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Our Favorite Zombies

Our Favorite Zombies

UGO Team By UGO Team September 11, 2009
  

Zombies occupy a unique place as movie monsters. Sure, if you're a recently reanimated corpse, you're probably not going to have a hard time finding some other undead brethren to shuffle about and moan with, but it's never going to be easy to stand out in that crowd, no matter how many handfuls of dripping brain-meat you scoop out your screaming victims. Vampires, wolfmen, mummies - they'll all get to be cool loners, creatures of the night. But when you're a zombie, it's all "Yeah, yeah, we are legion, we are many, now shut up, and get back in formation."

These poor lone ghouls have historically always had a hard time asserting their individualism, even with the vast variations within zombie culture. In film, zombies have been used for social commentary (Dawn of the Dead), humor (Shaun of the Dead), action (28 Weeks Later), and good ol' bone-chilling horror (Night of the Living Dead). Hell, there's even been a dancing zombie (Weekend at Bernie's 2), zombies from other species, child zombies, space-zombies (or, as Star Trek fans call them, the Borg), and underwater zombies fighting sharks.

But there have been a few, a select few, undead over-achievers who have emerged out of their huddled masses, becoming the icons of the horror genre that has spanned over 40 years, from George A. Romero to Danny Boyle. As a tribute to those infected iconoclasts, we offer this list, in chronological order, of some of our favorite all-time zombie all-stars.

(Minor spoilers for every movie ahead. Be warned!)

The Alpha Zombie from Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Alpha Zombie from Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The Alpha Zombie from Night of the Living Dead (1968)

"They're coming to get you Barbra. They're coming for you Barbra. Look, there comes one of them now."

With those simple words, George Romero defined an entire sub-genre of horror. That first zombie in Night of the Living Dead, wandering around a cemetery waiting for a hapless victim, is still probably the most iconic zombie image ever. That scene of poor doomed Barbra locked inside the car, as the zombie tried to pound its way inside through whatever means necessary, inspired horror directors for generations to come. But Romero knew how to take things further. As we sigh in relief when Barbra makes it to the safety of the farmhouse, the director shatters the ideal of "home" as a refuge, taking the walking dead out of the cemetery and placing them right into our worst suburban nightmare. We all ran with Barbra into that house, as the zombies outside multiplied exponentially, and gasped as the phone lines went dead and the reality of her surroundings finally became clear. The zombie was right. They were coming to get Barbra, and nothing was going to stop them. "Home sweet home" means nothing when it's surrounded by a sea of the damned, and that first lone zombie in the cemetery was our one warning from Romero that we'd never think of our homes in the same way again.

See More: When Zombies Attack! | 28 Days Later | 28 Weeks Later | Dawn of the Dead | Night of the Living Dead | zombies | George Romero