Deadheads (2011)

Deadheads (2011) poster
Rating: ★★½
Zombie Bromance/Comedy

Yet another zombie comedy, one that comes steeped in homage. Essentially a zombie bromance where it at least gains its life from its two characters motormouth performances. The humour sits halfway between goofy silliness and the occasionally amusing

The Death Cure (2018)

Rating:
Young Adult/Dystopian-Post-Holocaust Adventure

The Maze Runner was a solid Young Adult effort that built out an effective Conceptual Breakthrough story; this the second of two sequels that feel like a series of canned action scenes in search of a purpose

Deathgasm (2015)

Deathgasm (2015) poster
Rating: ★★★
Heavy Metalheads Unleash Demons/Splatter Comedy

Outrageously balls-to-the-wall New Zealand-made effort that fondly recalls the 1980s splatter-comedy films of Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson et al. The film often feels like former teen heavy metalheads looking back and wittily puncturing the pretensions of their youth

Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)

Dellamorte Dellamore (1994) poster
Rating: ★★★½
Cemetery Keeper vs the Undead/Gonzo Comedy

Cult Italian film with Rupert Everett as a cemetery keeper facing the resurrected dead. This has such a wackily off-the-wall mix of black, deadpan humour and artiness, not to mention Everett at his laconic best, that you can never tell where it is going from one minute to the next

Demons (1985)

Demons (1985) poster
Rating: ★★★
Possessed Undead Take Over a Cinema

Italian horror directed by Lamberto Bava and produced by Dario Argento, an Evil Dead-inspired work about the possessed dead taking over a cinema, all conducted with a ferocious enthusiasm

Desecration (1999)

Desecration (1999) poster
Rating: ★★
Catholic Nightmare

This is a surreal and plotless Catholic horror film from Dante Tomaselli that seems full of fairground horror house jumps and overloaded with tortured Catholic imagery but makes no real sense

Dick Dynamite: 1944 (2023)

Dick Dynamite: 1944 (2023) poster
Rating: ★★★
Parody of WWII Heroics/Gonzo Splatter

A gonzo parody of WWII heroics a la Inglourious Basterds with the addition of Nazi zombies, over-the-top splatter and some decidedly non-PC humour, this proves an enormously entertainingly comic-book of a film

Doc of the Dead (2014)

Doc of the Dead (2014) poster
Rating: ★★★
Zombie Fandom Documentary

Documentary about the popularity of zombie films and the rise of zombie fandom. Although there are some noted omissions, this covers the history of the genre in reasonable depth, even examines its historical origins and provides an amusing glimpse into the zombie’s pervasion of popular culture

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) poster
Rating: ★★
Marvel Comics Magician Superhero

Doctor Strange was one of the better MCU films. Here Sam Raimi takes over from Scott Derrickson in the director’s chair. The sequel readily delves into multiverse themes

Doghouse (2009)

Doghouse (2009) poster
Rating:
Lads vs Zombie Women

A film about a bunch of boorish lads gleefully eliminating zombie women. A comedy this may well be but doesn’t disguise the fact the film’s sympathies are clearly with the guys making crude innuendos and feeling downtrodden by women

Doom (2005)

Doom (2005) poster
Rating:
Videogame Adaptation/Labyrinth of Monsters

Heavily disappointing film version of the videogame that defined the term First Person Shooter. The film version seems to either miss or water down the principal appeals of the game, although you do get Dwayne Johnson (still billed as The Rock) as the bad guy

Doom: Annihilation (2019)

Doom: Annihilation (2019) poster
Rating: ★★
Videogame Adaptation/Labyrinth of Monsters

Doom was the videogame if you had a computer in the 1990s. This is the second film based based on the game and actually does a far better job of getting the essence of the game and paying fanservice to its elements than the earlier bigger budgeted 2005 film did

Doomsday Book (2012)

Rating: ★★★
South Koren SF Anthology

South Korean anthology containing a trio of tales on the theme of the end of the world. The standout is the middle segment, a very Asimovian tale wherein a robot claims to have logically attained Buddhist enlightenment

The Dungeonmaster (1984)

