5 Zombie Movies Worth Eating Brains For

5. White Zombie (1932)
In some senses the original zombie picture, White Zombie stars a youthful Bela Lugosi as the ruthless proprietor of a sugar refinery run on zombie slave labor. As a pre-Romero film, the White zombies aren't cannibal cadavers, but living humans induced to mindless servitude by voodoo. Predictably, by the conclusion, Lugosi has been destroyed by his own creations in order to make way for the consummation of a cornball romance that has been brewing since the film's opening. The movie remains worth seeing for its inimitably haunting silver-screen aura and atmospheric pseudoclassical score.

4. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Considered the definitive zomedy by many, Shaun of the Dead pits a UK slacker and his mates against the rampaging undead. The humor is deft and distinctively British (hint: if you fancied Black Books even a little, don't miss this) and the characters are given enough attention that when they start to die at the claws of the zombie hordes, it does make an impact. A good movie, a good zombie movie, and good fun.

3. Army of Darkness (1993)
A sequel to iconic unintentional comedy The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness sends square-jawed, chainsaw-handed warrior Ash to the Middle Ages, along with the curse of undeath that has been plaguing him since movie one. A deft fusion of humor and vigorously violent action, Army has earned its status among the greats of cinema (no small feat for a film so unapologetically lowbrow). "This is my boomstick!"

2. Braindead (1992)
The undisputed pinnacle of splatstick, Braindead (released as Dead Alive in some regions) is an early work of Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. When shy and submissive Lionel's domineering mother is transformed into the undead by the bite of a Sumatran Rat Monkey, he must gather his courage and save New Zealand from a zombie apocalypse. Physical humor, ingenious and horrendously disgusting to equal degree, abounds: kissing zombies chomp off one another's lips, a dozen shambling undead are fed into a lawnmower, a man is strangled by animated intestines, and so forth. There's also a cute romance subplot, so Braindead has a little something for everyone.

1. Dawn of the Dead(1978)
Romero at the height of his genius, Dawn of the Dead coined the zombies-in-a-mall trope and does a superb job of blending frenzied horror and brooding isolation. Dawn is the height of Romero's Dead quadrilogy and can be viewed as the conceptual origin of almost every half-decent zombie film, comic, and book released since, from The Walking Dead to World War Z. Fun fact: the film was originally intended to end with the deaths of all the protagonists, with the character of Fran committing suicide by jumping into turning helicopter rotors