Contagious violence
by Mighty_Emperor | created - 10 Dec 2011 | updated - 3 weeks ago | PublicOften very similar to zombie movies but the dead aren't reanimated, instead some kind of "infection" turns the population into raging cannibals.
Despite not ticking all the boxes for a zombie film there is plenty of crossover (especially as The Last Man on Earth inspired Romero's zombies) and a fan of the undead should be just fine with these too, especially as classifying them separately from zombies means any extra abilities (like running fast, and even free running) won't be too jarring. Most are worth a rental although some, like almost all the I Am Legend adaptations, 28 X Later, The Crazies, Quarantine and Pontypool are good enough to seek out.
See also: The vengeful dead (another group of films often grouped with zombie films) and contagion (for films where a lot of people get sick and just die). There is also they walk amongst us for more subtle takeovers (as some of the films on this list involve infection by an alien virus or parasite in order to violently take over the world - see Slither as a good example)
Comments: As I don't have a Facebook account I cannot interact with the new comments system, so have switched it off and replaced it with a thread on the message board.
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. The Crazies (1973)
R | 103 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
The military attempts to contain a manmade combat virus that causes death and permanent insanity in those infected, as it overtakes a small Pennsylvania town.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, Lloyd Hollar
Votes: 14,797 | Gross: $0.15M
Here for the thumbnail graphic, the list starts below:
2. The Mad Ghoul (1943)
Passed | 65 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A university chemistry professor experiments with an ancient Mayan gas on a medical student, turning the would-be surgeon into a murdering ghoul.
Director: James P. Hogan | Stars: David Bruce, Evelyn Ankers, George Zucco, Robert Armstrong
Votes: 891
Possibly not contagious but definitely induced, zombie-like cannibalism amongst the living, which is exactly what we are looking for here.
3. The Brain Eaters (1958)
Approved | 61 min | Sci-Fi, Horror
The inhabitants of a small Illinois town begin disappearing after a strange cone is found sticking out of the ground nearby.
Director: Bruno VeSota | Stars: Ed Nelson, Alan Jay Factor, Cornelius Keefe, Joanna Lee
Votes: 1,804
An early pioneer of the parasitic possession theme.
4. The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
When a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant vampire hunter.
Directors: Ubaldo Ragona, Sidney Salkow | Stars: Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, Giacomo Rossi Stuart
Votes: 21,509
The first "I Am Legend" adaptation and an important one for zombie movie fans researching the sub-genre's history because, while the infection and general mythology is more vampiric, a lot of the feel of the film inspired Romero when he was making Night of the Living Dead.
The film is public domain.
5. I Drink Your Blood (1971)
R | 83 min | Horror
A group of Satanic hippies wreak havoc on a small town where a young boy whose sister and grandfather were victimized by them tries to get even--with deadly results.
Director: David E. Durston | Stars: Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury, Jadin Wong, Rhonda Fultz, George Patterson
Votes: 4,148
The film is public domain.
6. The Omega Man (1971)
PG | 98 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Dr Robert Neville has developed an experimental vaccine which makes him the only immune survivor of a biological catastrophe. A gang of homicidal mutants blame science for their condition and attempt to kill him.
Director: Boris Sagal | Stars: Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash, Paul Koslo
Votes: 34,077 | Gross: $8.72M
Also based on "I Am Legend"
7. Doomwatch (1972)
PG | 92 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
The waters surrounding an island become contaminated by chemical dumping, and people who eat fish caught in those waters become deformed and violent.
Director: Peter Sasdy | Stars: Ian Bannen, Judy Geeson, John Paul, Simon Oates
Votes: 1,179
8. The Crazies (1973)
R | 103 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
The military attempts to contain a manmade combat virus that causes death and permanent insanity in those infected, as it overtakes a small Pennsylvania town.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, Lloyd Hollar
Votes: 14,797 | Gross: $0.15M
This helped define these films early on. Romero wanted to try something different after redefining the zombie movie but he didn't stray far from home, just making the infected faster.
9. Messiah of Evil (1974)
R | 90 min | Horror
A young woman goes searching for her missing artist father. Her journey takes her to a strange Californian seaside town governed by a mysterious undead cult.
Directors: Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz | Stars: Michael Greer, Marianna Hill, Joy Bang, Anitra Ford
Votes: 5,841
A difficult one to classify as the cultists are often called vampires (but they eat meat and go out in daylight, there is an I Am Legends feel to them though) or ghouls, but we do see this spreading to the woman Thom meets and the cop, so I'm putting it here.
10. Shivers (1975)
R | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are being infected by a strain of parasites that turn them into mindless, sex-crazed fiends out to infect others by the slightest sexual contact.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry, Allan Kolman
Votes: 23,596
The parasitic infection doesn't make the hosts become quite as violent as they do in other films (and they aren't cannibals) but they are very "insistent" that other people also become infected to the point it becomes violent, sinister and just plain nasty.