The Dungeonmaster (1984) poster
Rating:
Warrior's Virtual Quest/Anthology

An anthology film produced by Charles Band where assorted directors turn in seven episodes all centred around a videogame warrior put through a series of tests by The Devil

Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness (2012)

Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness (2012) poster
Rating: ★★★
Sword and Sorcery

The third film based on the roleplaying game. The previous two films were forgettable but for a throwaway effort, this is surprisingly good, taking a far darker tone than the usual sword-and-sorcery adventure and adding considerable moral complexity

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (2010)

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (2010) poster
Rating: ★★
Supernatural Private Investigator

US film adaptation of a cult Italian comic-book about a private eye who investigates the supernatural, this comes out like a weak episode of tv’s Angel where a potential worthwhile idea descends to lame humour

The Empire of Corpses (2015)

The Empire of Corpses (2015) poster
Rating: ★★★
Anime/Alternate Victorian England Based on Frankenstein Technology

Fascinatingly original anime set in an alternate history Steampunk version of Victorian England that has developed a technology based on Frankenstein’s corpse resurrection experiments

The Evil Dead (1981)

The Evil Dead (1981) poster
Rating: ★★★★
Backwoods Possession/Splatter Comedy

Ferociously paced low-budget hit that put the names of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell on the map, both making their film debuts here. What made the film a cult hit was Raimi’s full tilt pace and entertainingly over-the-top splatter effects

Exit Humanity (2011)

Exit Humanity (2011) poster
Rating: ★★★
American Civil War Zombie Film

Modestly effective zombie film set during the US Civil War. This eschews the usual gore-drenched zombie attacks in favour of a nicely achieved story about one man’s internal journey through the apocalypse

Far Cry (2008)

Far Cry (2008) poster
Rating:
Videogame Adaptation/Super-Soldiers Amok

One of the worst of Uwe Boll’s videogame adaptations, this has the feel of action sequences being slung together with random indifference, slapdash production values and badly mismatched casting

Festival of the Living Dead (2024)

Festival of the Living Dead (2024) poster
Rating:
Zombie Film

The Soska Sisters made a splash on the genre scene a few years ago. Here they make a tribute/follow-up to Night of the Living Dead but produce an utterly safe work that is the antithesis of the edginess that gained them a name

Fido (2006)

Fido (2005) poster
Rating: ★★★
Domesticated Zombies Comedy

Charmingly droll film that posits an alternate version of the 1950s where zombies have been domesticated. This has a perfect sense of mood and admirable deadpan playing by all involved

Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane (2007)

Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane (2007) poster
Rating: ★★½
Zombies on a Plane

One of several films that came out not long after Snakes on a Plane offering up similar wacky collusions – in this case, a zombie outbreak aboard a plane. The surprise is that the film plays itself seriously

Gangsters, Guns and Zombies (2012)

Rating: ★★
London Gangsters vs Zombies

This has the amusing idea of mashing the zombie film up with the Guy Ritchie gangster film, although is never quite as amusing as it sounds nor ever hits the comic-bookishly over-the-top posturing of Ritchie’s films

Garden of the Dead (1972)

Garden of the Dead (1972) poster
Rating: ★★★
Zombies on a Prison Chain Gang

A zombie film made not long after Night of the Living Dead. This comes with an off-the-wall premise – the prisoners on a chain gang get high inhaling formaldehyde, which causes them to rise from the dead after being shot in an escape attempt

Germ (2013)

Germ (2013) poster
Rating: ★★½
Zombie Film

Zombie film about a small town overrun as people are infected with a virus from a fallen satellite. Familiar stuff conducted with a little more care than usual

Goal of the Dead (2014)

Goal of the Dead (2014) poster
Rating: ★★★
Zombies and Soccer

Zombies and soccer! Ok? From co-director of the ferocious French zombie film The Horde, a rather entertaining effort that resembles something of Shaun of the Dead in its comedic approach

Goosebumps (2015)

