35 Best Zombie Movies Streaming

Ghosts, goblins, and ghouls are fine, but when it comes to horror, zombies are the rulers of the genre. Whether they're devouring brains, chasing down tasty humans, or learning how to talk and think for themselves, there's something deeply unnerving about zombies. They tend to shine a light on the darker parts of humanity, even when they're bringing people together in a fight for survival.

Of course, it's not all blood, guts, and gloom. Some of the best horror comedies put to film have used the walking dead for inspiration and plot motivation. Zombies aren't just antagonists; they can also be friends, pets, and –- if you can get past the gross factor –- romantic interests. So let's feast on the best zombie movies, from iconic horror to off-the-wall humor, that are streaming today. 

Updated on July 5, 2022: Just like zombies are always staggering around, looking for brains, zombie movies are constantly coming and going from streaming sites. So be sure to check back here each month as we keep an eye out for the best undead movies available online.

Danny Boyle's U.K.-based horror thriller is one of the best zombie movies around. A virus that causes violent rage jumps from chimpanzees to humans, and the world quickly collapses. 28 days after the initial outbreak, poor Jim wakes from a coma in the hospital and has to navigate this new and dangerous world. While the premise may sound incredibly familiar to fans of "The Walking Dead" (in fairness, Boyle's film predates Robert Kirkman's comic), the two stories go in wildly different directions, and the ending of "28 Days Later" has stuck with fans for over two decades, as it shows that when it comes to the zombie apocalypse, humans are far worse than zombies.

• Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson

• Director: Danny Boyle

• Year: 2002

• Runtime: 112 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Released five years after "28 Days Later," the sequel to Danny Boyle's classic opts for a more straightforward action movie approach to the zombie apocalypse. The film keeps the horror and turns up the excitement, and though it might not quite stand up to the original, it's still a highly enjoyable experience. Set six months after the initial zombie outbreak, "28 Weeks Later" explores the destruction that follows the virus finding its way into a refugee settlement. Come for the zombie action, stay for a pre-MCU Jeremy Renner.

• Starring: Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne

• Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

The peak of zombie popularity may have come and gone, but there are still creators making unique stories in the genre. For example, take the incredibly inventive and very scary "#Alive." This 2020 film follows Oh Joon-woo, a video game streamer who's trapped inside his apartment building in Seoul during a zombie apocalypse. When Joon-woo discovers another survivor in his building, the two decide to work together to help each other survive, but they can only hold off against the hordes of undead outside their walls for so long.

• Starring: Yoo Ah-in, Park Shin-Hye, Jeon Bae-soo

• Director: Il Cho

• Year: 2020

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: TV-MA

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

"Army of Darkness" picks up where Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead II" left off. The incredibly unlucky and overly cocky Ash has been transported back to the Middle Ages. Determined to return to his own time, Ash seeks out a copy of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis ... and inadvertently causes an army of Deadites to rise. As a result, Ash and a group of medieval soldiers fight back against the undead monsters in a violent, campy adventure that serves as a great conclusion to the original "Evil Dead" films.

• Starring: Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert

• Director: Sam Raimi

• Year: 1992

• Runtime: 81 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

Netflix's 2021 zombie film has everything you'd expect from a Zack Snyder project: stunning visuals, interesting concepts, and tons of slow motion. Six years after Las Vegas is quarantined due to a zombie virus outbreak, mercenary Scott Ward is hired to retrieve $200 million in cash from an undead-infested casino. Making things more complicated, Scott needs to form a team and get the money out of Vegas before the U.S. government nukes the city. "Army of the Dead" is full of small details that hint at one of the most unique zombie worlds out there.

• Starring: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera

• Director: Zack Snyder

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 148 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%

Less a sequel and more of a spiritual successor to Lucio Fulci's "City of the Living Dead," "The Beyond" follows young Liza Merril who inherits a hotel in Louisiana and gives up her life in New York to live there. Once she arrives, however, she comes to realize the hotel is hiding a gateway to Hell that is unleashing zombies and all kinds of other horrors upon the small rural town. Haunting and surreal, "The Beyond" is one of Lucio Fulci's greatest films.