11. Rabid (1977)
R | 91 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A young woman develops a taste for human blood after experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into blood-thirsty zombies, leading into a city-wide epidemic.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Terry Schonblum, Joe Silver
Votes: 21,395
12. Blue Sunshine (1977)
R | 94 min | Horror, Thriller
A bizarre series of murders begins in Los Angeles, where people start going bald and then become homicidal maniacs. But could the blame rest on a particularly dangerous form of LSD called Blue Sunshine the murderers took ten years before?
Director: Jeff Lieberman | Stars: Zalman King, Deborah Winters, Mark Goddard, Robert Walden
Votes: 3,242
13. The Grapes of Death (1978)
R | 85 min | Horror
A young woman discovers that the pesticide being sprayed on vineyards is turning people into killer zombies.
Director: Jean Rollin | Stars: Marie-Georges Pascal, Félix Marten, Serge Marquand, Mirella Rancelot
Votes: 2,752
The slow, sadistic, pustule-pocked, psychopaths are clearly not zombies and even have relapses where they show remorse or ask for help. This plus the setting in desolate upland France (presumably somewhere in southern-central France from the landscape) all help to give this a genuinely creepy atmosphere, that sometimes borders on backwoods horror. It is a very different feel to a lot of the post-28 Days Later infected films (which with their usually fast and brutal infected tend to lead to more action-horror movies) but it is definitely worth a watch if you are looking for something a little different, perhaps with the feel of something like The Children (2008).
14. The Children (1980)
R | 93 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A nuclear-plant leak turns a bus-load of children into murderous atomic zombies with black fingernails.
Director: Max Kalmanowicz | Stars: Martin Shakar, Gil Rogers, Gale Garnett, Shannon Bolin
Votes: 2,750
15. Nightmare City (1980)
R | 88 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
An airplane exposed to radiation lands, and blood drinking zombies emerge armed with knives, guns and teeth! They go on a rampage slicing, dicing, and biting their way across the Italian countryside.
Director: Umberto Lenzi | Stars: Hugo Stiglitz, Laura Trotter, Maria Rosaria Omaggio, Francisco Rabal
Votes: 6,733
From Wikipedia: "Director Umberto Lenzi felt the film was not as much as zombie film but a 'radiation sickness movie' with hints of an anti-nuclear and anti-military messages"
Lenzi only did one proper zombie film - Black Demons (often given as Demoni 3, even though it isn't part of the series). Instead this is more a way to combine the zombie and cannibal genres, although not that successfully.
16. Cannibals in the Streets (1980)
R | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Mentally unstable Vietnam vets who were held captive by the Viet Cong come back to America after being rescued carrying a dangerous virus that turns people into cannibals when bitten.
Director: Antonio Margheriti | Stars: John Saxon, Elizabeth Turner, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Cinzia De Carolis
Votes: 4,298
aka Cannibal Apocalypse
Another interesting attempt to make a zombie/cannibal film with bites infecting people with violent cannibalism but it rarely makes the best use of its premise, with only a handful of stand-out scenes. Unfortunately, John Saxon didn't realise what he had signed himself up to and refused to get involved in the cannibalism which meant that his character (the core of the film) is presented with the real internal conflict this type of film should have.
17. Toxic Zombies (1980)
R | 89 min | Horror
Marijuana growers deep in the woods are hit with a new toxic herbicide, and they turn into mindless cannibals killing everyone they come into contact with.
Director: Charles McCrann | Stars: Charles McCrann, Beverly Shapiro, Dennis Helfend, Kevin Hanlon
Votes: 1,157
18. Night of the Comet (1984)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A comet wipes out most of life on Earth, leaving two Valley Girls fighting against cannibal zombies and a sinister group of scientists.
Director: Thom Eberhardt | Stars: Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Robert Beltran, Sharon Farrell
Votes: 24,156 | Gross: $14.42M
So Eighties it hurts.
A comet kills everyone not protected by steel, turning them to dust. Some with only slight exposure are turned into violent, oddly-coloured cannibals, but we only see a few of them - the biggest threat is other survivors.
19. Impulse (1984)
R | 91 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After a small earthquake in a tiny, quiet town, local citizens start to exhibit bizarre, violent and self-destructive behaviour.
Director: Graham Baker | Stars: Tim Matheson, Meg Tilly, Hume Cronyn, John Karlen
Votes: 1,706 | Gross: $2.50M
20. Mutant (1984)
R | 99 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Two brothers discover that the residents of a small Southern town are being infected by a form of toxic waste, turning them into blood-ravenous zombies.
Directors: John 'Bud' Cardos, Mark Rosman | Stars: Wings Hauser, Bo Hopkins, Jody Medford, Lee Montgomery
Votes: 2,861
A classic example of this type of film - it provides the kinds of thrills a zombie movie fan is looking for, without any of the post-Romero rules: no reanimated dead, bites aren't infectious and headshots aren't required, but did it have to be quite so dark? Dark as in the light conditions, not the story. At a lot of crucial moments all you get are abstract dark blobs moving against a black background, something that might have worked in a cinema once the viewers eyes had adjusted to the light, but one home media any effect there might have been is a hindrance to the viewer in working out what is actually going on.