Goosebumps (2015) poster
Rating: ★★
Horror Writer's Creations Unleashed

A film based on the hugely popular children’s horror series. The film creates a story where the creatures from all the books are unleashed, which is fun to watch, yet what we ultimately have is easy, undemanding horror for family audiences

Halley (2012)

Halley (2012) poster
Rating: ★★
Man Slowly Becomes a Zombie

A zombie film (of sorts) from Mexico, although it could just as easily be about a man infected with a flesh-eating bacteria. A zombie film in which almost nothing happens, we just sit watching a man getting ill

Handling the Undead (2024)

Handling the Undead (2024) poster
Rating: ★★★
The Resurrected Dead

A film adapted from a book by the writer of Let the Right One In concerning the resurrected dead, this goes some way to divorce itself from the zombie film and develops its horrors with striking slow burn effect

Hans Crippleton: Talk to the Hans (2014)

Hans Crippleton: Talk to the Hans (2014) poster
Rating:
Deformed Hillbilly Monster Hunter Comedy

A painfully unfunny endurance test created by star Kevon Ward centred around the deformed, imbecilic hillbilly he played at various Halloween shows. The film consists of little more than people playing morons in silly voices

Hard Rock Zombies (1985)

Hard Rock Zombies (1985) poster
Rating: ★★
Resurrected Heavy Metal Band

Deranged entry in the 80s fad for heavy metal horror films where a band are resurrected from the dead to play an all-important concert, while fighting off conservative townspeople and a very much alive Adolf Hitler

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009)

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009) poster
Rating: ★★
Animation/Gonzo Exploitation Movie Homage

Animated film directed by Rob Zombie that feels like an episode of Ren & Stimpy made by someone with an unhealthy obsession with horror and exploitation movies and stripper bars

Heavy Metal (1981)

Heavy Metal (1981) poster
Rating: ★★½
Adult Animation Anthology

Cult animated film that adapts several stories from the adult fantasy comic-book Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal. These vary but in its better moments that has a trippy cult hallucinatory quality

Hell of the Living Dead (1980)

Hell of the Living Dead (1980) poster
Rating: ★★
Italian Zombie Film

This was one of the entries from the 1980s heyday of the notorious Italian zombie film where people were copying Dawn of the Dead but pushing everything to a gore-drenched extreme

Hell’s Ground (2007)

Hell's Ground (2007) poster
Rating: ★★½
Pakistani Backwoods Brutality

A Pakistani copy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Backwoods Brutality film, all served up with reasonable vigour. It is fascinating seeing the genre tropes translated between different cultures

Here Alone (2016)

Here Alone (2016) poster
Rating: ★★★½
Survival After a Plague Outbreak/Social Collapse

Beautifully filmed, intimate work about a woman’s attempts to eke out survival in the woods in the aftermath of an unspecified apocalypse. It is only part way through that we realise we are watching a zombie film

High School Girl Rika, Zombie Hunter (2008)

High School Girl Rika, Zombie Hunter (2008) poster
Rating: ★★
Gonzo Japanese Zombie Film

The Gonzo Japanese Splatter Film offers a wild array of splatter, bio-transformations and an obsession with schoolgirls’ panties. This is a low-budget entry that offers something akin to a zombie-hunting equivalent of Buffy

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Hocus Pocus (1993) poster
Rating:
Revived Witches/Disney Film

A Disney live-action film that engenders no believability in its basic premise. Much of the show is regarded as an opportunity for Bette Midler to steal the limelight and play to over-the-top excess

Horrid (2009)

Horrid (2009) poster
Rating: ★★½
Zombie Outbreak

A low-budget regionally made film about a zombie outbreak. This does better than most of the vast horde of low-budget zombie films that came out in the late 2000s

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Hotel Transylvania (2012) poster
Rating: ★★
Animation/Hotel for Famous Monsters

A variant on the much more charming Mad Monster Party?, an animated film featuring cute cuddly versions of the Famous Monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, wolfman etc) with Adam Sandler voicing Dracula

The House By the Cemetery (1981)

The House By the Cemetery (1981) poster
Rating: ★★
Haunted House/Italian Zombie Splatter

