15. Juan of the Dead (2010)
The zombie movie: Forget trying to survive zombies. Juan (Alexis Daz de Villegas) aims to finally realise his potential as an entrepreneur, launching a zombie-slaying business as a way of making cash and saving the world. Hiring a gang of his mates to help him, it all goes swimmingly until they accidentally fire off a couple of rounds into the uninfected.
Why it's great: An altogether madcap approach to apocalypse, this Cuban flick swerves around the obvious angle - it's the apocalypse but abroad - and injects a ton of humour and heart into Juan's journey.
14. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
The zombie movie: A zombie epidemic drives a bunch of strangers to find sanctuary in the local mall. Together they rustle up a plan to escape its confines for a nearby isle. That is, if they can manage to outlive the infected among them, rescue gun store owner Andy from across the street AND save the damn dog....
Why it's great: Released in 2004, Zack Snyder's remake of the classic title still packs a punch thanks to its unflinching gore - the truck-chainsaw moment - and relentless pace. Still, it's the overwhelming sense of dread that envelops the group from start to finish which is truly haunting.
13. Versus (2000)
The zombie movie: Japanese horror isn't always about long-haired girls looming out of television sets. This tasty flick captures the esoteric - and downright bonkers - aspects of Asian cinema, as a bunch of Yakuza rendezvous with a couple of escaped convicts in the middle of the woods. Then a zombie outbreak occurs that's somehow linked to the Yakuza's mysterious leader.
Why it's great: Imagine if Tarantino had side-stepped into zombie territory during Kill Bill's massive Crazy 88 fight sequence. Nonsensical and startling, it's unlike any other film on the list in that it incorporates a ton of different martial arts styles.
12. White Zombie (1932)
The zombie movie: This pioneering flick from 1932 is widely considered to be the one that started it all. In perhaps his creepiest human role Bela Lugosi stars as a sorcerer who turns unwitting parties into slaves. A master of the undead, he commandeers the entire troupe of zombies to work on his plantation.
Why it's great: It's the classic credited with starting the entire zombie trend and its influence still resonates across the genre today. Particularly the rule that you cannot kill a member of the walking dead unless you shoot it in the brain.
11. Re-Animator (1985)
The zombie movie: Stuart Gordon adapted gothic author H.P. Lovecraft's story Herbert West: Re-Animator into a cult picture. Science-fiction and horror tones are thrown together in one glorious concoction as a medical student with ideas of creating a Frankenstein-type monster realises too late that zombies tend to not listen to their makers.
Why it's great: Gross, bizarre and ridiculously over-the-top, you've got to be grateful that Gordon and co. opted to repurpose Lovecraft's original stories into a flat-out splatterfest. A woman receiving oral pleasure from a decapitated zombie head just one of many, many oddly amusing highlights.
10. The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (1975)
The zombie movie: AKA Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. This mid-seventies slice o' gore is packed with tons and tons of bloody vistas, one of the first to do so in the post-Romero era. All of which is kicked off by a young couple whom the police mistakenly blame for a stream of murders. When really it's the dead who are to blame. Polished off with a hint of Hammer gothic, this film did blood-soaked butchery before Fulci ever heard of it.
Why it's great: What's most genius is the inciting zombie creation event: it's an agricultural radiation tool designed to kill insects that causes the dead to rise. Eat that, Monsanto!
9. Night of the Creeps (1986)
The zombie movie: A college campus comes under siege when alien parasites turn the students into mindless zombies. Part sci-fi, part-horror, all awesome Fred Dekker's late eighties romp secured itself a permanent place in the heart of genre geeks with its brilliantly daft premise.
Why it's great: Much like Re-Animator this flick glues together many genres, in jest and in reverence, for a rollicking good caper. It's a formula that proved so successful even James Gunn had a bash - and paid his homage dues to Creeps - with the 2006 outing Slither.
8. Cemetery Man (1994)
The zombie movie: In Michele Soavi's flick, Rupert Everett stars as the caretaker for a cemetary in Northern Italy where he tends to all the typical duties - keeping graves tidy, shooing off yobs - and another rather unusual obligation. Seven days after being buried the dead rise from the grave, and he's the man tasked with taking them out.
Why it's great: Talk about reinventing a genre. While most zombie flicks carry a subtext of social concerns, this little-seen flick boasts much more. Life, love and death are explored beautifully, and there's plenty of blood and guts to satisfy the gore hounds too.
7. Braindead (1992)
The zombie movie: Before dedicating his life to bringing Tolkien's books to the big screen, Peter Jackson gave us this; a splattergore black comedy based in his homeland of New Zealand. Poor Lionel is desperate for an easy life, away from his pestering mother, who turns out to be more trouble than he expected when she's bitten by a plague-infested rat monkey that transforms her into a foul, flesh-eating zombie.
Why it's great: Can we just say 'lawnmowing zombies' and leave it there? No, that wouldn't be fair to the deranged orchestra of gore that Jackson whips out in the final reel. Twisted animal carcasses, intestines and decapitated heads are just a few of the delights Lionel must fend off.
6. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
The zombie movie: The Brit zombie comedy that introduced the world to Edgar Wright is a biting satire that's both gut-bustingly funny and surprisingly tender. It follows a regular joe named Shaun whose unspectacular life takes a spectacular turn when an outbreak hits London. Together with his flatmate Ed he strives to rescue his nearest and dearest before waiting it out in their local watering hole the Winchester. The dead don't booze, do they?
Why it's great: It's a fantastic balance of horror and comedy that puts you right into Shaun and Ed's shoes when tackling with the simple logistics of zombie warfare.