21. The Spirits of Jupiter (1984 Video)
106 min | Horror
The planet Jupiter has moved closer to the Earth causing an increased gravitation pull which affects the human brain, and people with certain blood types in higher elevations. The result is... See full summary »
Director: Russell Kern | Stars: James Aerni, Chopper Bernet, Rex Cutter, Carol Engel
Votes: 53
22. Warning Sign (1985)
R | 99 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A woman working as a security guard in an agricultural research facility finds herself and her co-worker Schmidt fighting to survive against their former friends.
Director: Hal Barwood | Stars: Sam Waterston, Kathleen Quinlan, Yaphet Kotto, Jeffrey DeMunn
Votes: 2,912 | Gross: $1.92M
23. The Stuff (1985)
R | 87 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A delicious, mysterious goo that oozes from the earth is marketed as the newest dessert sensation, but the tasty treat rots more than teeth when zombie-like snackers who only want to consume more of the strange substance at any cost begin infesting the world.
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino
Votes: 18,504
I'm not 100% sure of this so will need to rewatch it.
24. Demons (1985)
Not Rated | 88 min | Horror
A group of random people are invited to a screening of a mysterious movie, only to find themselves trapped in the theater with ravenous demons.
Director: Lamberto Bava | Stars: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento
Votes: 26,575
A touch of demonic infection.
25. Creature (1985)
R | 95 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
After a member of a geological research team who was sent to Saturn's largest moon: Titan crashes their spacecraft into a space station, another team is sent to Titan to investigate, not knowing the terror that awaits them.
Director: William Malone | Stars: Stan Ivar, Wendy Schaal, Lyman Ward, Robert Jaffe
Votes: 4,688 | Gross: $4.78M
As well as being a blatant Alien rip-off, there are contagious violence elements. I suspect this was done to keep the rather poor Creature in the background (and shadows) as long as possible, instead relying on the cheaper option of people in make-up, pulling faces.
So a crossover with my Space Horror list.
26. Night of the Creeps (1986)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Alien brain parasites, entering humans through the mouth, turn their host into a killing zombie. Some teenagers start to fight against them.
Director: Fred Dekker | Stars: Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow
Votes: 26,127 | Gross: $0.59M
Classic 80s flick (for the full retro hit watch this in a double bill with Night of the Comet), with alien parasites on the loose causing all sorts of problems by animating the living and the dead.
27. Demons 2 (1986)
R | 92 min | Horror
A group of tenants and visitors are trapped in a 10-story high-rise apartment building infested with demons who proceed to hunt the dwindling humans down.
Director: Lamberto Bava | Stars: David Edwin Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Bobby Rhodes
Votes: 12,045
aka Demons 2
28. Alien Predator (1986)
R | 90 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Three American friends travelling through Spain get stuck in a remote town where something very dangerous is changing the town's people.
Director: Deran Sarafian | Stars: Dennis Christopher, Martin Hewitt, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Luis Prendes
Votes: 1,365 | Gross: $0.00M
aka Mutant 2
An unofficial sequel to "Mutant".
29. The Abomination (1986)
100 min | Horror
An old woman coughs up what she believes to be a tumor. While asleep, the thing crawls inside of her son and reproduces inside him, then causes him to go on a killing spree to feed it.
Director: Bret McCormick | Stars: Scott Davis, Jude Johnson, Blue Thompson, Brad McCormick
Votes: 733
30. Nightmare Weekend (1986)
R | 85 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A female scientist performs experiments on three college girls that turn them into drooling, murderous mutants.
Director: Henri Sala | Stars: Debbie Laster, Dale Midkiff, Debra Hunter, Lori Lewis
Votes: 1,226
31. Ozone: The Attack of the Redneck Mutants (1986)
93 min | Horror
A hole in the Ozone layer turns some rednecks into flesh-eating mutants.
Director: Matt Devlen | Stars: Scott Davis, Blue Thompson, Brad McCormick, Janice Williams
Votes: 255
32. Cannibal Hookers (1987 Video)
R | 67 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
As a sorority initiation, two girls have to pose as hookers. Then they turn into zombies and start killing and eating the locals.
Director: Donald Farmer | Stars: Drew Godderis, Sky Nicholas, Donald Trimborn, Michelle Fox
Votes: 596
33. The Curse (1987)
R | 92 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
When a meteorite lands near his family farm during a storm in Tennessee, the son of a struggling farmer believes it's connected to strange plague-like events afflicting the crops, the farm animals and even the family themselves.
Director: David Keith | Stars: Wil Wheaton, Claude Akins, Malcolm Danare, Cooper Huckabee
Votes: 3,882 | Gross: $1.93M
34. The Pink Chiquitas (1986)
PG-13 | 83 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A pink meteor controlled by aliens lands near a small town and turns the local women into nymphos. A deputy sheriff and a local private eye investigate.
Director: Tony Currie | Stars: Frank Stallone, Bruce Pirrie, Elizabeth Edwards, Claudia Udy
Votes: 263
35. Night of the Demons (1988)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Ten teenagers party at an abandoned funeral parlor on Halloween night. When an evil force awakens, demonic spirits keep them from leaving and turn their gathering into a living Hell.
