#5.Night of the living dead(1990): Directed by Tom Savini is probably the only worth while remake of the cult classic. It follows the same story as the original and Savini does a great job at keeping it fresh while traditional. As a war photographer in is early days he was in the perfect position in doing some great special effects and make up for his movie, and followed the old credo of violence being greater off screen. Along with a new look Savini allowed the main heroine evolve into a fighting woman after suffering a laps from losing her brother and the shock of what was happening, Tony Todd was the perfect Ben, a lone survivor that finds his way out to the old farm house in the hopes of finding someplace safe. The movie is only complemented be recreating the sense of isolation and internal fighting from the original film between Ben and Cooper who have hidden with his family in the basement.

#4. Day of the Dead(1985): The 3rd film made by zombie master George A. Romero is a movie about how the failure of communication can cause disaster in a small society. The story follows a group of survivors thrown together in an underground bunker during the last days when the government still had some power left. The group is made up of military and scientist charged with finding a solution to a problem that has since enveloped the world. This is your classic jocks v.s. Nerds, high school situation and to compound this, there is only one woman among the survivors, after years you can only imagine the tension between the two groups. The tension is felt indeed with the meetings they have, the soldiers are continuously risking their lives to gather “specimens” from the surface so the scientist can study them and figure things out. Some seek to cure them, while one eccentric nick named “Frankenstein.” wants to train them to teach them to behave themselves, seeking out the zombie's learning ability.

Entre Bud, a zombie with a learning curb, and more important he doesn't seem to act aggressive toward Frankenstein. The reason why is that he feeds Bud, the zombies obedience forged like a dog, and to the horror of the soldiers he is being fed the only fresh meat around, the recently kill soldiers. The soldiers freak out and turn on the scientist and a lot of killing ensues. This is not the most popular of the Romero films but it is his favorite, and as a person who can see why, I enjoy it as well.

#3. Return of the Living Dead(1985) This film directed by Dan O' Bannon who is more famous for writing the script for the 1979 sci-fi horror, Alien. Made this movie as a dark humor horror, in an effort to not compete with Romero instead going his own way, the film was based on the novel Return of the living dead by John A. Russo. (co-writer of Night of the Living Dead) The movie was the first showcase new yet famous zombie traits to this day. Return was the first movie to depict running zombies and their desire to feast on brains instead of flesh, and they could talk. The actors spent some seven weeks just practicing together so their performances are just excellent and fluid like real conversations. Since the story was parodied in my Return of the Sex Zombie story I don't feel the need to write about it. It is a very cool movie, and original in its own right. really worth seeing.

#2. Dawn of the Dead(1979): The second film of Romero's dead series had an interesting start. After Night of the living dead Romero and Russo were divided on how to continue the story. Russo wanted to pursue literature work while Romero wanted to keep making movies. Well the argument was brought to court and it was decided that the two would go different ways, all of Romero's work would only be called Dead, he would go on to make Dawn of the Dead and Russo could hold onto Living Dead, and he would go on to make Return of the Living Dead (the novel) and plague of the living Dead(comic). Dawn of the Dead is about a group of four survivors who steal a helicopter and escape Philadelphia, they make their way to Monroville mall in Pittsburgh one of the first malls ever build, then called an indoor shopping centre.

The first half of the movie is our heroes efforts to secure and lock up the mall while loosing one of their own, after achieving their goal they find themselves becoming depressed and isolated from the outside world despite having everything they could ever want. As time passes by the indication of the pregnant surviver (becoming bigger and bigger) it becomes increasingly quite outside, tv and radio signals slowly but surely disappear leaving our heroes wondering if at all civilization still exists outside their walls. The movie has a strong message about materialism the old saying, “money and things don't make you happy.” is driven home very well. Soon enough materialism becomes a battle when the mall becomes the object of desire of a roaming biker gang (Tom Savini's first appearance in the zombie genre). Dawn of the Dead was arguably Romero's master piece in social satire and has an awesome comic book like feel to it, the makeup was not as good as later zombie movies but you will likely forget about it and just enjoy its greatness.

#1. Night of the living Dead (1968). There were many zombie movie even before this such as “White zombie” staring Bela Lugosi. “Teenage Zombies” and “The Really Really Strange People who Died and Became zombies” *sighs* but all really had nothing to do with the zombie we know and love today, mostly these were the voodoo kind. Originally titles “Night of the Flesh Eaters.” The movie is full of Romero's usual social satire that makes his work popular. The story is about a group of survivors who would likely never be together are thrown together to defending themselves against the increasing number of murderous ghouls outside. Romero made this to reflect the current global isolation felt by the west while communist regimes spread across the world. At least this is how the government made us feel. To compound the tensions of claustrophobia was some serious infighting between the two lead males, Ben (Duane Jones ) and Harry Cooper (Karl Hardman) Hardmen played a great asshole and it was easy not to like him while Jones had the honor of playing one of, if not the first lead black role in a horror movie and he wears it well in the film. The two characters get into fights, verbal and then physical while the undead is scratching at the doors and windows.

Soon they find a Tv and find out that this isn't just happening around them, but across the country, apparently a NASA prob was returning to earth, they found a strange radiation clinging to the prob and the opted to self destructed it. The radiation was scattered across the atmosphere and now the bodies of the recently deceased are returning to life and attacking the living. This is the only explanation and the only time it is given, leaving younger fans to think it is some sort of virus. I wont give away the rest of the movie but something interesting did happen about it. When the movie was premiering word had gotten out about the Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination and Romero and Russo scrambled to sell the movie because despite having a great black lead, Ben struck Barbra to snap some sense into her and was later shot in the head by zombie hunters. Fearing this might be misconstrued as racist they tried to get ride of it. However they only held the copy rights to the original title and to their surprise the film lapsed into public domain upon distribution. Regardless, Night of the living Dead remain the highest grossing film ever made. (How much it took to make it v.s. How much money was spent buying it.) and it made George A. Romero a god father in the horror genre. Spawned five sequels and countless remakes, knock offs and influenced others. Simply put, movies like Shaun of the dead and the Resident evil franchise would not exist without this movie. As of October 2 2008, it was the second most downloaded movie on the internet, that speaks volumes of this cult classics staying power and the reason why its the number one zombie movie.

I would like to thank everyone that read this and I hope it was educational and created interest in a genre that sparked my own small popularity on the FA. I know leave you with a little dance music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYC2s38vCbw