“Any zombies out there?” Sure are, Ed!
As September rolls like a decapitated jack-o-lantern into October, we here at DKNetwork want to pay homage to Shaun of the Dead. Edgar Wright’s 2004 film ranks, at least for me, among my top-five best zombie movies ever made.
Ed might here ask me: Who died and made you the king of the f***ing zombies?
Fair enough. But I’ve seen my fair share, friend. And here are my favorites:
5. Train to Busan (2016) – Directed by Yeon Sang-ho
It wouldn’t feel right to have a top-five zombie movie list without absolute gem of a character study tucked within a zombified context. To say that this South Korean film took the zombie genre to new emotional depths might be an understatement. Among Busan‘s finest qualities is indeed the way Sang-ho weaves universal heartstring-tuggers like familial sacrifice within this survival story. It’s claustrophobic in setting but horizon-degree broad in the existential topics upon which it touches.
Neither for the faint of stomach, nor the faint of heart. But one of my all-time favs.
4. Shaun of the Dead (2004) – Directed by Edgar Wright
No knock on Shaun and friends, especially on its anniversary, but I struggled with whether or not to rank it four or five. It’s entirely possible that I gave it the anniversary bump, here.
But, at the same time, there’s not really a zombie movie I’d rather cozy up to with my wife than Edgar Wright’s 2002 breakout. It’s got the delightfully-quaint, vicious-over-a-cuppa knee-slap humor. It’s dry and bitter in the way that a world-weary everyman like Shaun might countenance the zombie apocalypse.
Shaun has always felt like a love-letter to the zombie genre for me. It’s a movie that’s not afraid to play with its conventions, challenge its tropes, and introduce novel conflicts to the canon that only come from fantastic comedy writing.
3. Dawn of the Dead (1978) – Directed by George A. Romero
Many horror hipsters and film buffs indeed consider Romero’s second major zombie film, Dawn of the Dead, to be one of the greatest sequels ever made. More on the original later. But a sequel it remains, and so it hangs here on the very fringes of my top-three zombie flicks.
Critics and fun police be damned—I really enjoy how heavily this film leans into its satirical consumerism so as to really maul us with the reality that the entire zombie genre can be a commentary on consumer cycles. Undeath, here, is an eternal prison for the body and mind, and the correctional institution is a mall. Survival in which your only defense is commerce. It’s chef’s kiss.
May I also mention: I am a huge fan of the Capcom video game franchise, Dead Rising, which primarily takes place in shopping malls across America. And, yes—these too are fairly anti-capitalist come the conclusions to the various and mysterious zombie outbreaks.
2. 28 Days Later (2002) – Directed by Danny Boyle
Yeah—to be honest, I almost had this as my number-one. In my heart, it might be. But I honestly wanted to make sure I wasn’t giving it any sort of Oppenheimer/Small Things Like These Cillian Murphy bump. Many regard 28 Days Later as Murphy’s breakout lead performance. If you thought he looked gaunt in Oppenheimer, wait until you see him here.
Boyle’s 2002 film is regarded as one of the mavericks which introduced the chemical-rage-induced subgenre of infected. And thank goodness for that, if only for the way The Last of Us (which, by the way, is the greatest zombie story of all time) leans on this trope as a way to enhance the story’s already-brutalizing emotional narrative.
A much more literal take on outbreak, here. 28 Days Later owes its success and reputation as much to its punchy, desolate ambience and the terrific (also literally) realism with which the story portrays apocalyptic survival. Its importance to the canon cannot be whatsoever understated. It is the zombie genre’s modern masterpiece.
1. Night of the Living Dead (1968) – Directed by George A. Romero
We all know this one. The film that arguably—see: horror hipsters and film buffs (above)—defined the modern zombie genre. Romero went with a penny-pinching low budget and cranked out a classic. The first time, really, we can say we saw undead eat flesh as a commentary on, what else, consumerism. It’s his opus, a masterpiece, etc. I really can add nothing more to the conversation about how superlative this film is, so I will simply encourage you to watch it, if only as an academic exercise.
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