• Starring: Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale

• Director: Lucio Fulci

• Year: 1981

• Runtime: 87 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%

Italian director Lucio Fulci has been called the Godfather of Gore, and his gruesome films certainly make him deserving of the title. "City of the Living Dead," which is also called "The Gates of Hell," isn't Fulci's most successful film, but its creepy premise and haunting visuals still make it a great horror movie. Journalist Peter Bell rescues psychic Mary Woodhouse from being buried alive, and as the two explore Mary's haunting vision of a dead priest, they stumble upon an open gate to Hell that's causing the dead to rise. 

• Starring: Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo 

• Director: Lucio Fulci

• Year: 1980 

• Runtime: 92 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 46%

What do you get when you combine the writing of James Gunn and the direction of Zack Snyder? You get one of the best remakes of all time with "Dawn of the Dead." 

It's the zombie apocalypse, and the world is on fire. A few survivors take shelter in a shopping mall, and while it might seem like the perfect place to hide out, there's no way you can truly hide from the undead. With its killer opening scene, "Dawn of the Dead" is definitely worthy of George A. Romero's 1978 original.

• Starring: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber

• Director: Zack Snyder

• Year: 1978

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

Released in 1985, "Day of the Dead" is the third of George A. Romero's zombie films, a movie that sees humanity in a more dire position than just about any other zombie story. Set further in the future of the zombie apocalypse, humans are badly outnumbered by the undead. Survivors now live in underground bunkers for their only chance at safety, but in one bunker, the tension caused by life on the edge of survival threatens to destroy the small community. If you like gore, you've come to the right place, as "Day of the Dead" gets a whole lot nastier than Romero's previous films.

• Starring: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato

• Director: George A. Romero

• Year: 1985

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: Not Rated

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

There's something very wrong in the town of Potters Bluff. Strangers show up and are horribly, horribly murdered, prompting Sheriff Dan Gillis to investigate. As he begins tracking down the killers, he starts to suspect that they aren't quite human ... or if they were, they aren't anymore. To say anything else would be to give away the game. But we will say that "Dead & Buried" is absolutely dripping with creepy atmosphere and incredible special effects from Stan Winston. If you like small-town horror, creative kills, and Robert Englund sightings, then "Dead & Buried" might be the movie for you. Unless you hate needles. Then you might want to stay far, far away.

• Starring: James Farentino, Melody Anderson, Jack Albertson

• Director: Gary Sherman

• Year: 1981

• Runtime: 92 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

Director J.R. Bookwalter took more than a little inspiration from Sam Raimi for this 1989 horror film. Raimi himself signed onto the project, anonymously producing it under the name "The Master Cylinder" (via American Genre Film Archive). The story follows a group of government soldiers called the Zombie Squad. Their job is to rid the world of these flesh-eating monsters, but things get complicated when a human cult begins worshiping the undead and helping them survive.

• Starring: Pete Ferry, Bogdan Pecic, Michael Grossi

• Director: J.R. Bookwalter

• Year: 1989

• Runtime: 78 minutes

• Rating: Not Rated

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 48% (Audience Score)

In 2007 George A. Romero returned to the beginning of the zombie apocalypse with "Diary of the Dead." The film follows a group of students traveling across Pennsylvania to try and escape the worst effects of the growing zombie catastrophe. Along the way, they film their various encounters, giving Romero a chance to play with the found-footage genre. "Diary" isn't Romero's strongest zombie entry, but it's fresh enough to stay interesting.

• Starring: Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Shawn Roberts

• Director: George A. Romero

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62%

Produced by Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, "Evil Dead" is a remake of Raimi's 1981 classic, marking the directorial debut of Fede Alvarez. And what a debut it was. Alvarez abandoned the campy humor that Raimi's trilogy became known for with "Evil Dead II" and fully leaned into the story's horror elements. The result is a truly terrifying experience that will linger in the back of your mind for days after you see the credits roll. Newcomers and fans of Raimi's film will find themselves entranced by "Evil Dead."