Director: Kevin Tenney | Stars: Cathy Podewell, Alvin Alexis, Hal Havins, Allison Barron
Votes: 19,150 | Gross: $3.11M
Although some of the kids were indeed dead (or damn close to it) before turning violent and cannibalistic, the film sits more comfortably in this list, alongside Demons and Demons 2.
36. Nightmare at Noon (1988)
R | 96 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Horror
Scientists poison the water supply of a small town, turning the residents into homicidal maniacs who kill each other and anybody who passes through.
Director: Nico Mastorakis | Stars: Wings Hauser, Bo Hopkins, George Kennedy, Kimberly Beck
Votes: 2,226
A remake of "Mutant" also starring Wings Hauser and Bo Hopkins.
37. Flesh-Eating Mothers (1988)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Horror
Suburban housewives turn into vicious cannibals after committing adultery with the neighborhood womanizer.
Director: James Aviles Martin | Stars: Robert Lee Oliver, Donatella Hecht, Neal Rosen, Valorie Hubbard
Votes: 1,285
38. Primal Rage (1988)
R | 91 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A scientist at a Florida University accidentally creates a "rage virus" while conducting experiments to restore dead brain tissue in baboons. The virus soon spreads.
Director: Vittorio Rambaldi | Stars: Patrick Lowe, Cheryl Arutt, Sarah Buxton, Mitch Watson
Votes: 1,401
39. Death House (1988)
Not Rated | 90 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
A renegade federal agent uses a new drug to create an army of unbeatable warriors.
Director: John Saxon | Stars: Dennis Cole, Anthony Franciosa, Dino Paskas, Dana Lis Mason
Votes: 602
40. My Lovely Burnt Brother and His Squashed Brain (1988 Video)
52 min | Comedy, Horror
Underground Italian extremely gory, gross-out "comedy" (in early John Waters vein) about a badly burnt morphine junkie who is turned into a zombie after he gets injected with infected urine by his pug-ugly, crazy sister.
Directors: Giovanni Arduino, Andrea Lioy | Stars: John J. Bridge, Nick Tortone, Bernie Burnt, Giovanni Arduino
Votes: 82
41. Redneck Zombies (1989 Video)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Horror
A barrel of radioactive waste is lost out in the woods. Some demented rednecks find it and use it as part of their still. Everybody who drinks the liquor they produced turns into zombies.
Director: Pericles Lewnes | Stars: Steve Sooy, Anthony M. Carr, Ken Davis, Stan Morrow
Votes: 3,228
42. Beware: Children at Play (1989)
R | 94 min | Horror, Thriller
A mentally-disturbed teenager kidnaps and brainwashes children into cannibalistic psychopaths - but not when the adults intervene.
Director: Mik Cribben | Stars: Michael Robertson, Rich Hamilton, Robin Lilly, Lori Romero
Votes: 1,451
43. Ghoul School (1990 Video)
90 min | Comedy, Horror, Sport
Sex, babes and rock 'n roll! Two thugs in search of hidden treasure mistakenly unleash a chemical into the school's water supply, causing everyone it comes into contact with to become flesh-eating ghouls.
Director: Timothy O'Rawe | Stars: Joe Franklin, William Friedman, Scott Gordon, Paul Venier
Votes: 394
44.
The X-Files (1993–2018)
Episode:
Ice
(1993)
TV-14 | 46 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Mulder and Scully are sent to investigate when a team of geophysicists stationed at a remote Alaskan outpost are killed by a parasitic alien life form.
Director: David Nutter | Stars: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Xander Berkeley, Felicity Huffman
Votes: 8,194
Parasites thaw out of the ice and turn people into murderers.
45. Night of the Demons 2 (1994)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
High school students throw a Halloween party in a mansion haunted by a young demon.
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith | Stars: Cristi Harris, Darin Heames, Bobby Jacoby, Merle Kennedy
Votes: 6,492
46. Sci-fighters (1996 Video)
R | 94 min | Sci-Fi
Boston, 2009. A police detective (Roddy Piper) searches for Adrian Dunn, his ex-partner (Billy Drago) who murdered his wife. Dunn has escaped from prison on the moon and returned to Earth with an alien virus.
Director: Peter Svatek | Stars: Roddy Piper, Jayne Heitmeyer, Billy Drago, Tyrone Benskin
Votes: 654
47. Night of the Demons III (1997 Video)
Unrated | 85 min | Fantasy, Horror
A group of delinquents accidentally shoot a police officer. To avoid arrest, they hide out in an abandoned house, unaware it is haunted.
Director: Jim Kaufman | Stars: Larry Day, Amelia Kinkade, Kris Holden-Ried, Gregory Calpakis
Votes: 3,007 | Gross: $0.06M
48.
The Simpsons (1989– )
Episode:
Treehouse of Horror VIII
(1997)
TV-14 | 30 min | Animation, Comedy
Homer battles mutants after Springfield is annihilated by a neutron bomb; Bart has his DNA mixed with a fly; Marge is revealed to be a witch in colonial Springfield.
