16. Diary of the Dead

George Romero’s latest film, released in 2007, Diary of the Dead was shot on a budget because Romero wanted to return to his roots as an indie-filmmaker. The story tells the tale of several college students who, while filming a horror movie in the woods, suddenly hear over the radio numerous reports of the undead rising from their graves. Shot from handheld cameras, Diary of the Dead is raw, frightening footage that manages to make the zombie apocalypse feel more real than ever before. Particularly frightening: a scene where one of the students returns home to find her family has become zombies and has to fight them off.

15. Zombieland

In Zombieland, a 2009 film, Woody Harrelson plays the part of a loser who finally finds his greatest talent when the world goes to hell in a zombie apocalypse. He is an excellent zombie killer. Joined by several teenagers, they take a road trip to try and find a safe place to hole up and fight off the hordes, all while making zombie-killing a game. They end up in Bill Murray’s mansion, where the actor is disguised as a zombie in order to blend in, and eventually work their way to an amusement park outside of LA, where they fight off swarms of zombies. Hilarious, and the highest-grossing zombie film of all time.

14. They Hunger

This Half-Life mod was given a heroes welcome in 1999 and 2000. It was a harbinger for the modding community, a game built using Half-Life’s modding tools and shared throughout the PC gaming community. It was so popular that PC Gamer packaged it with their magazine. But beyond it’s popularity and it’s impact (along with that of Day of Defeat) on the modding community, They Hunger was a truly terrifying journey into a world suddenly swarming with zombies. Dark, moody, and full of zombies, They Hunger was a triumph in zombie gaming for its atmosphere and story.

13. Dead Alive

Directed by Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings and King Kong fame), this gem from 1992 is an independent, New Zealand-made film that tells the story of an unlucky chap, Lionel Cosgrove, whose dear mother is bit by a Sumatran monkey captured from the tropics. The monkey is infected with a deadly, zombie-causing virus and soon Lionel has his hands very full. The film is equal parts zombie horror and zomcom (zombie comedy). There is a dinner party where Lionel’s mother begins literally losing body parts as she eats, disgusting the guests. She then infects several people, such as a nurse who comes to check on her, and Lionel moves the zombies into the basement. Eventually, however, the infected escape and attack guests of his Uncle, a hard partier who throws a lavish celebration upon believing that he is going to inherit the house following the death of his sister. Cue a massive bloodbath and Lionel using a lawnmower to combat zombies, and you have a masterpiece of zombie filmmaking and perhaps Peter Jackson’s most criminally ignored film.

12. Headcrab Zombies

Headcrab zombies first appeared in Half-Life. Though quite scary in the original game, they truly became terrifying in Half-Life 2. The horror of the headcrab zombies was four-fold. Firstly, they let out a terrible, horrifying scream, as though the human being controlled by the horrible parasites was still alive and wanting out of his situation. Secondly, the variety of headcrab zombies was greatly increased. There were the fast, werewolf like ones, the hunchbacked ones who threw venomous spiders at you, and the horrible, slow moving, screaming ones. Thirdly, there was Ravenholm, where you had to navigate dark streets crowded with the town’s infected civilians, listening to their moans and screams coming from all angles. Finally, and most importantly, the headcrab zombies were terrifying because of how they were utilized by the Combine as weapons. Dropped in on bombs to infect and kill entire towns, headcrab zombies were no longer random aliens, but a vicious, terrifying, semi-human weapon. They were straight out of our nightmares.