film

Halloween film for children from the pen of horror author R.L. Stine of Goosebumps fame. The children’s horror story (and tv movie) is filled with many insipid and formulaic entries but this is a decent one that is not unafraid to scare people

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

What We Do in the Shadows (2014) poster
Rating: ★★★★
Vampire Comedy/Mockumentary

Hands down, this is the best vampire comedy ever made. An incredibly witty effort that contrasts the cliches of the genre with the mundane business of a group of vampires flatting together in New Zealand. A film that comes with sly deadpan gags packed into the corner of every frame

Wasting Away (2007)

Wasting Away (2007) poster
Rating: ★★
Zombie Comedy

Horror comedy told from the perspective of four friends who are unaware they have been transformed into zombies. The contrast of their reactions with everybody else as they flee in terror is mildly amusing for awhile but this is essentially a one-gag film

Warm Bodies (2013)

Warm Bodies (2013) poster
Rating: ★★★
Zombie Romantic Comedy

The idea of a Twilight copy where the lead male is a zombie seems an utterly lame idea before one sat down to watch this. That said, the film manages to make its peculiarly incongruous mix of teen romantic film, zombie film and comedy work for it

War of the Dead (2011)

War of the Dead (2011) poster
Rating: ★★
Nazi Zombies

The Nazi zombie film has enjoyed a revival in recent years, this is one entry in the genre from Finland made with a reasonable grit and realism

V/H/S Viral (2014)

V/H/S Viral (2014) poster
Rating: ★★★½
Anthology of Found Footage Horror Tales

Third of the V/H/S films, all horror anthologies in the Found Footage style. While the other two were fairly hit and miss, this is extremely good. Each of the four stories sits among the very best episodes among the current crop of multi-director horror anthologies

V/H/S/2 (2013)

V/H/S/2 (2013) poster
Rating: ★★
Anthology of Found Footage Horror Tales

Sequel to the modest success of V/H/S, an anthology of short Found Footage horror films featuring a different line-up of genre directors. The episodes are competent at best, none standout and mostly forgettable

Vampire Hunters (2002)

Vampire Hunters/Era of Vampires (2002) poster
Rating: ★★
Hong Kong Fantasy/Monks vs Undead

Tsui Hark scripted/produced Wu Xia effort that shuffles the familiar tropes about without seeming too enervated

Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (2009)

Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (2009) poster
Rating: ★★★½
Gonzo Japanese Splatter Film

Completely insane Japanese film that wades in gore while playing everything up at a level of demented cartoonish absurdity. Possibly the most delirious movie-watching fun it is possible to have

V/H/S/Beyond (2024)

V/H/S/Beyond (2024) poster
Rating: ★★★
Anthology of Found Footage Horror Tales

Seventh of the V/H/S Found Footage horror anthologies, this is one of the best with a number of the episodes venturing into SF and others that feature some genuinely outlandish moments

Universal Soldier: The Return (1999)

Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) poster
Rating:
Undead Super-Soldiers/Action

Sequel to Roland Emmerich’s Universal Soldier, this brings back Jean-Claude Van Damme but otherwise substitutes a brain dead plot that has him facing an evil A.I.

Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009)

Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009) poster
Rating: ★★
Undead Super-Soldiers/Action

The fifth of the Universal Soldier films reuniting both Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, while being given a tough, brutal action punch by director John Hyams

Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1998)

Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1998) poster
Rating: ★½
Undead Super-Soldiers/Action

he second of two cheap video-released sequels to the Jean-Claude Van Damme film. This has the novelty of featuring Burt Reynolds as the bad guy

Undead (2003)

Undead (2003) poster
Rating: ★★★
Zombie Splatter and Alien Abductions

Appealingly quirky homemade zombie film that launched the career of Australia’s Spierig Brothers. The two demonstrate a considerable inventivity when it comes to the visual and makeup effects, which they created all themselves

28 Weeks Later (2007)

28 Weeks Later (2007) poster
Rating: ★★★½
Post-Holocaust/Zombie Outbreak

I was cautious about hailing 28 Days Later as a modern classic; this sequel is in fact a much better film. Newcomer director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo draws it out into a series of superbly sustained suspense sequences

28 Days Later (2002)

28 Days Later (2002) poster
Rating: ★★½
The Downfall of Civilisation/Infected Zombies

Danny Boyle’s modestly budgeted hit presaged a big return for the zombie film during the 2000s/2010s. Not a bad film even if Boyle is conducting major borrowings from other works like The Day of the Triffids and Day of the Dead

Trancers (1985)

Trancers (1985) poster
Rating: ★★★
Time-Travelling Detective

One of the more unpretentiously enjoyable films from Charles Band, this rides the mid-80s spate of time travel films with Tim Thomerson giving a highly entertaining performance as a hard-boiled detective travelled back from the future. A series of sequels followed

Train to Busan (2016)

Train to Busan (2016) poster
Rating: ★★★★
Zombies on a Train

The zombie film has become an overworked vein in the last few years, reduced to self-parody. This South Korean film does nothing to reinvent the zombie film, just contains the drama aboard a train for the duration, but manages to create a grippingly intense epic of the genre

Toxic Shark (2017)

Toxic Shark (2017) poster
Rating: ★★
Toxic Waste Mutated Killer Shark

Another in plethora of gonzo killer shark films viz Sharknado concerning a mutated shark that spews a plume of toxic waste. Not the bottom of the barrel, an adequately made B movie that takes itself relatively seriously

Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971)

Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971) poster
Rating: ★★★½
Blind Knights Templar Zombies

The first in a series of films from Spanish director Amando de Ossorio about blind Knights Templar zombies. De Ossorio is clearly influenced by Night of the Living Dead but creates considerable atmosphere

They Came Back (2004)

They Came Back (2004) poster
Rating: ★★★½
The Dead Return to Life

A French zombie film that is about as far removed from a zombie film as it possible to get – the dead inexplicably return to life not to eat the flesh of the living but calm and detached where society’s problem is how to let them return to their previous lives

Takut: Faces of Fear (2008)

Takut: Faces of Fear (2008) poster
Rating: ★★
Indonesian Horror Anthology

An anthology of horror tales from Indonesia, most being too short to make much distinction,, the exception being The Mo Brothers gore-drenched first film Dara

The Taint (2010)

The Taint (2010) poster
Rating: ★★½
Gonzo Bad Taste Comedy/Zombiefying Penis-Enlargement Drug

Film about a penis-enlarging drug that creates zombies, this goes for an outrageous bad taste vein are rarely lets up

Street Fighter (1994)

Street Fighter (1994) poster
Rating: ★★
Videogame Adaptation/Action Team

Based on the popular videogame, you cannot complain that this is exactly what you expect – wall-to-wall action, comic-book heroes and villains. The complaint might be that the action is never particularly enervated and the film lacks anything beyond that

Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-o-Rama (1987)

Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama (1987) poster
Rating: ½
Demonic Imp

A David DeCoteau film that comes with one of the great exploitation titles of all time but is otherwise a cheap Scream Queen vehicle about a demonically possessed bowling trophy

Solomon Kane (2009)

Solomon Kane (2009) poster
Rating: ★★★
Puritan Era Sword and Sorcery/Robert E. Howard Adaptation

Reasonable adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s stories about a Puritan warrior, an entry in the 00s sword-and-sorcery fad that comes with a welcomely dark edge

The Sky Has Fallen (2009)

The Sky Has Fallen (2009) poster
Rating: ★★
Zombie Apocalypse

A low-budget amateur-made zombie film that treads where hundred of other copycats have before. It sets itself apart from these very slightly in that it makes effort to chart a relationship between the leads and in that the zombies behave in puzzlingly non-traditional ways

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Shaun of the Dead (2004) poster
Rating: ★★★½
Zombie Comedy

A warm parody/tribute to the George Romero zombie films that saw the emergence of Simon Pegg as a star. It also saw the zombie film move towards a more comedic emphasis, although few subsequent entries come with such good-natured humour

Severed (2005)

Rating: ★★★
Zombie Film

A Canadian entry made soon into the zombie movie revival of the mid-00s and before the copycats started to become tediously familiar and the genre turned to self-parody. This delivers a solid rehash of the essentials – IMHO a better job that Zack Snyder did in Dawn of the Dead

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) poster
Rating: ★★★★
Voodoo/"True Story"

One of Wes Craven’s best films. Loosely based on true-life book by botanist Wade Davis who set out to find the drug that creates zombies, Craven delves into Haitian voodoo in a striking blend of dream and horror

Seoul Station (2016)

Seoul Station (2016) poster
Rating: ★★★
Animation/South Korean Zombie Film

Train to Busan was a massive breakout hit from South Korear. Overlooked in the buzz was this animated prequel from the same director released at the same time. The zombie film and animation are an uneasy mix but this works well, if not with the same kick as Train to Busan

Sella Turcica (2010)

Sella Turcica (2010) poster
Rating: ★★½
Mutating Gulf War Veteran

Horror film about a soldier returned home from conflict strangely ‘changed’ reminiscent of the classic Dead of Night. From the director of August Underground films.

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015) poster
Rating: ★★
Zombie Comedy

There is something appealing to the film’s premise – of boyscouts with their knowhow and do-gooder mentality being the best equipped to survive the zombie apocalypse. Instead we end up with a film not nearly as clever as it thinks it is being

The Scorch Trials (2015)

The Scorch Trails (2015) poster
Rating:
Young Adult/Post-Holocaust Adventure

The Maze Runner was one of the better Young Adult films, creating an intriguing conceptual mystery; this sequel ignores all of that, even throws the book out and is essentially a jumble of random sf tropes that amount to no more than running, shooting and things exploding

Scarecrows (1988)

Scarecrows (1988) poster
Rating: ★★★
Field of Undead Scarecrows

An overlooked effort from the direct-to-VHS era concerning itself with a field of undead scarecrows. Amid the numerous zombie and splatter effects efforts of the day that were being churned out, this settles in with an unusual atmosphere that is often hard to shake

Santa Claus vs. the Zombies (2010)

Santa Claus vs. the Zombies (2010) poster
Rating:
Santa Claus Faces the Zombie Apocalypse

This comes with one of the great exploitation titles of all time. Despite the enormously entertaining possibilities inherent in the premise, the film misses all of them and falls down into complete amateurism within moments

Rise of the Zombies (2012)

Rise of the Zombies (2012) poster
Rating: ★★
Zombie Film

The Asylum have not delved into the zombie film as much as they have the gonzo killer shark, which they practically invented. This is one occasion on which they did and is unexpectedly a serious film with a reasonable name cast (including Danny Trejo as a zombie)