The 13 Worst Zombie Movies, Ranked (2024)

Everyone loves a good zombie movie, and a good many people might even love a fairly average zombie movie. There’s something satisfying about seeing people try to survive against hordes of mindless, undead monsters, with zombie carnage hitting the spot sometimes, and there being something inherently interesting about placing oneself in the situation of a zombie apocalypse. Of all the movie monsters, zombies might well feel the most grounded and intense. Sure, “realistic” might be a stretch, but when the zombies are infected rather than undead, there’s something a little more real there.

Anyway, all that’s to say that a good many zombie movies are engaging just because they’re zombie movies, so a horror film with zombies has to do numerous things wrong before it becomes hard to watch. Unfortunately, some movies have mishandled this legendary cinematic monster, as the following titles – ranked from bad to worst – demonstrate quite well.

13 'The Dead Don't Die' (2019)

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

Jim Jarmusch is certainly not for the uninitiated. Far too idiosyncratic, Jarmusch's movies can be too much, especially for those expecting something else. Such is the case for The Dead Don't Die, a star-studded film that promised zombie hilarity and delivered uneven results. The plot centers on a small town suddenly faced with an abrupt zombie outbreak.

The Dead Don't Die is silly to the point of being mind-numbing. The cast is game, and Jarmusch's uncompromising style is ever-present. However, the laughs are few and often buried under enough deadpan to exhaust Bob Newhart. Moreover, The Dead Don't Die also fails the "horror" portion of a "horror comedy," instead offering cheap thrills that are neither chilling nor particularly entertaining. More disappointing than outright awful, The Dead Don't Die is among Jarmusch's weakest efforts.

The Dead Don't Die

R

Horror

Comedy

Fantasy

Where to Watch

*Availability in US

• stream
• rent
• buy

Not available

Release Date

June 14, 2019

Cast

Bill Murray , Adam Driver , Tilda Swinton , Tom Waits

Runtime

104 minutes

Writers

Jim Jarmusch

12 'Redneck Zombies' (2003)

Directed by Pericles Lewnes

With a title like Redneck Zombies, one can hardly expect this film to be anything other than trash. The plot concerns a barrel of radioactive waste that turns a group of dirt farmers into raging zombies, leading them to attack everyone who crosses their path.

Redneck Zombies is at least self-aware; it knows the type of movie it is, even if it doesn't always fully embrace it. Still, its most ridiculous moments at least seem calculated; they're not necessarily successful, but they don't come across as accidental or the product of ineptitude. Alas, unlike other B-horror movies, Redneck Zombies is not funny enough to rise above the garbage from where it came from. Many will surely find some value in it as a so-bad-it's-good guilty pleasure, but as an entry in the zombie canon, Redneck Zombies is tiresome and largely forgettable.

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11 'Zombie Holocaust' (2007)

Directed by Marino Girolami

A borderline ridiculous blend of the cannibal and zombie genres, the aptly named Zombie Holocaust is a true gem of '80s exploitative mediocrity. The plot follows an anthropologist and his partner finding an island inhabited by cannibals where a mad scientist is creating zombies.

Unlike the much more controversial film whose title it rips off, Zombie Holocaust is neither scandalous enough to be memorable nor shocking enough to be effective. Instead, it's just stupid, featuring a ridiculous plot that would be utterly laughable if it weren't for the abundance of gore and guts splattered on the screen. Even then, Zombie Holocaust is tiresome, offering nothing new in either the thrills or chills department. What remains is an empty effort that will entertain only the most committed fans of Italian and horror cinema.

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10 'Diary of the Dead' (2007)

Directed by George A. Romero

First thing’s first: if George A. Romero hadn’t made Night of the Living Dead in 1968, the world might not have the zombie genre, and for that, he’ll always be a revered figure within horror cinema. He returned to this kind of horror movie several more times following 1968, eventually making six feature-length “of the Dead” with an overall loosely connected series, each one trying to do something a little different from the previous ones.

For 2007’s Diary of the Dead, Romero tried to combine zombie and found footage horror genres, and the results were sometimes interesting, but often messy. It sadly stands as one of the director’s weaker efforts, but there was at least a novel idea here, and some of the execution is admirable/sort of okay if you squint enough, though Diary of the Dead isn’t going to rank as anyone’s favorite Romero zombie film.

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9 'Survival of the Dead' (2009)

Directed by George A. Romero

However, Diary of the Dead can’t be called the worst zombie movie George A. Romero ever directed, as that title would have to go to Survival of the Dead, released just two years later. It sadly became the last film Romero ever made, as he passed away in 2017. Even with it being an inadvertent farewell from Romero to his most well-known films, it’s still probably not worth digging up, even for fans of the “of the Dead” series.

Survival of the Dead takes place on an island, depicting a conflict between two families that would be pretty heated even without the undead being a threat to all involved in the dispute, but yeah, zombies are kind of just there too. It’s a static and not particularly well-made or well-acted movie, feeling clunky and kind of tedious outside a few moments of bloody violence here and there.

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8 'Resident Evil: The Final Chapter' (2016)

Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

Those looking for scares won’t find many in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, as it’s pretty dopey stuff, even by the standards of the Resident Evil film series. Still, the series in question did tell one continuous story over half a dozen installments, being loosely based on the video game series of the same name, and that’s got to count for something. Clearly, there was something of an audience for these movies.

There’s some mindless zombie action to be found here, and perhaps enough of it’s silly enough for The Final Chapter to occasionally veer towards so-bad-it’s-good territory. Other stretches of the movie don’t fare so well, and anyone watching it because they feel obligated to finish the series will likely find themselves continually thankful that it was, as the title suggested, The Final Chapter (at least for the series proper).