One of the key films in the cult of Lucio Fulci. Imagine a version of The Amityville Horror with the addition of zombies, mad scientists and a gore-drenched death every few minutes

House of the Dead (2003)

House of the Dead (2003) poster
Rating: ★½
Zombies/Videogame Adaptation

The first of Uwe Boll’s videogame adaptations and the beginning of his bad director reputation. Ignoring much of the game’s canon, this is a zombie film by the numbers. Nnevertheless, it was one of the films that presaged that huge zombie film revival of the 00s

Howard Lovecraft and the Kingdom of Madness (2018)

Howard Lovecraft and the Kingdom of Madness (2018) poster
Rating: ★★
Animation/Young H.P. Lovecraft's Adventures

The third of the trilogy of animated films from Arcana Studios based around the adventures of a young H.P. Lovecraft

I Am Omega (2007)

I Am Omega (2007) poster
Rating: ★★
Last Man on Earth vs Zombies

Mockbuster from The Asylum that was intended to capitalise on the release of I Am Legend and in fact gets much more of the essence of the original Richard Matheson novel than the official film adaptation

I Eat Your Skin (1964)

I Eat Your Skin (1964) poster
Rating:
Voodoo and Zombies

The greatest distinction this has in movie history is that it was released on one of the most memorably titled double-bills of all time along with I Drink Your Blood. While I Drink‘s vision of rabid hippies was highly entertaining, this is a voodoo film that is dreary and uninteresting

I Survived a Zombie Holocaust (2014)

I Survived a Zombie Holocaust (2014) poster
Rating: ★★½
Zombie Outbreak on the Set of a Zombie Film

New Zealand-made entry into the zombie comedy stakes. This has the amusing idea of having a zombie outbreak occur during the shooting of a zombie film. The film owes a big debt of inspiration to Peter Jackson’s Braindead and proves amiable if broad in its humour

I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

I Walked with a Zombie (1943) poster
Rating: ★★★★
Voodoo/Psychological Ambiguity

One of the key films from the legendary Val Lewton, this exploits a topical interest in voodoo. As with Lewton’s films, this sits in an ambiguous place that leaves the actuality of the supernatural uncertain

I Zombie: The Chronicles of Pain (1998)

I Zombie: The Chronicles of Pain (1998) poster
Rating: ★★★
Ordinary Zombies

In the overworked vein the zombie film, one of the most unique and original voices has been British director Andrew Parkinson. This was the first of Parkinson’s kitchen sink zombie films

Ibiza Undead (2016)

Ibiza Undead (2016) poster
Rating: ★★
Lads vs Zombies Comedy

British lad culture take on the zombie film. Think a version of Shaun of the Dead inhabited by guys around the age of 20 whose only real concerns is getting laid and wasted. The constant vulgarity of the humour becomes tiresome and as a zombie film it is negligible

Interstellar Wars (2016)

Interstellar Wars (2016) poster
Rating:
Alien Invasion/Alien Zombies

Directed by low-budget actress Marlene Mc’Cohen, this is both an alien invasion and a zombie apocalypse film. A film where those involved are making an effort but the skill gap falls well short of the basics, particularly in the story field and budget needed to make a film work

Invisible Invaders (1959)

Invisible Invaders (1959) poster
Rating: ★★½
Alien Invaders Possess the Dead

A B budget 1950s alien invasion film that cuts cost by having the invasion represented by stock footage and the resurrected dead in a series of images that prefigure Night of the Living Dead

John Dies at the End (2012)

John Dies at the End (2012) poster
Rating: ★★★★
Reality-Expanding Drugs/Gonzo Supernatural Investigators

Phantasm series director Don Coscarelli returns with this mind-expanding effort that seems a conceptual collision between Donnie Darko, Limitless, a slacker version of Supernatural and Marvel Comics’ Dr Strange. Maybe the best mind-tripping fun it is possible to have without the use of illegal substances

Juan of the Dead (2011)

Juan of the Dead (2011) poster
Rating: ★★★½
Cuban Zombie Film

The world’s first Cuban zombie film. Imagine a Latin American equivalent of Shaun of the Dead, conducted with some cleverness, oddball wit and an undeniable satiric undertow to produce an effort that is just as polished as any English-language counterpart

