Jeremy’s Top Ten List of Zombie…Things

Zombie culture is, and will continue to be, a huge part of media. Because of the vast landscape the mythos opens up for exploration, for analogy, for plain old fun…artists in many formats crave the possibilities zombies provide almost as much as those same zombies crave brains. And, so…I couldn’t narrow my list to one type of zombie art. That is why I am presenting my Top Ten List of Zombie Things.

10. Monster Island, by David Wellington (book)

This book does an amazing job of showing what it would look like to truly live among the undead. The layers of the characters, as well as their environments, help make it awesome. Plus, there is a fully-functioning zombie that still has the ability to think as one of the main characters. Bonus.

9. Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (movie)

This movie epitomizes the “excess is better” dogma of many early, low-budget horror and gore films. The acting is awful, the pacing is all over the place…but the final scene makes the wait well worth it. Also, it was directed by the guy that directed “A Christmas Story”.

8. Dead Rising (video game)

One of the gimmicks zombie movies use the most to create fear is claustrophobia. Being trapped in a shopping mall with thousands of undead walkers is one of the most classic examples. This video game captures that feeling perfectly, even down to the horrors of trying to get from place to place within the mall in the middle of the night…no lights, and extra frisky zombies.

7. Colin (movie)

The one thing lacking from most major movies about zombies is what it really feels like to be among the undead. Most of us would simply think the entire existence would revolve around the word “Brains…” but this movie goes a long way towards showing the true intricacies of a zombie existence…told entirely from a zombie’s perspective.

6. World War Z, by Max Brooks (book)

One of the critiques of zombie movies and books of the past is a lack of taking themselves seriously. Max Brooks does an amazing job of presenting an entire history of outbreak, and through it all the realism is so gripping you wonder when this is actually going to happen. Get your shotguns ready.

5. Left 4 Dead (video game)

In an actual zombie apocalypse, the one thing you would try never to be is alone. This game is hugely entertaining for the community it builds between the characters. The action and violence is fast and hard, and you deal with your teammates’ failures just as often as their successes.

4. Dead Alive (movie)

Before exploring Middle-Earth with the Hobbits, Peter Jackson showed us what it looks like to fight off hordes of zombies with a lawnmower as the weapon of choice. Classic mayhem.

3. Zombi 2 (Zombie in America) (movie)

“We are going to eat you!” Banned in several countries for its gore, a move that often does more for a movie’s publicity than any trailer or advertising, this flick captures the feel of a B-movie as well as connects the viewer to the characters just enough to make it not random when they are eaten or dismembered. And it has a zombie fighting a shark.

2. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (book)

Some would say that cannibalistic zombies are what has always been missing from classical literature. This book proves it. Making Jane Austin something I want to read is a feat only accomplished by zombies.

1. Night of the Living Dead (1968) (movie)

Classic. The standard. The single-biggest influence on zombie cinema in history. Pure genius from start to finish. I really, really like this movie.

NOTE: Click the above link to watch NOTLD in it’s entirety on youtube!