Directors: Jim Reardon, Mark Kirkland | Stars: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith
Votes: 2,942
49.
Sliders (1995–2000)
Episode:
Sole Survivors
(1997)
TV-PG | 45 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
A deadly virus turns a world's population into man-eating zombies, and when Quinn is bitten, the other Sliders frantically search for an antidote.
Director: David E. Peckinpah | Stars: Jerry O'Connell, Sabrina Lloyd, Cleavant Derricks, Kari Wuhrer
Votes: 250
50. I Zombie: The Chronicles of Pain (1998)
79 min | Drama, Horror
A young man gets infected and gradually starts turning into a zombie.
Director: Andrew Parkinson | Stars: Giles Aspen, Ellen Softley, Dean Sipling, Claire Griffin
Votes: 792
51.
Father Ted (1995–1998)
Episode:
Night of the Nearly Dead
(1998)
TV-14 | 24 min | Comedy
After winning a poetry contest, Mrs. Doyle gets a visit by the show's host and a few of his crazed fans.
Stars: Dermot Morgan, Ardal O'Hanlon, Frank Kelly, Pauline McLynn
Votes: 562
A great riff on NotLD, and what is so contagious that it makes the old ladies dangerous? Love, of course.
52. Mutation (1999 Video)
98 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A chemical created by Nazi experimentation is discovered in modern-day Germany. Once released, it causes all sorts of horrific bloodshed, mutation, and madness.
Directors: Timo Rose, Marc Fehse | Stars: Mark Door, Marc Fehse, Timo Rose, Carsten Fehse
Votes: 165
53. Bio-Cops (2000)
89 min | Comedy, Horror
CIA Anent Harry is bitten by a man who was part of a deadly experiment involving the ability to withstand pain. The bacterium has a virus, causing the victim to become a zombie. Upon ... See full summary »
Director: Wai-Man Cheng | Stars: Stephen Fung, Sam Lee, Alice Chan, Wai Ming Chan
Votes: 158
aka Bio-Cops
54. The Frozen Inferno (2000 Video)
Unrated | 24 min | Action, Short, Sci-Fi
A small band of survivors unwillingly add a new member to their quickly dwindling population, with disastrous results.
Director: Michael A. Martinez | Stars: Tim Jahn, George N. Thompson, Gabriel Derrick, Todd Peterson
Votes: 40
55. Ghosts of Mars (2001)
R | 98 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
In 2176, a Martian police unit is sent to pick up a highly dangerous criminal at a remote mining post. Upon arrival, the cops find that the post has become a charnel house.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Pam Grier, Jason Statham
Votes: 57,980 | Gross: $8.43M
56. Dead Creatures (2001 Video)
R | 95 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A group of women afflicted with a horrible disease (which forces them to cannibalism) try to support one another.
Director: Andrew Parkinson | Stars: Beverley Wilson, Antonia Beamish, Brendan Gregory, Anna Swift
Votes: 354
A sequel of sorts to I, Zombie.
It follows the story of some seemingly normal young woman and their day-to-day existence as the cannibalistically contaminated: trying to secure fresh man-meat, dodging zombie hunters and slowly transforming into something less easy on the eye. It is an unsettling portrayal as they more sympathetic than the raging infected we'd come to know very well the following year, almost like a social realist take on drug-addicted prostitutes interspersed with gory cannibalism.
57. Mutation 2 - Generation Dead (2001 Video)
84 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The toxic chemical rediscovered in the original film causes more death and destruction across Germany, leading to a new mutation unlike anything the world has ever seen...
Director: Timo Rose | Stars: Erich Amerkamp, Thomas Kercmar, Andreas Pape, Jens Maßmann
Votes: 73
58. 28 Days Later (2002)
R | 113 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Alex Palmer
Votes: 446,014 | Gross: $45.06M
The film that really kicked this sub-genre up a couple of gears - it is telling that 4 times the number of such films were made after this than in the longer period before.
59. Resident Evil (2002)
R | 100 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
A special military unit fights a powerful, out-of-control supercomputer and hundreds of scientists who have mutated into flesh-eating creatures after a laboratory accident.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson | Stars: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Ryan McCluskey, Oscar Pearce
Votes: 288,548 | Gross: $40.12M
Tricky one as the T-virus mutates living people (we see in Vendetta that the infected can be cured) but is somehow strong enough raise the dead, as we saw in Apocalypse.
60. Death Factory (2002 Video)
R | 81 min | Horror
A group of college students decide to party at the abandoned chemical factory on the outskirts of town, unknowing that one of the former factory workers is still lurking about.
Director: Brad Sykes | Stars: Lisa Jay, Karla Zamudio, Jeff Ryan, David Kalamus
Votes: 661
61. Binge & Purge (2002 Video)
Unrated | 83 min | Horror, Action, Thriller
Three private detectives are sent by a corrupt police chief to investigate a series of murders that show evidence of cannibalism, leading them to a fashion designer and his troupe of models.
