Ever since George Romero revolutionized the zombie movie with his 1968 feature Night of the Living Dead, untold directors have replicated or built upon Romero's legacy. These days, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu are overrun with movies and television shows featuring the flesh-eating undead.
Let's be honest, though: some of these zombie-themed cinematic attractions are much better than others. For fans of zombie flicks looking for something new to watch, this list is here to help you. It highlights five awesome, as well as five awful, zombie films currently streaming on Netflix. Get ready for some screams and some boos.
Original: Train To Busan (2016)
Train to Busan is a fast-paced, South Korean take on the zombie film. It traces the evolution of a deadly infection that transforms its victim into crazed, zombie-like creatures. What's especially insane about Train to Busan is it unfolds on a packed passenger train.
The main character, Seok-woo, is a single father on board said passenger train with his daughter so the young girl can spend her birthday with her mother. A tense fight for survival ensues.
Derivative: Rampant (2018)
Another South Korean horror film, Rampant is a big-budget epic about a reckless Joseon dynasty prince who is called home by his father after his brother dies. Despite being a skilled fighter, Lee Chung imbibes way too much.
In the film's background is a massive zombie invasion that threatens to destroy the empire Lee Chung is set to inherit. Rampant was a box office bomb. While it has a promising premise, Rampant's plot ends up being way too predictable.
Original: Cargo (2017)
Cargo provides a unique, family-focused interpretation of the zombie trope. The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic Australia. Martin Freeman plays Andy, a father trekking through the outback with his young daughter Rosie.
After Andy is infected by the zombie virus destroying the world, he has 48 hours to find a safe place for his daughter before he turns. Freeman pulls off a performance full of emotional depth. Andy's fraught journey to ensure Rosie's survival is harrowing and all-consuming.
Derivative: Day Of The Dead: Bloodline (2018)
What the world definitely does not need is a second remake of George Romero's 1985 film Day of the Dead. Directed by Hèctor Hernández Vicens, Bloodline stars Jonathan Schaech as a mental patient who becomes a zombie -- coined rotters in the film.
Schaech's character Max is obsessed with a medical student named Zoe, adding an unnecessary level of creepy stalker vibes to this pointless movie. When Zoe and her friends retreat from the incoming zombie invasion in an underground bunker, the somehow still very intelligent Max follows suit. Needless to say, Bloodline has a very low rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Original: The Girl With All The Gifts (2016)
A singular British post-apocalyptic zombie thriller, The Girl with All the Gifts is both well-acted and narratively compelling. In the movie, a group of soldiers and scientists navigating a zombie-infected world must protect a young girl whose immunity to the virus makes her the key to humanity's survival.
Directed by Colm McCarthy, The Girl with All the Gifts stars Paddy Considine, Anthony Welsh, Gemma Arterton, and Glenn Close. Fisayo Akinade steals the show as the young girl.
Derivative: Doom: Annihilation (2019)
Fans of the video game Doom may take offense to this, but Doom: Annihilation is not a good movie. The Doom series takes the zombie story to a different level, setting it in deep space. The zombie-like creatures in the series are mostly CGI creations stolen straight from Ridley Scott's playbook from Alien.
In this second installment in the Doom franchise -- a follow-up to 2005's Doom starring The Rock -- Marines fight zombie-like demonic creatures on a planet called Phobos. This direct-to-video film is both uninspired and predictable.
Original: Ravenous (2017)
A French-language film originally released as Les Affamés, the zombie-adjacent events in this movie unravel in Quebec, Canada. This feature is especially gruesome because the undead track down their loved ones, intent upon feasting on them.
Ravenous focuses on the survivors of a small town who seek shelter in the woods, hoping to prolong their lives as long as possible. Death is always around the corner in this gripping thriller, though.
Derivative: Here Alone (2016)
Here Alone doesn't bring anything new to the genre. It tells the story of a woman who survives a zombie apocalypse. After her husband and infant daughter die, Lucy Walters's character Ann retreats into the woods.
Eventually, Ann crosses paths with a teen and her injured stepfather. Intent upon securing her own survival, Ann is torn between helping her fellow survivors or forging her own path. The film plays out in expected ways.
Original: The Evil Dead (1981)
Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead is a gory, campy zombie classic. In this low budget, yet impactful, blood-drenched debut feature, Raimi tells the story of five college students who spend their spring break in a desolate Tennessee cabin. All hell breaks loose when they engage with an ancient occult book they find in the basement.
The Evil Dead proved such a hit it spawned a franchise and made Bruce Campbell's character Ash Campbell a genre favorite.
Derivative: Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
Resident Evil is a much better video game than it is a movie franchise. This second installment picks up exactly where the first ends and Milla Jovovich returns as the title character Alice. After escaping a facility invaded by zombies, Alice shacks up with a group of survivors.
While it contains plenty of action, the plot of Apocalypse is completely dull. It also suffers from a lack of creatively entertaining content.