Genre Films: Zombie/Vampire Flicks Ranked and Reviewed
Submitted by grandpa_chum on Tue, 10/11/2005 - 03:25
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24. Dawn Of The Dead
- Zack Snyder, 2004: Sacrilegous in title, but surprisingly not bad otherwise.
23. Dead Heat
- Mark Goldblatt, 1988: Very quotable, very 80's buddy picture, but also very fun. Some of the gore scenes actually weren't too bad, even though they were few and far between. The story and the theme were surprisingly advanced for this sort of movie, a bunch of old rich people decide to make a machine that can revive you and make you immortal with the right care, meanwhile a cop is on the case and dies, is resurrected and since he doesn't know how to take care of the newly dead body he only has about 12 hours to get his revenge before he deteriorates into a premordial ooze, meanwhile he has to fend off hordes of zombie criminals these rich guys have ressurected as their indestructable goons. It's really good stuff, too bad it's an 80's buddy picture, but then again I'm not one of those people who hates that type of movie, so I still managed to enjoy it immensely, but I would have preferred just a touch more seriousness... but what can I say, I like Joe Piscopo.
- LADY: "are you hurt?"
- COP: "Lady, I'm f***ing dead"
22. 28 Days Later
- Danny Boyle, 2002: Although this is probably the scariest of the bunch, I was incredibly dissapointed by the last hour or so, but the first hour was so amazing that it more than made up for it, so it's still a very good film, and very scary.
21. City Of The Living Dead
- Lucio Fulci, 1980: has the greatest graveyard scenes of any zombie movie, very eery and they don't skimp on the gore or the fog machines. The thing that bumps this movie way down the list is the fact that the zombies are less like zombies and more like ghosts, they walk through walls and attack specifically chosen people, they aren't really the walking the dead, still it's a pretty good movie and the direction and gore is fantastic, very creepy movie.
20. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
- Fran Kuzui, 1992: great cast(I don't care what anyone says I like Luke Perry and David Arquette, so what?!)... also rutger hauer, paul reubens, and donald sutherland. Let me point out right off that I hate the television show with a passion. Sarah Michelle Gellar sucks, the writing sucks, there is no gore, there is macabre, there is nothing, just another half-assed 'charmed' piece of sci-fi wierdo shit. The movie on the other hand, is fantastic and fun. They maintain(unlike the show) throughout the whole high school cheerleader as a vampire slayer gag, and it works. The other thing that surprised me was the fact that it was a straight vampire story... no ghouls or witches or spells or superweapons or any of that horse shit the television show does(i mentioned 'charmed'-like before). There is gore, wooden stakes, and scenes at graveyards, the vampires are vampires with no other special powers, they are creepy, and lots of teenagers die, very funny movie, with a decent story.
19. House By The Cemetery
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- Lucio Fulci, 1981: The story is great, the direction is flawless, the effects are great, the gore is plentiful, but the rest of the stuff I can't quite put into words just don't fit for some reason. It's a story about a researcher who learns there is a mad scientist from 200 years ago living in his basement, the mad scientist did experiments on dead people and found out a way to live forever, only thing is he has to eat human flesh to regenerate(and he doesn't regenerate too well, he's a rotting corpse basically), this researcher commits suicide and the family that takes his place in the house to continue his research has to pay.
18. Prince Of Darkness
- John Carpenter, 1987:
17. Hell Of The Living Dead
- Bruno Mattei, 1980: Unbelievably hated accross the board. Zombie fans hate it, schlock fans hate it, horror fans hate it, normal people hate it, everyone hates it. I loved it. Very funny(in the accidental way) and very violent, some of the best gore around(if you disregard a few fake head blows). The zombies are true Romero-zombies, which is the first requirement for a great zombie film. Completely natural, dead walking, eating flesh, add in a very unique, crazy, funny, and even creepy zombie-walk and some fantastically eccentric performances from some wierd actors and some great Italian all-over-the-place direction and you have a great fun-to-watch film. It also helps whenever these movies rip off romero's zombie ideas, because let's face it, those are better than coming up with crappy original ones(like a lot of these Italian zombie movies do). It even has the original Dawn Of The Dead Goblins score as most of it's score, with a few original Goblin music added in for good measure, and for zombie movies, it doesn't get any better than a Goblin score, even if it was for a different movie.
16. Return Of The Living Dead: Part 3
- Brian Yuzna, 1993:
15. From Dusk Till Dawn
- Robert Rodriguez, 1996: Hated it on tv, laughed my ass off at how bad the sequel was, and then saw the first one on dvd and was blown away, the great and fun gore effects of savini and KNB are what really gets me... that and fred williamson, who is the man in this movie, it's all about fred williamson and george clooney who steal the show... the rest i could do without, tarantino gives a shitty performance, and for some stupid reason there is a two minute foot fetish scene between salma hayek(why the fuck is she in this movie!) and tarantino that almost made me barf, worse than any of the vampire effects.
14. Shaun Of The Dead
- Edgar Wright, 2004: The first 40 minutes are so is incredibly funny, but much to my surprise(and delight) it's not as goofy or slapstick as I had thought it would be going into it. The comedy is surprisingly natural. That is, given the situation, the characters in the movie didn't exactly act any different than I would expect them too. That was a pleasant surprise, I had expected to see a dodgeball type comedy about the living dead where people did stupid things and made dumb jokes just to get a laugh. I could not have been more wrong, the movie is very realistic, in fact it probably hits closer to home than any other zombie film out there. This film doesn't feature a scientist, a SWAT team member, a zoologist, a dynamite expert, a doctor, a pregnant woman, and a ninja trying to survive against zombies. It's simply a story about half a dozen average joes and family members who work shitty jobs and are basically unskilled at anything this side of a joystick and what happened when the dead started to rise and they didn't realize it right away. The greatest thing about it is that the characters never do anything unbelievable to get a laugh, real life is simply funny as hell if presented right, even though they are in a fantasy world where zombies walk the earth. I mean when Ed started to re-crank the disposable camera I nearly shit my pants in laughter. I was expecting a parody and gladly got a lighter Dawn-esque hey-that's-funny comedy.