Director: Brian Clement | Stars: Tamara Barnard, Stephan Bourke, Fiona Eden-Walker, Moira Thomas
Votes: 90
62. M III: Century of the Dead (2002 Video)
100 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Director: Timo Rose | Stars: Thomas Kercmar, Andreas Pape, Erich Amerkamp, Rainer Stüsser
Votes: 40
63. Blood of the Beast (2003)
Not Rated | 74 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
In the year 2012, the 3rd great war comes to an end. The war claims no victors, but both sides succeed in executing their chemical warfare campaigns. The result is over 3 billion deaths. ... See full summary »
Director: Georg Koszulinski | Stars: Georg Koszulinski, Matt Devine, Sharon Chudnow, Josh Breit
Votes: 143
64. Webs (2003 TV Movie)
R | 84 min | Action, Fantasy, Horror
An electrical crew stumbles into a parallel universe dominated by a mutated spider.
Director: David Wu | Stars: Richard Grieco, Kate Greenhouse, Colin Fox, Richard Yearwood
Votes: 754
65.
Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005)
Episode:
Impulse
(2003)
TV-PG | 43 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Enterprise answers a distress signal from a stranded Vulcan ship, only when arriving they find the ship completely desolate, wrecked - and filled with Vulcan zombies.
Director: David Livingston | Stars: Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating
Votes: 1,669
66. Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
R | 94 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Alice wakes up in the Raccoon City hospital after the area has been overrun by zombies, and must now make it out of the city before a nuclear bomb is dropped.
Director: Alexander Witt | Stars: Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Eric Mabius, Oded Fehr
Votes: 210,009 | Gross: $51.20M
67. Kansen (2004)
R | 98 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
INFECTION takes place in a dark, isolated hospital, where a doctor's mistake has led to dire consequences for a patient.
Director: Masayuki Ochiai | Stars: Michiko Hada, Mari Hoshino, Tae Kimura, Yôko Maki
Votes: 5,766
68. Infection (2005)
R | 81 min | Horror
On May 19, 2004, an unprecedented biological outbreak occurred in Lawton, California. A classified N.S.A.A. report detailed the carnage which ensued that night. This film is based on that top-secret report.
Director: Albert Pyun | Stars: Jenny Dare Paulin, Morgan Weisser, Alan Abelew, Tony Stewart
Votes: 1,384
69. Severed (2005)
R | 93 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A group of young environmental activists become infected, ravenous, unstoppable zombies when a forestry company's genetic experimentation goes disastrously wrong.
Director: Carl Bessai | Stars: Paul Campbell, Sarah Lind, Julian Christopher, JR Bourne
Votes: 2,147
70. Raving Maniacs (2005)
Not Rated | 80 min | Horror
There's a rave going on. It's gonna be great. Tuesday and her boyfriend J.T., and their friend Katie, and Katie's brother, are going out partying to the biggest rave in Providence, Rhode Island.
Director: Richard Griffin | Stars: Patrick Cohen, Emily Morettini, Andrew Vellenoweth, Christine Peltier
Votes: 246
71. Doom (2005)
R | 105 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Space Marines are sent to investigate strange events at a research facility on Mars but find themselves at the mercy of genetically enhanced killing machines.
Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak | Stars: Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Dwayne Johnson, Deobia Oparei
Votes: 118,749 | Gross: $28.21M
72. Purple Glow (2005)
78 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Astronomers across the world are watching the sky as a meteor is reported on a collision course with our planet. When the rock gets to crash on Earth, some campers in the neighborhood ... See full summary »
Director: Sv Bell | Stars: Melantha Blackthorne, Elizabeth Faure, Magenta Baribeau, Costa Alexandrakis
Votes: 37
73. Dead Men Walking (2005)
R | 82 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
After killing four persons in his home with a shotgun, Dee Travis claims that he had accidentally ingested an experimental biotoxin that the company Blackthorn where he worked was ... See full summary »
Director: Peter Mervis | Stars: Brandon Stacy, Griff Furst, Chriss Anglin, Bay Bruner
Votes: 1,376
74. Infestation (2005 Video)
89 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
The not too distant future. A deadly virus has swept across the Earth. Billions perished. The survivors moved underground . . . 30 years on and plagued with self-blame following a ... See full summary »
Director: Edward Evers-Swindell | Stars: Ross Evison, Susan Riley, Paul Sutherland, William Evers-Swindell
Votes: 239
75. Retzell 73 (2005 Video)
76 min | Horror
8 Months ago a deadly virus was discovered in Asia. Today, only very few survivors remain, where those who are not dead have become mindless flesh eating zombies. Andersson, a young man, ... See full summary »
Directors: Simon Micael Berggren, Mats Kejonen | Stars: Chrystian Alarcon, Simon Micael Berggren, Niklas Engvall, Peter 'Phanskap' Jacobsson
76. Space Butchers (2005 Video)
68 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
Aliens from outer space crashes on Hervanta and starts to transform people into flesh eating creatures.
