George A Romero is the king of the zombie films, when the first one of his hugely popular Living Dead series came out it would have been had to imagine the series would continue up to the most recent outing in 2009. George has shown his ability to bring his creation into different eras of horror showing he can evolve with the times. He also worked with horror author Stephen King kick starting the Creepshow series of films. Today I am going to look rank the Living Dead films because just doing a top five will mostly consist of at least four of them anyway.
6. Survival of the Dead (2009)
This is the one that most people hardly realize even got released and there is a good reason for that. We do get a clever tie into the Diary of the Dead where we meet the soldiers who make a brief appearance in that one become the leading character as they look for an island to start again on. This one does have a good concept but the acting is weak but it does have a couple of shocking moments including the horse riding zombie.
5. Land of the Dead (2005)
In this outing zombies have taken over the world and the rich live in a secure town, people risk their lives going on outings to collect essentials but when one of the zombies fails to get distracted by the fireworks he leads the rest towards the town leaving even the safest location compromised. I like this one because we focus on everyday survival instead of a panic to find somewhere for safety.
4. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The original that made the impact on the world, I do respect this film the most because of how it changed the zombie genre, it also has one of the most controversial endings in film history. The reason it is so low on this list because it only shows one night of survival which works for the film but for the series it was just the baby steps of potential.
3. Day of the Dead (1985)
Day is often considered the most underrated in this series and in many ways it is, this time we follow a group inside a military base trying to learn about the zombie outbreak. This has the iconic scene where one of the zombies has been taught to remember everyday tasks but while training he learns about guns.
2. Diary of the Dead (2007)
I can already hear the keyboards typing in disgust about this choice but here are my reasons for this one to make the number 2 spot. I am a huge fan of the found footage genre but only when it is done correctly, this film embraces the new social media world we live in with how it handles a potential zombie outbreak showing how we would record it for the rest of the world would see it unfold. While I don’t think this is the second best film in the series it is my second favorite because of the sub-genre.
1. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
This is the masterpiece from the legend following a small group of survivors that take shelter in a shopping mall, this has social commentary showing how the at the time new shopping malls just drew people to them like zombies. I remember watching this before any of the rest when I was too young and found myself almost throwing up during the final act of the film, which how only happen in two films for me.