Top 100 Best Zombie Movies Part 5
Top 100 Best Zombie Movies: A Toast to the Zombie Gaming Revolution
Intro:
We love zombies. It’s our duty as geeks and/or gamers to be fascinated by the social commentary so often paralleled in modern zombie cinema; or atleast to enjoy watching people get their faces eaten. Either way they’re lovable creatures with a following that is to be truly admired. With the ever increasing boost of zombie/undead themed games, I present to the general public a list of the best zombie movies (and worst) to date. Of course this list is my personal opinion and very much open to dispute, there are also plenty of zombie movies I have not seen that probably deserve to be on this list. This is simply one zombie fan’s attempt to further the spread of zombie admiration and perhaps get some people into some of the best zombie movies they may have never before seen. Keeping the interest high keeps the zombie games coming!
Numbers 60-51:
60] Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead
Synopsis: "Premutos is the first of the fallen Angels, even before Lucifer. His Goal is to rule the world, the living and the dead. His son should pave the way for him and appears arbitrary throughout human history and is then recognized as some kind of monster. In the present time, a young man living in Germany begins to suffer from visionary flashbacks - of the lives he lived in the past as Premutos' son!"
This is far from an example of fine writing/acting/dubbing, but it's the incredible amount of flaws that make this one great. What is well done are the flashbacks our main character keeps having, especially flashbacks of the terror he wrought during the war. When the son of Premutos finally decides to be reborn in the skin, the movie takes an interesting and gory turn to zombie splattermania. True foreign indie zombie fun, that any hardcore fanatic should consider viewing.
59] Day of the Dead (2008)
Synopsis: "When a small Colorado town is overrun by the flesh hungry dead a small group of survivors try to escape in a last ditch effort to stay alive."
There is no way, in any realm or mental condition, that I can take Mena Suvari seriously as a hardcore soldier. Just... what the hell. As a remake of a Romero classic, this is a travesty. As a stand alone silly zombie movie, it's gold. They obviously had no intention of taking anything from the original and applying it to this one... well except for Bub the zombie, he makes a return. Of course they couldn't even get that right, and they named him Bud. And he doesn't eat humans because he's a vegetarian.
Alright this probably isn't convincing you to watch this, which is not my intention, because this ridiculous movie is completely enjoyable. It's got plenty of well executed gore, annoying characters getting their comeuppance, Ving Rhames eating his own eyeball, and one of the funniest and well filmed scenes of a 'super' zombie abducting a character via silent death from above. This is a movie you throw in and enjoy because despite all it's flaws it's a great (albeit silly) attempt at a zombie movie; you just have to get past the title and Mena's casting.
58] Zombie Honeymoon
Synopsis: "After getting married, Danny and Denise travel for a honeymoon of one month long in a cottage of her uncle nearby the beach. Danny and Denise are in deep love, and while they are resting on the beach, Danny is attacked by a stumbled zombie that comes out of the sea and vomits into his mouth."
This is not your typical zombie movie. No, this is a zombie movie for drama enthusiasts. There's no running and screaming en masse, no hordes of undead shambling towards their future meals; it's a movie about a recently married couple, and the hardships they endure when Danny is attacked and infected by a zombie. Will true love conquer? Can Danny control his lust for human flesh? Can Denise keep the one she loves alive without it costing the lives of others? It's a rather well done movie that, despite it's odd premise, doesn't feel at all too silly or badly acted. The final quarter of the film will keep the artsy drama character development lovers satisfied, along with the people that are just wanting to watch a zombie eat someone.
57] Beneath Still Waters
Synopsis: "Two boys make a pact to do something brave, crazy and dangerous. They will see their town one last time before a man-made lake floods it forever, burying it under the deep lake."
Ever watch a horror movie and suddenly get taken aback because they just killed a kid (Mimic, Spookies, etc)? This will be your first impression of this movie, as that's generally how this one gets rolling ... and it's far from pleasant (why do kids have to be so damn adventurous and trusting!?). This terror fest is brought to us care of Brian Yuzna. Unless you're a horror buff that name will probably mean nothing to you. Yuzna is basically up there in the gore department with Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci. He likes his splatter and he likes it executed in horrific ways.
Despite how much this movie has been crapped on since it's release I personally find it to have an interesting plot, well done effects, and some haunting visuals. The evil entity released by the children, along with some decaying minions, set out to corrupt this small town in violent and brutal ways... Oh, and an orgy of pure sin that is just weird... yeah. The dubbing is pretty bad, but asides from that it's an enjoyable undead flick about evil incarnate and good versus evil. The same old stuff, but hey, it's something that never really gets old.
56] R-Point
Synopsis: "On 07 January 1972, the South Korean base in Nah-Trang, Vietnam, receives a radio transmission from a missing platoon presumed dead. The high-command assigns the veteran and decorated Lieutenant Choi Tae-in to lead a squad with eight other soldiers and rescue the missing soldiers from the R-Point."