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7 'Zombie Lake' (1981)

Directed by Jean Rollin, Julian de Laserna

Sleazy, strange, and distractingly low-budget, Zombie Lake is at least a little infamous, as far as zombie movies go. Those who aren’t zombie movie diehards will have probably been shielded from knowing of Zombie Lake’s existence, but here it is. It’s risen from a grave of obscurity, and while it’s a movie and can’t eat your brains, it would very much like to kill some of your brain cells.

Zombie Lake has a premise that involves Nazi soldiers lying at the bottom of a lake in France coming back to life, predictably terrifying those who are unlucky enough to be nearby. There’s some novelty in seeing a French zombie movie, perhaps (they were more commonly produced in Italy during the 1970s and ‘80s), but there’s some pretty tasteless and stupid stuff here. Only those with a high tolerance for trash will be able to power through the entirety of this one.

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6 'Day of the Dead' (2008)

Directed by Steve Miner

1985’s Day of the Dead is an exceptionally gory and downbeat zombie movie, pushing past the level of violence seen in most horror movies (even R-rated ones) and being one of George A. Romero’s most well-regarded works. Almost a quarter of a century later, it got a remake in the form of 2008’s Day of the Dead, which is a textbook example of how not to make a zombie movie (and how not to tackle a remake).

The premise is shared across both movies, following a desperate and claustrophobic struggle to survive a zombie outbreak, but the 2008 version is clunky, poorly paced, largely boring, and not well-acted, even by B-rate horror movie standards. When a better version exists and still holds up well, despite its age, there’s really no reason to pay any attention to a remake that is, in every conceivable way, worse.

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5 'Zombie Strippers' (2008)

Directed by Jay Lee

While Zombie Strippers clearly wants to be a so-bad-it’s-good zombie/monster/horror movie, its execution is lazy, clearly relying on having an eye-catching title while doing little to be compelling as an actual film. Yes, the big draw of Zombie Strippers is that the zombies are strippers, so you get a combination of sex and violence that might sound like dumb fun, or a guilty pleasure, but can’t even claim to be that, in practice.

Most people will probably want to stay away from Zombie Strippers the same way they’d likely want to avoid an actual zombie stripper, but anyone morbidly curious should also pinch/slap themselves and stay away, too. It’s a movie that’s mostly been forgotten about since its release, and while bringing it up now does run the risk of intriguing people… just don’t. Don’t be interested. Don’t bother. But if you are dying for the Zombie Strippers experience, just set up two TVs with two different DVD/Blu-ray players and watch Dawn of the Dead on one screen and Showgirls on the other, both playing side-by-side, instead.

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4 'The Astro-Zombies' (1968)

Directed by Ted V. Mikels

To give The Astro-Zombies some credit, it came out the same year as the aforementioned Night of the Living Dead. But while the latter is groundbreaking and an overall definitive cult classic, The Astro-Zombies is sadly quite boring, never quite living up to its intriguing-sounding name. As far as horror/sci-fi B-movies go, it’s a bit of a drag.

The plot of The Astro-Zombies is fairly expected low-budget horror stuff, following a mad scientist who has an interest in reanimation, and continually has misadventures that see him encountering all sorts of unexpected adversaries, all the while also dealing with a CIA agent. The Astro-Zombies feels like it’s so close to being something fun, at least by B-movie standards, but the whole thing is a chore to watch, even with a broadly goofy premise that might make one hope for fun that never really comes.

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3 'Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis' (2005)

Directed by Ellory Elkayem

While Return of the Living Deadranks up there as one of the best B-movies released during the 1980s, its sequels don’t tend to fare quite as well, particularly when it comes to the two released back in 2005. The first of those was Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis, which revolves around a group of young people accidentally unleashing a horde of zombies while trying to help/rescue a friend, forcing them into a fight for their lives.

It's got zombie horror, something of an emphasis on action, and it’s purportedly trying to be funny at times, too, but the execution of Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis is off, leading to inevitable boredom. Gory zombie shenanigans are usually mindless fun, even if pulled off imperfectly, but this film stands as an example of how not to handle this brand of zombie mayhem.

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2 'Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave' (2005)

Directed by Ellory Elkayem

As mentioned before, there were two Return of the Living Dead movies released in 2005, making the pair something of a duology, albeit a cursed one. Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave was the second of the two, and was arguably even worse overall than Necropolis, even though its title suggests comedy was trying to be emphasized more than before (albeit unsuccessfully, ultimately).

Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave is about a Halloween party that spirals dangerously out of control, all thanks to a drug being sold on a college campus that basically turns anyone who uses it into a zombie. It’s such a broad premise for a comedic horror movie that it’s baffling how unwatchable Rave to the Grave ends up being. It’s best to chuckle at the silly (and perhaps slightly eye-catching title) and then simply move on with one’s life.

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1 'House of the Dead' (2003)

Directed by Uwe Boll

A living legend when it comes to entertainingly (or at least bafflingly) bad movies, Uwe Boll has made too many infamous movies to count, with 2003’s House of the Dead being just one of them. The story here serves as something of a prequel to the video game series of the same name, following various people at a rave trying to survive after countless zombies begin attacking their party.

That means it has an oddly similar premise to Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave, but even if it was technically the first, it still might be the worst of the two. House of the Dead is plagued with technical issues and baffling creative decisions, but there can be something mesmerizing about a movie quite this bad. For that, it might well be the “worst” zombie movie, sure, but it could well also be more entertaining than many of the aforementioned – and technically “less bad” – zombie films.

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