13. The Fog
- John Carpenter, 1980:
12. Night Of The Creeps
- Fred Dekker, 1986: Thrill Me.
11. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
- Jorge Grau, 1974: My introduction to the world of the euro-zombie flick... great movie, I usually prefer the ones where they don't explain exactly why the dead are rising, but this movie has the best and most complete explanation of them all. An agricultural machine that creates a supersonic pitch that causes life forms with simplified nervous systems(like ants) to go crazy and attack and kill each other off, the thing these scientists didn't realize was that dead bodies and baby fetus' don't have complex enough nervous systems anymore/yet... so they become violent and want to kill each other, being us humans. The zombie moan is also one of the best and the music is very eery. Add in a couple crazy people, some great gore effects, and a hippie hating cop who thinks this is all the work of satanists and you have the complete package.
10. Land Of The Dead
- George Romero, 2005: Finally Saw it... once again the studios do a Zshit job on the marketing and trailers, it was like watching a whole different movie than what was advertised, no matter how skeptical you are, if you like romero movies, SEE THIS, it was fantastic, having seen all of the Romero Dead films, this is my favorite(as guilty as that feels)... Everything that looked stupid in the trailers was dealt with amazing clarity and cleverness in the actual film, even the they are communicating thing, which was overdone in the trailers, and once again(unlike portrayed in the trailers) the zombies are really just a backdrop or setting for the wonderful romero story that is the bread and butter of the films, and the gore wasn't all cgi'd, still had a lot of the old school cringe gore, including one of the most cringeful(?) i've seen ... surprisingly it also had one of the funniest moments I've ever seen in a movie, and it had nothing to do with a zombie.Spoiler: Highlight to viewWhen the two zombies tear the hand in half, each grabbing to fingers and pulling, in a foggy sillouhetteSpoiler: Highlight to viewI was laughing, so hard I missed the punchline(the cell phone convo i caught the second time around), when Hopper told his business partner to holy shit get down and then shot him in the head.
9. Return Of The Living Dead
- Dan O'Bannon, 1985:
8. Night Of The Living Dead(Remake)
- Tom Savini, 1990:
7. Salem's Lot
- Tobe Hooper, 1979:
6. Zombie
- Lucio Fulci, 1979: Not as much of a rip off of dawn as people seem to say... it's much darker and if you are going to rip off a movie, why not dawn.
5. Night Of The Living Dead
- George Romero, 1968: They're Coming To Get You, Barbara
4. The Omega Man
- Boris Sagal, 1975: not exactly vampire or zombie, but close enough and based loosely on a vampire book.
3. Day Of The Dead
- George Romero, 1985: coming sooon
2. Dawn Of The Dead
- George Romero, 1978:
1. The Last Man On Earth
- Ubaldo Ragona, 1964: Honestly, did I ever think I'd find a 60's zombie movie I loved more than Night Of The Living Dead? The answer is no... did I think I'd ever find a zombie move that was in the same league as a Romero film? The answer is again no... And I was (un)dead wrong on both of those assumptions. This film is amazing, and obviously a huge influence on the entire genre I've come to know and love, this is how a zombie film should be made, and Romero has stuck right with it. Even more surprising than all this are the reasons I love this film so much. This time around it's not about the direction(which is pretty good, but not fantastic) nor the editing(which is alot like a 50's sci-fi, average). This time it's all about the story and the acting(which is rare for me), this could have been directed by any old hack in the world and I'd still love it for Richard Matheson's wonderfully depressing yet surprisingly intriguing story and the always amazingly impressive Vincent Price. Really the only gripe I have about this movie is that it ends a little quickly after the(well, let's call it a twist) twist, if I had made this film I probably would have spent another 15 or 20 minutes dealing with the idea that Price IS A LEGEND(I won't spoil it). And a little more time on the idea that he'd 'put a stake through his heart, just like all the others' refering to his former friend, now a zombie/vampire. And to get the real importance of that and why I would have spent more time on it you'd have to see the movie, and I highly reccomend you do. It's nearly flawless if you can handle average direction(maybe slightly above average, but nowhere near the rest of the movies on this list).
Author Comments:
New Reviews-
16. HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY
14. HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD
12. FROM DUSK TILL DAWN
I've Seen But Not Making The List Because They Weren't Up To Snuff(doesn't mean they weren't good, just not great enough for the list)-
HOUSE OF THE DEAD
Cloned From:
No Interview with the Vampire or Fright Night? :-(
But, hey, did you notice that Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright had a really quick cameo in Land of the Dead? That was awesome.
I heard they were offered speaking roles, but turned them down because they wanted to play zombies. I don't blame them - how cool would that be?
well I haven't seen either of them... they both look pretty good, but I'm not sure Interview would even qualify for this list... from what I've seen the vampires don't look very zombie-like... which is required for a vampire film to be on this list.
yeah simon pegg and edgar wright were the photo booth zombies... it is a bummer that I didn't notice until I was told, you'd think they'd be more obvious.
Ah, that makes sense. I thought it was a list of zombie movies and vampire movies, not zombie/vampire movies.
But now it all makes sense. :-D
my mistake... I did change the title... I forgot about that... it started out as a list of zombie movies which included zombie-like vampires in movies... but I did change the title to include both zombies and vampires respectively.