Z-Day Preparation: ‘Must-Watch’ Zombie Movie Marathon – Plus Preview for Romeo & Juliet vs. the Living Dead

Posted by webmistress Llama Mama on behalf of the Action Flick Chick who is spending Z-Day in an undisclosed location, presently fortifying the perimeter.

Important Z-Day Reading:
Zombie Survival Guide for a Small Town
Every Zombie Movie Ever Made

To assist you in your Z-Day preparations, we thought we should share this information regarding the “must-watch” zombie movies.

People hit the Action Flick Chick with questions, far too many for her answer them all, and yet she loves to tackle as many as she can – well, as many as she can without running out of time for all the other things she needs to do. She’s the Action Flick Chick, not Answer This Chick. Here’s a great question she got not long ago.

@shaneandrew82 : what’re some “must haves” in a Zombie movie marathon?

Others backed Shane up on wanting the Chick’s opinion, but this is the kind of thing where it’s much more fun for her to find out what her friends and fans think. So she turned the question around and asked for everyone else’s thoughts.

These were the most popular answers:

1. Shaun of the Dead
2. Night of the Living Dead (original)
3. Dawn of the Dead (original)
4-5. 28 Days Later tied with Braindead a.k.a. Dead Alive
6. Dawn of the Dead (remake – see how much the Chick loves it)
7. Fido
8. Dawn of the Dead (unclear which one they meant)

And then many others got one or two mentions apiece. Interestingly, the very popular Zombieland had come up shortly before we first discussed it and yet it only ranked among the 1-2 mention films. Now this certainly does not mean these have to be the very best and in this particular order. It can simply mean that these are the best known – or at least, the best known among @actionchick’s twitter followers.

Remember, the question wasn’t about what’s good. It was about which ones are the “must-watch” zombie movies. That’s very difficult. With some, you must watch to see how amazingly terrible they are. The author of the great webcomic Ardra made sure he had it covered both ways.

@ThatArdraGuy: @actionchick Romero “Dead” trilogy for good, “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living & Became Mixed-Up Zombies” for bad.

Opinions definitely differ.

@elpepedepepes: @actionchick ALL Three resident evil movies and return of the living dead with tony todd
@seanaltes @actionchick I’ve scratched off any Resident Evil flick. I’d watch Scooby Doo Zombie Island over RE.

A bit of discussion ensued over the number of Nazi zombies movies, particularly between actors Amanda Bladon and Scott Dawson over Shock Waves and Dead Snow. There are many more movies about Nazi zombies, though.

People also contemplated some films that have not yet come out but which look interesting – like this:

Romeo and Juliet vs. the Living Dead

In addition to the seven listed at the top of this page, these also got mentioned:

Army of Darkness
Automaton Transfusion
The Boneyard (“it has Phyllis Diller as a zombie, and a giant poodle monster” – @TheKappa023)
Cemetery Man
City of the Living Dead
Day of the Dead
Deadgirl
Gangs of the Dead
Hell of the Living Dead
I Am Legend
The Incredibly Strange Beings That Suddenly Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
Night of the Comet
Night of the Creeps
Night of the Living Dead 3D
People Under the Stairs
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Planet Terror
Rabid Grannies (Les mémés cannibales)
[REC]
Redneck Zombies
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 3
Return of the Living Dead
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island
Sexykiller
Shaun of the Dead
Shock Waves
Slither
Versus
Wild Zero
Zombie
Zombie Diaries
Zombie Holocaust
plus Thriller video

Oh, yeah. We got a couple of smart alec suggestions too:

Crossroads
Gigli

Frankly we’d expected more of the smart aleckiness.

So which ones do YOU think should be here that aren’t? If you had to pick just one?

We are going to add a list of everyone who participated in the discussions that created these lists, but Z-day is happening right now so this couldn’t wait.