Directors: Antti Kiuru, Matti Kuusniemi, Ville Lähde, Antti Murtonen, Aatto Paasonen, Andres Pass, Sami Saarinen | Stars: Matti Kuusniemi, Andres Pass, Ossi Kakko, Antti Murtonen
Votes: 46
77. Slither (2006)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A small town is taken over by an alien plague, turning residents into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters.
Director: James Gunn | Stars: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker, Don Thompson
Votes: 88,902 | Gross: $7.77M
78. Mulberry St (2006)
R | 84 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A deadly infection breaks out in Manhattan, causing humans to develop into blood-thirsty rat creatures.
Director: Jim Mickle | Stars: Nick Damici, Kim Blair, Ron Brice, Bo Corre
Votes: 6,409
The UK DVD was retitled "Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street" but that is just to shift a few extra units - the virus changes people into rat-like mutants.
79. Shadow: Dead Riot (2006)
R | 81 min | Action, Horror
Evil voodoo-practicing serial killer Shadow gets executed for murdering pregnant women. Twenty years later the prison Shadow was put to death at has been turned into an experimental women's... See full summary »
Director: Derek Wan | Stars: Tony Todd, Carla Greene, Nina Hodoruk, Michael Quinlan
Votes: 1,108
A film that manages to span the three types of "zombie" film I'm tracking here - Shadow is one of the vengeful dead, his blood induces a violent cannibalistic rage and he is also able to raise the dead in order to set them loose chewing on the inmates. This, and a lot of gratuitous nudity, can't save the film though, but its ambitions (and the genres it tries to hybridise) do raise it above more run-of-the-mill peers a little.
80. La hora fría (2006)
92 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
8-year-old Jesús has been living in a crumbling underground facility since he was born with eight survivors of an apocalyptic war: the leader Maria and her lover Pablo, gays Lucas and Mateo... See full summary »
Director: Elio Quiroga | Stars: Silke, Omar Muñoz, Pepo Oliva, Carola Manzanares
Votes: 1,976
A subterranean horror film in which The Strangers are "not exactly" zombies, but are infected with a bio-weapon, an infectious virus that spreads by touch.
81. Office Outbreak (2006)
85 min | Comedy, Horror
Auditors uncover Accounting fraud at a Fortune 500 Company. The CEO and CFO behind the fraud attempt to coerce the auditors into keeping the fraud quiet. Mean while a worker who recently ... See full summary »
Director: Shawn Woodard | Stars: Shannon Black, Candice Boji, Michael Burris, Cha Cha
Votes: 75
82. Trespassers (2006)
Not Rated | 83 min | Horror, Thriller
Tyler is a surfer who constantly searches for good surfing spots. When he's traveling through Mexico, he finds one of the best places he has ever seen. He invites his brother Colin to join ... See full summary »
Director: Ian McCrudden | Stars: Michelle Borth, Joleigh Fioreavanti, Alex Feldman, Kaiwi Lyman
Votes: 520
83. The Plague (2006 Video)
R | 88 min | Horror
Ten years have passed since the world's children fell into a coma. Tonight they're waking up and all hell is breaking loose. An unholy battle between the generations is being waged, and time is not on the side of adults.
Director: Hal Masonberg | Stars: James Van Der Beek, Ivana Milicevic, Brad Hunt, Joshua Close
Votes: 4,744
Similar to the Children films, something turns the kids violent. Unfortunately, while there are elements that have a zombie film influence (although technically quite a bit of that came via The Last Man on Earth) the film just isn't that scary and the story is a mess. Apparently, this was heavily edited by Clive Barker without the director or writers being involved and they have their own (currently unreleased) cut of the film that might help clarify some elements. Although it I can't imagine it is going to improve the film from being just OK.
84. Meat Weed Madness (2006 Video)
Not Rated | 85 min | Comedy
Four lovely southern belles smoke the meat weed and then face off against Bullpucky and his family of hillbilly hipster drug fiends!
Director: Aiden Dillard | Stars: Carey Sveen, Carl Skoggard, Dennis Palozzolo, Ann Liv Young
Votes: 165
85. Last Rites (2006 Video)
R | 90 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
In Los Angeles, a meteor bringing some sort of disease falls on a group of homeless and turns them into flesh eater zombies. Meanwhile, two rival gangs are dealing drugs with an ... See full summary »
Director: Duane Stinnett | Stars: Noel Gugliemi, Howard Alonzo, Ethan Ednee, Ryan Hanna King
Votes: 1,001
86. Electric Zombies (2006 Video)
90 min | Horror
Cult horror director John Specht's low-budget feature, "Electric Zombies," neatly cobbles together two disparate genres: the conspiracy thriller and the horror/slasher movie. It also ... See full summary »
Director: John Specht | Stars: Nicole Ashmore, Trudy Lynn Barr, Jim Keith, Lorelei Mahoney
Votes: 131
87. A Terrorist Ate My Brain (2006)
17 min | Short, Horror
A new form of digital terrorism has been unleashed on America. A deadly song transmitted through Ipods is turning New York City into brain eating zombies. While President Bush hides from ... See full summary »
Director: Brett Young | Stars: Gary Apple, April & Lou, Machete Bang Bang, Viktoria Bogomolnaya
Votes: 29
88. 28 Weeks Later (2007)
R | 100 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Six months after the rage virus was inflicted on the population of Great Britain, the US Army helps to secure a small area of London for the survivors to repopulate and start again. But not everything goes according to plan.
