time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

[josh]

OK. in honor of George Romero's Land of the Dead, I ask you all a simple question: what are your favorite and least favorite zombie movies? and give reasons why.

my favorite is Dawn of the Dead (1978). it's great. it's got great characters, tons of cheesy 70's gore, it's got so many timeless quotes ("we're thieves and we're bad guys, that's exactly what we are" being my favorite), it's got one of my favorite scores in any movie, and one of my favorite characters (PETER) ever. it's exciting and funny and scary... I love it.

and my least favorite is Day of the Dead. it's just terrible. I know there are worse zombie movies out there but I've yet to see them. it's awful. Sarah has such an annoying personality, Bub is sort of like a gayer Sloth (the idea that zombies can be domesticated is ridiculous), the army guys are just dicks for no good reason, and the score is horrendous. it's just... ugh. bad. why, Romero, why? bad acting, bad story, bad soundtrack... it's hard to believe this is the sequel to Night and Dawn.

and now you go.

[jvrlopez]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

Both Night of the Living Deads, Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Return of the Living Dead, etc

[Valkysas]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

dawn of the dead is great. I love the zombies at the mall. the one that just wants to take their guns is awesome. and the ones trying to play hockey.

that movie has such an awesome sense of humor.

[Vonwert]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

Night of the Living Dead is my favorite.

[Snarf]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

Best zombie movie ever would have to be Lucio Fulci's Zombie. My next favorite would have to be Night of the Living Dead 1990. I love the 68 original but I enjoyed the actors in the remake much more.

Worst zombie movie would have to be any of the Return of the Living Dead(s) after the second one.

I have thing about zombies, they really scare me. As far as scare factor goes in movies, I prefer Italian zombie flicks. American ones are very entertaining and some of them are pretty creepy but Italian zombies scare the **** out of me.

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

They weren't exaclty zombies so maybe this doesn't count but I loved 28 Days Later. The last act was great for one reason which the ending failed to capitalize on the way it should have. I think the director lost his nerve.

I haven't seen most of the zombie movies so a worst one is harder to pick. If TV shows count then the zombie episode of Mutant X would be it, LOL. Otherwise I pick one of the generic unoriginal zombie movies that pop up on Sci-Fi channel every now and then.

[Snarf]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

The DVD has a few alternate endings, I prefer the one that they put in movies though.


I dont understand what you mean though by the ending failing?

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

I don't wanna give away the ending but I liked how the situations they had endured made Jim just as brutal and rage-filled as the infected but then he went back to being the heroic figure. I just coudn't see him as a good-guy after everything he did. It ended up with your basic happy ending and it was too dark leading up to it for that to seem right.

[OmegaD3k]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

BRAINDEAD and Evil Dead, obviously. Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead were sweet. Both the originals and (somewhat) the remakes.

'28 days later' was by far the worst movie I have ever seen. I'd rather go watch 'house of the dead' by Uwe Boll 10 times than to see that POS... It was so bad, it was the first movie to make me feel sick. Not from the gore and violence, but from the terrible story, lame characters and horrible settings.. And don't get me started on the ending..

Never found zombie movies all that great.. When they start using weapons(guns) in a professional manner then it gets cheesy..

[Tex Ritter]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

Favorite - Tie between Dawn of the Dead and Dead-Alive. Dawn of the Dead is clearly the better movie, but Dead-Alive is just the goriest and silliest movie ever. It's directed by Peter Jackson; I can't believe he went on to do LOTR...

Worst - I really can't think of one...does Malibu Beach Vampires count?

[DK]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

Far and away the best would be "28 Days Later", which is actually a great movie in it's own right, not just a great zombie movie.

The rest of these films are just zombie movies, a genre that isn't known for churning out particularly good movies, but ones that provide a cheap thrill. These films though do a good job creating the tense atmosphere that is so crucial to a zombie flick:

Dawn of the Dead, the bright sunny daytime settings of ruin and stuff is something that I always thought was extremly compelling and interesting. The remake also did such a fantastic job of that...for the first five minutes. Can't say the rest of the film held nearly as well.

Return is a fun movie, I love how it goes from being extremly freaky and actually scary (the naked guy in the warehouse, and the dog, oh my god!!!) to a total joke that has skeletons with eyeballs rocking out.

1990 Night is amazing, too, which is great cause I found the original to be mostly forgetable, it just didn't age well. But the 1990, wow, the big fat dude is something I'll always remember. Zombie is really cool, as well. You've got great taste, Snarf.

Hmm....really bad zombie films? Let's see.....
Day of the dead is up there...
oh, Resident Evil

[Snarf]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

I loved 28 Days Later. I really enjoy Danny Boyle's movies *greatly*. He can really capture the human condition. I think he accurately potrays how people handle extreme circumstances and show just what horribe monsters people can be. 28 Days Later is a perfect example of that, as well as Shallow Grave and The Beach.

I thought the ending to 28 days was perfect. You take a really good person like Jim and put him in a horrible situation. He did what he did because of what was going to happen to his friends and considering what the Major believed compared to what he saw in the sky. I think that I could probably be that harsh if I was thrown into that. It didnt change who he was, it just made him take extreme action.

You can put me in front of any horror or scifi movie, no matter how bad it is, its still good. Even the Return of the Living Dead movies are good in their own way. I just enjoy the first one so much more. WOW!! The one that gets out of the barrel freaks me out sooooo bad! And I concur about the cadaver in the cooler. I just dont have admiration for the creators as I do with others.

And thank you Dreamknight

[Alex]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

[Snarf]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

ROCK ON!! Shaun of the Dead, another great one!

[josh]

Re: time to play favorite/least favorite zombie movie

I didn't like the ending to the remake of Night. the original ending is one of my favorite endings.

I also didn't like the character of Barbara in this version. the original Barbara was a loon, and this character just got turned into another "ass kicking woman in a horror movie" stereotype.