There’s nothing like a good zombie movie. The first major mention of zombies came from William Seabrook’s book The Magic Island, according to AMC. This book speculated about and exaggerated Haitian voodoo.

Since then, there have been several adaptations of zombies on the big screen. Some of these movies have great plots and strong characters. They scared us in all the right ways.

Here’s the bad news:

Some zombie movies have scared us simply because they were awful. Bad budgets, bad acting, and bad ideas have plagued the zombie genre for years.

Here are 5 of the best and worst zombie movies.

Best

5. Dawn of the Dead

Greg Romero, the director of this movie, is a pioneer of zombie films. This follow up to Night of the Living Dead inspired the many other zombie movie directors. The movie has a deeper theme of consumerism as the living hunger for the luxuries of the mall (the setting of the movie). A parallel is drawn between the flesh-eating zombies and the humans.

4. 28 Days Later

This movie received criticism for its depiction of “rage” zombies, as opposed to rotting, slow-moving corpses. That being said, the movie’s different depiction of the undead make it delightfully horrifying. The upgraded zombies spread the virus around London within a month. The movie made people afraid to save animals from medical research laboratories, even if it is a good cause.

3. Shaun of the Dead

This movie mixes humor and zombies into an almost perfect blend. It also has an underlying theme of consumerism, like Dawn of the Dead. (It is a parody after all.) The characters hilariously act like zombies in order to survive. Plus, it has some pretty creative zombie kills.

2. Zombieland

With one of the largest budgets within this genre, Zombieland seemed to deliver in every way. This movie is another comedic zombie flick and gave us good laughs, excellent zombie kills, and even Bill Murray. The movie also provide an excellent set of tips for zombie survival to help the zombie-apocalypse faithful. Don’t forget cardio people.

1. Night of the Living Dead

There is no movie (past, present or future) that could ever dethrone the king of all zombie movies. Again, Greg Romero is the greatest mind the zombie movie genre has. Before this movie, zombie flicks focused on some mastermind behind the reanimation of the undead. Night of the Living Dead gives them a mind of their own. It also addressed deeper issues such as racism, putting it ahead of its time.

Worst

5. World War Z

Some may protest against putting this movie on this list, but hear us out; there are many silly elements in it. The zombies just don’t live up to zombies in other films. We liked the “rage” zombies in 28 Days Later. These zombies just chase people, bite them once and turn them. Zombies are supposed to be flesh-eating monsters. These zombies are too tactical. They aren’t supposed to climb up a big wall around Israel. There are plenty of other things wrong with this movie, but there are also other movies to talk about.

4. Plan 9 from Outer Space

Bad acting, bad product design, and a bad plot. It takes a true talent to mix aliens and zombies. Unfortunately for this movie, that talent is nowhere to be found.

3. Gangs of the Dead a.k.a Last Rites

Rival gangs have to band together in order to survive a zombie outbreak, but all they seem to do is portray blatant racial stereotypes. This movie is corny and has no conflict despite being focused on rival gangs.

2. Redneck Zombies

Do we really need to say anything else? Maybe we could say one thing to truly express how ridiculous this movie is: the zombies one repellent is deodorant.

1. House of the Dead

This is a stain on the underwear of the zombie movie genre. There’s just no other way to put it. Following a group of teens at an island rave, the plot of this movie is simply ridiculous. The cherry on top of this awful sundae is that the movie has the cheesiest of matrix scenes.

Do you agree with our list? Comment and leave your opinion on the worst and best zombie movies.