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo | Stars: Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne, Robert Carlyle, Harold Perrineau
Votes: 293,935 | Gross: $28.64M
89. Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
R | 94 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Survivors of the Raccoon City catastrophe travel across the Nevada desert, hoping to make it to Alaska. Alice joins the caravan and their fight against the evil Umbrella Corp.
Director: Russell Mulcahy | Stars: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Oded Fehr, Iain Glen
Votes: 205,546 | Gross: $50.65M
90. I Am Legend (2007)
PG-13 | 101 min | Action, Drama, Horror
Years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure.
Director: Francis Lawrence | Stars: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson-Whitfield
Votes: 814,539 | Gross: $256.39M
The only I Am Legend adaptation that stuck with the name. It is big budget, but not as satisfactory as The Last Man on Earth.
91. The Rage (2007)
R | 85 min | Horror
A crazed scientist experiments with a rage virus on innocent victims in a laboratory in the woods. When his monstrous subjects escape and vultures devour their remains, they became mutations seeking to feed on humans.
Director: Robert Kurtzman | Stars: Andrew Divoff, Erin Brown, Ryan Hooks, Sean Serino
Votes: 2,041
92. The Mad (2007)
Unrated | 83 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
A comedy-horror-thriller in which a doctor and his teenage daughter are terrorized by flesh-eating zombies at a truck stop.
Director: Johnny Kalangis | Stars: Billy Zane, Maggie Castle, Shauna MacDonald, Evan Charles Flock
Votes: 1,885
93. Bloodsucking Babes from Burbank (2007)
Unrated | 89 min | Horror
Passionate archeology students unearth a cursed jewel box in the Burbank mountains that turns the females into blood-thirsty cannibals and the guys into "dinner".
Director: Kirk Bowman | Stars: Heidi Brucker, Dan Shelby, Mira Rayson, Danny Kitz
Votes: 246
94. Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007)
R | 85 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
A troubled young man still mourning the childhood loss of his family now has to deal with his professor being turned into a monster.
Director: Jon Knautz | Stars: Robert Englund, Trevor Matthews, Daniel Kash, David Fox
Votes: 6,660
The monster's tentacles "infect" the students and turn them into violent monsters, something Slither would do better, although this is a decent film too and well worth checking out.
95. Eden Log (2007)
R | 98 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A man wakes up in an underground cave, next to a dead body. He has no memory of how he got there and starts to try and work his way to the surface and escape from the network of tunnels, which seem to be some kind of ancient civilisation.
Director: Franck Vestiel | Stars: Clovis Cornillac, Vimala Pons, Zohar Wexler, Sifan Shao
Votes: 6,846
Workers on the plant are turned into mindless violent mutants.
96. Brain Dead (2007)
95 min | Horror
The story of six people caught in the unusual (except in horror films) predicament of being stranded in a deserted fishing lodge with a host of alien-infected, mutant amoeba-controlled zombies at their doorstep.
Director: Kevin Tenney | Stars: Joshua Benton, Sarah Grant Brendecke, David Crane, Andy Forrest
Votes: 1,302
97. The Signal (2007)
R | 103 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A horror film told in three parts, from three perspectives, in which a mysterious transmission that turns people into killers invades every cell phone, radio, and television.
Directors: David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry | Stars: Anessa Ramsey, Justin Welborn, Scott Poythress, Sahr Ngaujah
Votes: 21,895 | Gross: $0.60M
98. Forest of the Dead (2007)
79 min | Comedy, Horror
It's old-school horror the Canadian way in this classic summer camp cannibal bloodbath!
Director: Brian Singleton | Stars: Chris Anderson, Erin Brophy, Brandi Boulet, Elaine Cummings
Votes: 137
99. Street Team Massacre (2007)
80 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
Two rival juice companies, Eco-Elixir and Jock Juice, accidentally unleash an experimental formula of energy drink on an unsuspecting group of concert- goers. This formula turns whoever is ... See full summary »
Directors: Adam Deyoe, Eric Gosselin | Stars: Tim Allen, Diana Arone, Michael Boland, Greg Brennan
Votes: 85
100. I Am Omega (2006 Video)
Not Rated | 91 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In post apocalyptic LA being rampaged by zombie like cannibals humans that have some kind of genetic infection local man renchard is forced to live a daily struggle as he trys to locate radio signals and find a cure.
Director: Griff Furst | Stars: Mark Dacascos, Geoff Meed, Jennifer Lee Wiggins, Ryan Lloyd
Votes: 3,354
The inevitable Asylum cash-in, which downplays the more vampiric aspects of the mutants bringing it even more in line with these types of films. Not that any of that makes it any more watchable.
Tell Your Friends