Missing soldiers and the chronicles of the team sent in to discover their fate. There's plenty of scenes in this movie that gave me chills the first time I saw it, the best involving ghostly soldiers that drop to cover and disappear. It's filled with horror cliches like that of: people they have been interacting with that turn out to be dead and of course mysterious conversations on the radios from dead people.
It's not exactly original, but there's enough serious unrest throughout this movie that is just really disturbing and very creepily filmed. The acting is done great, and anytime something spooky is happening the tone of the movie just gets uncomfortable and chilling. Now these undead don't pop out as decaying corpses and attack our soldiers, they instead absolutely terrify our protagonists by toying with them visually and audibly. If you're a war-horror lover like myself, definitely check this one out.
55] Deathwatch
Synopsis: "In the middle of World War I, nine British soldiers caught behind enemy lines seek refuge in a complex network of German trenches. What they soon discover is that they aren't alone...and it isn't a German soldier that's hunting them down"
Another war-horror that deserves mentioning. The cast is basically a full set up of (some fully ridiculous) stereotypes. Now there are plenty of flaws with this one, including some questionable acting and some CGI that isn't quite up to snuff. What this movie does deliver is a haunted German trench system and a small band of terrified troops (except Golemn himself, Andy Serkis, who is just violently insane and seems to enjoy it).
The undead that pop up to pick off our heroes do so as they do in most war-horrors; they spread unnecessary terror by visual and audible ques only to appear out of nowhere and suddenly slay someone. The priest of the group takes on the best role, and provides us with the some stellar acting (alongside the compassionate sergeant). An interesting take on a haunted location (a trench system, who'da thunkit?) and an even more interesting conclusion to the film.
54] Masters of Horror: Homecoming
Synopsis: "While on a TV talk show, a spin doctor for the current administration unexpectedly finds himself wishing that a caller's son could return from the dead to explain why he died in the ongoing war. Then the recently-killed soldiers do return from the dead--but why?"
I am going to give a very brief example of why this is a great political zombie movie. Imagine that instead of president Kelly it was president Bush. Hmm, a senseless confusing war that seems to be causing people to lose their loved ones without understanding why. The dead come back to life to vote. To VOTE. To vote against the current president and to protest the war they had just recently died in, as requested by the spin doctor on live TV. Oops! Hilarity and succulent social commentary ensue.
53] Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
Synopsis: "When the American Chicken Bunker, a military-themed fried-chicken chain, builds a restaurant on the site of an ancient Indian burial ground, local protesters aren't the only ones crying fowl!"
Zombies and zombie chickens, that alone is reason enough to see this. The acting is (intentionally) atrocious, the dialogue ridiculous, but the splatter gruesome, well done and in copious amounts. All sorts of cringe worthy taboos are displayed here mixed in with the nudity and sludgy ketchup; like groin attacks and 'laying an egg'. This is a movie for people that love filth, and horror cheese. What else can you expect from a movie who's premise revolves around a fried chicken restaurant that's built on an indian burial ground. Zombie chickens, come on!
52] Deadly Friend
Synopsis: "Paul is a new kid in town with a robot named "BB". He befriends Samantha and the three of them have a lot of good times together. That is, until Samantha's abusive father throws her down some stairs..."
A relatively unknown Wes Craven flick that's not exactly zombies per se, but undead nonetheless. A large portion of the runtime is consumed by us learning about Paul and his relationship with his creation (the robot BB) and the gradual malfunctioning of BB's morality and obedience. After things seem to settle down our hero begins to movie in on a pretty young lady and engages in some adventures with her and his new friend the paperboy.
Eventually this costs him the life of his dear robot, and the grief is terrible. Worse still, Samantha's abusive father finally takes it too far and accidentally murders his daughter. Now completely wrought with sadness and alone, he convinces himself that he can recharge a dead brain with BB's microchip, and sets out determined to bring his newly found love back to life. She does come back but, is it her, is it BB, or is it something worse?
51] The Signal
Synopsis: "A horror film told in three parts, from three perspectives, in which a mysterious transmission that turns people into killers invades every cell phone, radio, and television."
Similar to Stephen King's book, Cell, a broadcast goes out through cell phones (and in addition, radio and TV) that causes the receivers of the signal to become hallucinogenic and ceaselessly violent. Given our hero couple is actually a young woman and the man she is having an affair with, it's an odd love story as one of the three parts follows our heroine's husband. He of course becomes the bad guy and sets out to lay waste to the man that stole his woman and regain her companionship. Things go horribly wrong for everyone along the way.
The movie jumps from silly, to grisly, to funny and all around again frequently. A scene with the young woman getting suddenly punched in the head by her current companion (that just snaps) while they are in a car, is well filmed and quite brutal feeling. It then of course jumps from this intense brutal horror to people's hallucinations and the hilarity that ensues... only for it to switch from funny to brutal and grisly like the flip of a light switch. A well filmed, well acted and well thought out take on the 'zombie' genre. Asides from a lackluster and moderately unsatisfying ending, this is a great movie with a little something for everyone in your audience.
Movie synopses care of IMDB or each film's respective Official Website.
comments