Top 5 Zombie Movies: The Living Dead Are Re-Animated Through the Gates of Hell

Zombie films have seen a much-needed recrudescence in the past five years. They barely existed in the 90's. Perhaps the subgenre had worn itself out after exploding in the 80's and dispelling gelatinous goo onto pop culture's collective face. Horror buffs have debated the definition of "zombie" for decades. Is this or that a zombie movie? Well, it depends on if this or that happened. I can't give you an all-inclusive definition of the word. All I can do is use my own personal definition to help me create this list. One fact is incontrovertible - there are tons of cool zombie flicks out there. There are way more than five, but for what it's worth, here are my top five zombie films of all time…

1. Night of the Living Dead (original) ~ An obvious choice, but I can't help it. George Romero unwittingly inspired a legion of bloodthirsty filmmakers. This was the first zombie film to depict the undead as flesh-eating automatons. It's domesticated by today's standards, but it turned heads and snapped necks upon its release. Night wasn't just a splatter powerhouse. It spilled over with social commentary that is still relevant today. Two venerated sequels followed, but in my uninformed opinion, the original reigns supreme.

2. Re-Animator ~ Depending on how pedantic you are, this may or may not be a zombie bender. The plot involves re-animated dead tissue, so I'm filing it in the zombie cabinet. This was one of the first fright flicks to blend scares with laughs. Director Stuart Gordon's use of black comedy is masterful. Re-Animator wouldn't be so funny without its memorable cast. Jeffrey Combs's energetic, psychoneurotic performance as Dr. Herbert West might be the best turn as a mad scientist in horror history. And then there's the "head giving head" scene. Pure genius!

3. Cemetery Man ~ Michele Soavi's parabolic mindrape of a genre film is one of the more original zombie showcases on the block. It stars Rupert Everett as a pensive gravedigger who oversees a cemetery where the dead return to life on a daily basis. Killing the undead is just a part of his humdrum routine. That's really all that I can say about Cemetery Man without writing a novel. There are so many bizarre plot twists, that I wouldn't even be able to find the words to describe them.
Everett
is exceptional, the death sequences are humorously gruesome, and the visual metaphors are fun to analyze. Cemetery Man could pass for an art-house character study, but it also delivers mindless entertainment. If you haven't seen it, pick it up pronto.

4. White Zombie ~ In the early days of the cinema, zombies were voodoo-induced drones forced into slave labor. 1932's White Zombie is believed to be the first zombie film of all time. The storyline concerns Murder Legendre (as played by Bela Lugosi), a creepy plantation owner who has spellbound people into running his mill. This is classic horror at its most classic. The atmosphere is mucid with gloom, Lugosi is truly entrancing, and the antiquated special effects are charming in their own weird way. And yes, this is where the band White Zombie got their name.

5. The Gates of Hell ~ Italian gore god Lucio Fulci was notorious for directing bloody, plotless celluloid shockers. The Gates of Hell sees Fulci at his bloodiest and most plotless. Don't ask me to untangle the script for you, but I enjoy the hell out of this zombie flick. It's practically caked with dirt and grime. The film itself is dressed and fashioned in a zombie's image. The pacing is sluggish (don't worry, it's a good sluggish), the photography is sullied with grain (don't worry, it adds to the effect), and the bloodshed is uncompromising. Would you like to see a girl puke up her own intestines? Me, too! The Gates of Hell isn't amusing for all the right reasons, but it's really, really amusing. You can't go wrong with spaghetti splatter.