• Starring: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Jessica Lucas

• Director: Fede Alvarez

• Year: 2013

• Runtime: 91 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 63%

Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead" blurs the line between zombies, possessions, and hauntings, but that's part of what makes it one of the most unique horror films out there. Ash Williams and his friends plan to spend the weekend at an old cabin, but when they find a mysterious book filled with mystical rites, they accidentally unleash an unspeakable evil. Filmed on a shoestring budget, Raimi's film is inventive, terrifying, and blood-soaked all at the same time. It's a must-see horror classic.

• Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy Baker

• Director: Sam Raimi

• Year: 1981

• Runtime: 85 minutes

• Rating: NC-17

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Who says that zombies need to be scary or even dangerous? This 2006 comedy offers an entirely different perspective on the hungry undead. After space radiation causes the dead to become zombies, humanity quickly adapts, and the ZomCon Corporation finds a way to domesticate zombies with special collars. Now used as laborers and pets, the undead are commonplace, but when young Timmy's beloved zombie Fido has a collar malfunction, chaos reigns.

• Starring: Kesun Loder, Billy Connolly, Carrie-Anne Moss

• Director: Andrew Currie

• Year: 2006

• Runtime: 91 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

Jason is back, and this time he's ... part zombie? In "Friday the 13th Part VI," Tommy Jarvis is released from a mental institution even though he's still suffering from visions of the murderous Jason Voorhees. Tommy decides to dig up Jason's corpse to cremate his body and finally free himself from the murderer's legacy, but that plan quickly falls to pieces when lightning strikes Jason's body and resurrects him. Now undead and more powerful and homicidal than ever before, Jason sets off on a killing rampage that perfectly combines old school "Friday the 13th" sensibilities with out-there supernatural elements.

• Starring: Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen

• Director: Tom McLoughlin

• Year: 1986

• Runtime: 87 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 50%

It's difficult to create a zombie movie that presents audiences with something they've never seen before, but that's exactly what "The Girl with All the Gifts" does. Based on a novel by M.R. Carey, the film takes place in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies that are created from a fungal parasite. Children born with the infection have their minds intact, but they still hunger for human flesh. The remnants of humanity are studying the children, hoping to find a cure. A young girl named Melanie may turn out to be exactly what the world needs, if she can survive.

• Starring: Sennia Nanua, Gemma Arterton, Glenn Close

• Director: Colm McCarthy

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 111 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

After "Day of the Dead," George A. Romero took a 20 year break from his "Living Dead" series, but he returned in 2005 with "Land of the Dead." In this film's world, rich bigwigs like Paul Kaufman live in opulence while everyone else is forced to survive on scraps in big cities that offer a modicum of safety from the zombie plague. Unfortunately for Kaufman and the rest of humanity, the zombies are beginning to evolve, and they have their sights set on the city.

• Starring: John Leguizamo, Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper

• Director: George A. Romero

• Year: 2005

• Runtime: 93 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%

"Little Monsters" is a romantic comedy set inside a horror movie. Dave is a failed musician with a crush on his nephew's school teacher, Miss Caroline. He volunteers to chaperone a field trip to talk with Miss Caroline, but when a horde of zombies interrupts the trip, the two of them are forced to work with Teddy McGiggle, a child-hating children's entertainer, in order to save themselves and the entire class. "Little Monsters" pulls off a delicate balancing act between its genres to spectacular effect.

• Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Alexander England, Josh Gad

• Director: Abe Forsythe

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 94 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

Sure, there were zombie movies before "Night of the Living Dead," but this is the film that basically gave us the shambling, flesh-eating creatures we all know and love and kickstarted an entire subgenre. Directed by George A. Romero, "Night of the Living Dead" tells a simple story of struggle and survival in the earliest moments of a zombie apocalypse. As a group of people huddle inside an abandoned house to hide from the undead, protagonist Ben struggles to keep them working together to fight for their lives. The result is a true classic, one brimming with dread, incredible performances, and one of horror's most shocking endings.

• Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman

• Director: George A. Romero

• Year: 1968

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: Not Rated

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Also titled "Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula," this film is set in the same zombie outbreak as the original 2016 Korean hit. Four years after the initial outbreak, most of the world has managed to stay zombie-free by quarantining all of South Korea. Jung-seok (Dong-won Gang) is a former Korea Marine captain now living in Hong Kong. He's hired by the Chinese mob to go back to South Korea to recover $20 million in U.S. currency from a truck. Jung-seok takes the job, but when it goes off the rails, all of his military training is put to the test as he's pushed to his limits.

