The zombie movie genre has produced some truly iconic horror films, most of which adhere to a strict set of guidelines, but there are also some major examples that have broken the biggest of these rules. The primary expectations for the genre are that the movies should be scary, the zombies should be the enemy, and these creatures should be slow-moving ghouls. However, some zombie movies go against the traditional formula, and the results are highly mixed.
There are now zombie movies that are more funny than scary, some examples with undead protagonists, and others with zombies that can run. A number of the best zombie movies even go for a combination of rule breaks. Essentially, the zombie movie genre has become a lawless free-for-all where anything goes.
10 28 Days Later (2002)
Rule Broken: Zombies Should Be Slow Moving
Danny Boyle’s brilliant post-apocalyptic horror 28 Days Later was the first movie to depict zombies who could run. It’s a frightening film set in Great Britain, where a chimpanzee infected with a “rage virus” is set free by eco-terrorists from a laboratory in Cambridge. Cillian Murphy stars as Jim, a bicycle courier who wakes up from a coma to find the world has gone to hell. The exceptional supporting cast includes Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, and Brendan Gleeson. It serves as an intelligent political allegory and a reflection of social anger at the incompetence of the world’s institutions, and the result is a hell-for-leather experience of pure terror.
9 Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
Rules Broken: Zombies Should Be Slow Moving; Don’t Remake The Classics
Another movie with fast-moving zombies, Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead doubly broke the rules because it used them in a remake of a George A. Romero classic. That sounds sacrilegious, but actually, the Dawn of the Dead remake might be better than the original. Like the 1978 version, it follows a group of survivors seeking refuge in a shopping mall and features several cameos from the original as well as an incredibly memorable zombie baby.
8 The Return Of The Living Dead (1985)
Rules Broken: Zombies Should Be Slow Moving; Zombies Are Killed By Destroying The Brain
The comedy horror The Return of the Living Dead chronicles how a warehouse owner, two of his employees, a mortician, and some teenage punks combat an army of brain-eating zombies in their hometown. It breaks the slow-moving zombie rule by having ghouls that can move faster than a brisk walk, but its main rule break differs. In this one, destroying a zombie’s brain won’t kill it. Chopping a zombie up even results in its body parts moving independently. The only way to destroy them is by burning them to ash. It’s a silly film but enormously fun. Notably, it was the first zombie movie depicting zombies eating brains.
7 Fido (2006)
Rule Broken: Zombie Movies Are Apocalyptic Depictions Of Undead Hordes; Zombie Movies Aren’t Funny
Fido is a comedy horror film set in an alternate 1950s, after a war between humans and zombies. Rather than depicting a world overrun by the creatures, it shows one where humans have controlled the last remaining zombies with electronic collars and keep them as pets or servants. In the film, one zombie pet, the eponymous Fido, gets loose and causes havoc when his collar malfunctions. It’s a funny and touching film that makes the most of a straightforward premise, and there’s plenty of blood and guts for gore fans.
6 Pontypool (2008)
Rule Broken: Zombies Spread The Virus By Biting Their Victims
Pontypool is a Canadian horror movie based on Tony Burgess’s 1995 novel Pontypool Changes Everything. It depicts a deadly zombie virus outbreak in the titular town from the point of view of a shock jock radio host. The twist in this one is that the virus spreads via the English language, with various words infected and different ones affecting different people. It’s a brilliantly intelligent metaphor for the power of words, cleverly conveying how language spreads so uncontrollably in the modern age. While it’s claustrophobic and cerebrally scary, it’s also wonderfully funny and hugely impressive for a film with such a small budget.
5 Colin (2008)
Rule Broken: Zombies Can’t Be The Protagonists
Colin‘s first rule break comes in the form of its budget. The British zombie movie cost just £45 (approximately $55), used amateur actors, was filmed on a 1990s model standard definition Panasonic mini-DV camcorder, and was edited on Adobe Premier 6 on a home computer. Its other major rule break is that its title character, Colin, is a zombie and the movie’s unlikely sympathetic hero. The film follows him as he wanders through suburbia amid the apocalypse. Colin is a charming, minimalist film and an impressive directorial debut for comedian and actor Marc Price. Not much happens, but it’s an intriguing watch and remarkably slick, given its ludicrously small production budget.
4 Wasting Away (2007)
Rule Broken: Zombies Can’t Be The Protagonists
The comedy Wasting Away — aka Aaah! Zombies!! — offers a brilliant twist on zombie movie norms. When a group of friends become zombies after eating ice cream contaminated with an experimental military serum, they don’t realize what’s happened and still see themselves as normal humans, and they view humans as zombies. The movie then takes place from their point of view, switching to black-and-white occasionally to show how humans view them as monsters. It’s an incredibly clever and innovative gimmick, and Wasting Away’s brilliant humor makes it a modern cult classic that every genre fan should watch.
3 Anna And The Apocalypse (2017)
Rules Broken: Zombie Movies Aren’t Holiday Films; Zombie Movies Aren’t Musicals
Two genres not typically associated with zombie movies are holiday films and musicals. Anna and the Apocalypse throws the rule book away and sets it on fire, as it’s a Christmas-set zombie musical movie. It’s based on Ryan McHenry’s 2010 short film Zombie Musical and depicts a zombie virus outbreak in the small and quiet Scottish town of Little Haven, prompting a group of young people to fight their way through it to reach the people they love. It’s an intelligent film with heart in droves, likable characters, some genuinely catchy tunes, and a genius mixing of genres that shouldn’t work but does.
2 Warm Bodies (2013)
Rules Broken: Zombies Can’t Be The Protagonists; Zombie Movies Aren’t Funny
Warm Bodies mixes another unlikely genre with zombies: romantic comedy. That’s right; it’s a zom-rom-com. It’s based on Isaac Marion’s 2010 YA romance novel of the same name, itself loosely based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The movie is set eight years into a zombie apocalypse and focuses on the relationship between a male zombie and a human girl. Their developing romance causes the zombie to revert to human form gradually. With Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer in leading roles and the likes of Dave Franco and John Malkovich supporting, it’s exceptionally well acted. Warm Bodies is sweet, charming, funny, and optimistic to the point of sickliness.
1 Shaun Of The Dead (2004)
Rules Broken: Zombie Movies Aren’t Funny; The Protagonists Should Not Be Relatable Or Incapable Of Fighting
Shaun of the Dead is a British comedy movie about an electronics shop worker and his friends getting caught up in a zombie apocalypse as it unfolds in London. As well as the comedy aspect, it breaks zombie movie rules by making its protagonists relatable characters who aren’t typically capable of fighting their way through hordes of the undead. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are, as usual, brilliant together in the leading roles. Shaun of the Dead is hilarious, witty, cleverly satirical, and has all the gore that bloodthirsty horror fans could ever need. This superb zombie offering is undoubtedly one of the best comedy horror movies ever.