Killer Motel (2012)

Killer Motel (2012) poster
Rating:
Japanese Horror/Murderous Moteliers

An obscure Japanese film about a backwoods motel where things get very strange – the hosts slaughtering the guests, a zombie wandering around. The film comes with a decided WTF element to it, the least of which is actually trying to work out what is going on

Kung Fu Zombie (1981)

Kung Fu Zombie (1981) poster
Rating:
Hong Kong Comedy/Kung Fu vs Supernatural

One of the weird mash-ups of horror and martial arts that were popular in Hong Kong during this period. Despite a great title, this suffers from an emphasis on frenetic slapstick and caricatures and in the version seen here from excruciatingly witless dubbing that fairly much kills the show off

L.A. Zombie (2010)

L.A. Zombie (2010) poster
Rating: ★★
Gay Pornographic Zombie Film

Whether we asked for it or not, this gives us the world’s first gay pornographic zombie film

Land of the Dead (2005)

Land of the Dead (2005) poster
Rating: ★★★
Zombies

George Romero’s return to the zombie genre after twenty years, which he was ironically only able to make after others starting remaking and homaging his films. The result is a mixed affair. Romero still makes pungent social metaphors but the gory extremes of his earlier films seem tamed down

The Last Days on Mars (2013)

The Last Days on Mars (2013) poster
Rating: ★★★
Expedition to Mars/Alien Zombie Infection

This starts out offering a fine astrophysically credible depiction of Mars only to quickly reach for the playbook of Alien cliches to essentially become Zombies on Mars. As long as one accepts the hackneyed premise for what it is, the film generates more than reasonable tension

The Last Man(s) on Earth (2012)

The Last Man(s) on Earth (2012) poster
Rating: ★★
YouTube Stars Face World Threat Comedy

Film spinoff from a YouTube channel that features two comedians giving absurdly over-the-top survivalist tips. The general observation with these YouTube spinoff films is that what works as a series of short clips has difficulty in extending said gags to sustain a dramatic plot

The Laughing Dead (1989)

The Laughing Dead (1989) poster
Rating: ★★★
Modern Day Aztec Sacrifices/Splatter Comedy

Crazed Evil Dead-styled film directed by sf/horror writer S.P. Somtow about modern-day Aztec sacrifices, this makes a beeline for bizarre gore effects

Life After Beth (2014)

Life After Beth (2014) poster
Rating: ★★★
Zombie Romantic Comedy

Billed as a ‘zom-rom-com’, Dane DeHaan deals with girlfriend Aubrey Plaza who has returned from the dead. The film has a quirky appeal to it, even if in the end you never feel it is quite as funny as it promises to be

Little Monsters (2019)

Little Monsters (2019) poster
Rating: ★★★½
Zombie Comedy

This has a premise that doesn’t do much to enthuse – a hapless loser has to take care of a bunch of kids during a zombie outbreak. I appeal to you to sit in past that and you will find yourself in the midst of the funniest zombie comedy since well Shaun of the Dead

The Living Dead Girl (1982)

The Living Dead Girl (1982) poster
Rating: ★★★
Girl Returns from the Dead

Another entry from the oeuvre of cult French director Jean Rollin – a film about the bond between a girl and her zombified friend that sits between some gore amateurish effects and a poetic subtlety

The Mad Ghoul (1943)

The Mad Ghoul (1943) poster
Rating: ★★
Mad Scientist Invents Zombie Gas

An entry from the great era of mad scientist films wherein George Zucco turns his assistant into a zombie so he can steal his fiancee. Despite a wonderfully mad performance from Zucco, the effort is prosaic and routine, while the zombie gets to do almost nothing throughout

Maggie (2015)

Maggie (2015) poster
Rating: ★★★
Zombie Film

If the phrase ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger zombie film’ is not capable of getting you excited, then you’re visiting the wrong site. This is surprisingly good, the complete opposite of anything we expect of either a Schwarzenegger or zombie film, where he can even be said to be giving a serious performance for once