• Starring: Dong-won Gang, Lee Jung-hyun, Re Lee

• Director: Sang-ho Yeon

• Year: 2020

• Runtime: 116 minutes

• Rating: Not Rated

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 55%

If you're looking for a zombie movie with unexpected developments around every corner, then Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" is for you. The film's zombie outbreak comes from a bioweapon that gets set off near a small Texas town. Through a fever dream of over-the-top zombie action, Cherry and her ex-boyfriend El Wray help each other survive the dead and the living alike. From massive explosions to machine gun legs, "Planet Terror" has it all.

• Starring: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodríguez, Josh Brolin

• Director: Robert Rodriguez

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 86 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

Most zombie stories have the undead virus spread through bites and blood, but 2008's "Pontypool" takes a novel approach to the classic formula. Grant Mazzy is a radio announcer living in Ontario. He's forced to barricade himself in the radio booth when a virus begins transforming the people in his town into zombies. However, Grant eventually realizes the virus is spreading through the English language and struggles to warn the other survivors that silence could save their lives.

• Starring: Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly

• Director: Bruce McDonald

• Year: 2008

• Runtime: 93 minutes

• Rating: Not Rated

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Based on an H.P Lovecraft short story called "Herbert West, Re-Animator," this 1985 film is a perfect combination of unsettling horror and wry humor. Herbert West is a medical student who's stumbled on a treatment that revives the dead. Unfortunately, Herbert's methods are imperfect, and anyone he brings back becomes violent and bloodthirsty. That doesn't dissuade Herbert from pushing his experiments further ... until he creates something utterly inhuman and incredibly dangerous.

• Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton

• Director: Stuart Gordon

• Year: 1985

• Runtime: 86 minutes

• Rating: Not Rated

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Found footage has been done to death, but "REC" shows off the best that the genre has to offer. Ángela is a television reporter who follows a fire department on a call to an apartment building. She and her cameraman Pablo enter the building just before police seal it ... and suddenly, the two of them find themselves trapped inside with the building's occupants as a zombie virus spreads through the group. Tense and terrifying, "REC" is small-budget horror done to near perfection.

• Starring: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza, Jorge-Yamam Serrano

• Director: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 78 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

The "Resident Evil" video game series has been terrifying fans since 1996, but in 2002, the series got its first film adaptation. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, the film follows Alice, a young woman with amnesia who soon meets a group of soldiers attempting break into an underground research facility called the Hive. Alice follows them hoping to discover more about her identity, but she ends up encountering bloodthirsty zombies and a rogue supercomputer. Despite receiving some pretty poor reviews, "Resident Evil" inspired a dedicated fan base and numerous sequels. After all, it's pure 2000s action awesomeness.

• Starring: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Ryan McCluskey

• Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

• Year: 2002

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 36%

"The Return of the Living Dead" walks a series of tightropes over the course of its 91-minute runtime. The film delicately balances between horror and comedy, and its zombies are a mixture of classic tropes and irreverent spins on traditional lore. The story follows a group of local squares who accidentally unleash hell, as well as some teen punks who are partying in a graveyard when the dead rise and begin a bloody search for brains. Unapologetically goofy but undeniably horrifying, debut director Dan O'Bannon (the writer of "Alien") created a genre entry that remains genuinely unforgettable almost 40 years after its release.

• Starring: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa

• Director: Dan O'Bannon

• Year: 1985

• Runtime: 91 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Shaun spends his days bouncing between working a dead-end job, playing video games with his best friend and roommate Ed, and spending time with his frustrated girlfriend Liz. In other words, Shaun is a slacker, and his life begins falling apart when his girlfriend dumps him. Then the world starts falling apart when zombies show up on the streets of his hometown, forcing Shaun to grow up if he wants to stay alive and get his girlfriend back. Edgar Wright's comedic take on a zombie outbreak is every bit as hilarious as it was in 2004. It has a great script paired with excellent performances that make it a joy to watch, despite all the blood.

• Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield

• Director: Edgar Wright

• Year: 2004

• Runtime: 97 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

"Shivers" is one of the earliest films from famed horror director David Cronenberg. He hadn't quite dialed in his signature nauseating body horror yet, but that doesn't make "Shivers" any less horrifying. The film focuses on a kind of zombie virus that makes people sex-crazed and violent. The virus comes from tiny parasites that enter the body through any kind of sexual contact, giving this film's zombies an extra creepy twist. It's not only an excellent zombie movie but also an interesting look at a legendary director early in his career.

• Starring: Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry

• Director: David Cronenberg

• Year: 1975

• Runtime: 87 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

One of the earliest films to feature what's now a zombie genre staple, "Shock Waves" includes an encounter with Nazi zombies. Peter Cushing stars as an SS commander in charge of Nazi Germany's "Death Corps" –- undead soldiers who are incapable of giving up the fight. The commander sunk his own ship when the zombies became too difficult to control, but now they're rising from the ocean to terrorize a group of tourists along the beach. More notable for all the future content it inspired than its own success, "Shock Waves" is still well worth a watch.

• Starring: Peter Cushing, John Carradine, Brooke Adams

• Director: Ken Wiederhorn

• Year: 1977

• Runtime: 86 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 40% (Audience Score)

2016's "Train to Busan" is a brilliantly inventive take on the zombie genre. Overly busy businessman Seok-woo is taking his daughter Soo-an to see her mother in Busan. The two of them board a train, but unbeknownst to them, another passenger is infected with a zombie virus. As the virus spreads, passengers are forced to work together or die as the overrun train speeds to its destination. Filled with great action, great characters, and great performances, "Train to Busan" will thrill any fans of the genre.

• Starring: Gong Yoo, Ma Dong-seok, Choi Woo-sik

• Director: Yeon Sang-ho

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 118 minutes

• Rating: Not Rated

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Adapted from Isaac Marion's 2010 novel, "Warm Bodies" is "Night of the Living Dead" meets "Romeo and Juliet." The central character of this rom-com is a zombie named R. Sure, he may be dead, but he still has sentience and his own free will. In fact, he develops a crush on human survivor Julie, and their love just might save the world from the zombie apocalypse. "Warm Bodies" is charming, funny, and a welcome departure from the typical zombie movie formula. 

• Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich

• Director: Jonathan Levine

• Year: 2013

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

Released in 1932, "White Zombie" is one of the earliest zombie films, although it explores a very different origin for cinema's favorite shambling creatures. Rather than being created by a virus or parasite, the zombies in this film are the product of voodoo magic. Bela Lugosi stars as the witch doctor "Murder" Legendre, an evil man who controls zombies with his mystical powers. "White Zombie" is fantastic both as a historical artifact and as a brief but frightening black-and-white zombie experience.

• Starring: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, Joseph Cawthorn

• Director: Victor Halperin

• Year: 1932

• Runtime: 73 minutes

• Rating: Not Rated

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

While "World War Z" is based on the 2006 Max Brooks novel of the same name, the film eschews most of the book's story in favor of a more straightforward action adventure. Brad Pitt stars as Gerry Lane, a U.N. investigator who's trying to track down any hint of a cure for the zombie virus before the entire planet is overrun by the undead. It may not be the most unique zombie tale out there, but it has some great visuals and some undeniably scary moments, including the fastest horde of undead runners you're ever going to see.

• Starring: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz

• Director: Marc Forster

• Year: 2013

• Runtime: 115 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%

A film that goes by many names — "Zombie," "Zombi 2," Zombie Flesh Eaters" — this Lucio Fulci classic goes the voodoo route with its walking dead. The plot follows a journalist and a young woman who work to uncover what kind of secret research her father is conducting on a Caribbean island. They couldn't be prepared for what they find, and before long, the two of them are fighting for their lives against the mindless undead, all as the fate of the world may be at stake. And yes, this movie does feature a zombie doing battle with a shark. Can you get more epic than that?

• Starring: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson

• Director: Lucio Fulci

• Year: 1979

• Runtime: 110 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 42%