Cemetery Man is the original Zombie romantic comedy; years before the Shaun of the Dead guys were clubbing Zombies with a cricket bat, Rupert Everett was Francisco Dellamorte, the groundskeeper of a cemetery in the Italian countryside where the dead have a nasty habit of coming back to life after a week. Laden with heavy existential philosophy and some incredible cinematic elements, Cemetery Man is probably the most artistic Zombie ever made, and one with the most emotional content. One of the last heterosexual roles Rupert Everett played on film, Dellamorte Dellamore is an iconic character who lives on in viewers minds long after the movie is over. Cemetery Man has serious replay value and incredibly rich layers of interpretation, the perfect companion to a genre defined by senseless horror and action.
An ambitious reworking of the original 1978 “Dawn of the Dead,” director Jack Snyder (300, Slither) reinvents George Romero’s classic, returning to the shopping mall as a setting for a different sort of zombie story; as the criticism of consumerism has become mainstream, Snyder moves away from Romero’s original critical focus and focus, instead, on the nature of infection and of the inbred human inability to let go of life. As gripping and thrilling as the original, the new Dawn of the Dead scores major points for its treatment of “freshly turned” zombies – instead of the slow, lumbering corpses, rotting and falling apart, we have freshly undead and very energetic zombies, more like those in movies like “28 Days Later” than like Romero’s traditional zombies. The explanation, of course, is that “classic” zombies are simply more decomposed, and therefore slower. The filmmakers’ choice of casting real amputees as zombies cut down on the movies budget and upped the realism factor dramatically. A tasteful balance between gore, horror and science fiction, this remake is a solid entry in Romero’s Zombie universe.
Thanks to Seanomenon for pointing out our previous error in crediting Romero with the Dawn of the Dead remake.
Sometimes satire, in a strange ironic twisting of events, can become as iconic and definitive as the genre it seeks to subvert. Such is the nature of Shaun of the Dead, a sleeper hit out of England in 2004. Quickly rising to become the most popular cult Zombie movie of our time, Shaun of the Dead tells the story of a typical English man who’s so wrapped up in his own personal melodramas that he fails to notice or comprehend the nature of a full-blown zombie outbreak until it’s literally staring him in the face and moaning. Satire at its best, Shaun of the Dead manages to poke fun at every cliche and flaw in the Zombie genre while simultaneously holding true to Romero’s zombie Dogma. In the end, Shaun of the Dead is one of the best zombie movies ever, as serious as it is funny, rich with layers of humor and comedy. Additionally, as the only movie ever to feature educated ZombiePhiles as main characters, we couldn’t recommend it more.
Shaun of the Dead is totally the best zombie movie ever! Not only is it really funny, but it follows all of the zombie rules that people like George Romero and Max Brooks do. Definitely one of the best zombie films out there!
I feel compelled to point out that the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead was not directed by Romero, but by Zack Snyder, who went on to direct Slither and 300.
Fantastic list, fantastic site!
Good catch, Seanomenon – Our fact checker suffered a bite last week and was under the weather when this one was posted…
Welcome to the Zombiephiles!
great list…one thing though, i thought land of the dead had plenty of social commentary. especially having to do with rich people and poor people and the rising gap between classes..
anyway, love the site…keep it going!
Land of the Dead does have social commentary. It is the first Romero movie where the handicapped (the slow guy) appear in a Romero film, eventhough it wasn’t as blatant and strong as his feminist statements in Dawn of the Dead (original) and to a lesser degree in Day of the Dead. It also comments on the Post-9/11 Security craze and immigration. They lived in this perfect city where they used walls to keep out people and keep in people. They had tons of guys with guns and security measures and everything still failed and the city was overrun! Moral of it being that all the security in the world can’t save you, you will always be vulnerable in some way. And in the case of some measures you take to secure yourself and others you may actually hinder yourself in the long run (ie. nukes in reality, the electric fences that prevent them from leaving the city in the movie). And as the one person who posted mentioned the movie also focuses on the gaps between the rich and poor in society, and it shows the humans (like Day of the Dead) in a negative light. Humans should be strong and united yet they are weak divided and still killing and screwing each other over while zombies are wiping them out. This movie also continued the developing theme of intelligence and memory in zombies and it actually showed Big Daddy as a leader of zombies in almost a positive light, because the humans were mostly treacherous characters who you were hoping would die (ie. Dennis Hopper,etc.). So in response to what you said about it having no social commentary, I would say that it does….you just need to look deeper and think about current issues that would have been influencing him at the tiome of the movies creation.
good list by the way, altho I cant agree with the order it does list all the bests minus a few. I just know many people who dislike Land of the Dead and I try to get them to watch it again with that social commentary in mind and they tend to usually agree. Also it helps to watch them all in a row, NOTLD, Dawn, Day, and then Land (the dead movies) to see the development of the zombies in the films intelligence wise and also to look for the commentary he makes in each film in respect to its own time periods social issues. Romero is an incredible thinker and a brilliant director and has been a major influence in my life.
the first movie that entered zombies to this world is “White Zombie”
i really liked dawn of the dead (the 2004 remake)
shaun of the dead is the greatest
I would maybe have included Evil Dead or Evil Dead 2 instead of Army of Darkness, though I agree with the positive review of AoD. The first two in the series are just a bit more zombie-oriented.
Enjoyable list, but adding to Bats S.’s comment, it was really the Evil Dead movies that launched Rami’s career. While Army of Darkness is a fun film, it was not a terribly successful or influential one.
And you’ve got pictures of the remake DotD linked with the original version..
Would My Boyfriend’s Back count? Then again, I’d bet most people would put it on their Bottom 10 list.
Which, come to think of it, would probably make for a decent post too.
i disagree with land of the dead being so low, besides shaun of the dead it is in my opinion the best zombie movie ever. you say it lacked commentary or looking at people not the zombies but i think you just got too into it, ramero just made it more obvious for people not quite as intelligent as the people who notice in his other movies. not to mention it was very creative in the idea of a class 4 which alot of zombie movies shy away from.
How the heck are Night and Dawn not the top two spots?
Yes, some decent films, but I can’t imagine -anyone- would agree that the Dawn remake is better than the original. (and I loved the remake).
Does James Gunn know that Zack Snyder directed Slither?
But can 28 days later really be considered a “Zombie” movie I mean they never died they were living people with a virus that drove them mad, not the case with zombie movies, they die first then come back to live as the “Living Dead”
Just a thought
Soooo, those are prettymuch the worste top 3 movies you could have picked, who the fuck are you kidding. Maybe you should change the name of your website to “I don’t know jack about zombies” thanks.
THIS LIST PRETTY MUCH ROCKED… I KNOW ZOMBIELAND WASN’T OUT YET WHEN YOU MADE THIS LIST BUT IT WOULD GO IN HERE SOMEWHERE… BUT SHAUN WAS THE BEST ZOMBIE MOVIE. VERY VERY ACCURATE. MAYBE YOU SHOULD CHANGE THE NAME OF THE WEBSITE TO “MOST KICK ASS ZOMBIE-SITE EVER”. THANKS
shaun of the dead…. killing zombies to queen quickly made this epic in my eyes.