Random Zombie Movies That Aren't Actually About Zombies (16 items)

• 

  (#1) The Last Man on Earth

  • Vincent Price, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Umberto Raho, Carolyn De Fonseca, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, Antonio Corevi, Christi Courtland, Ettore Ribotta, Giuseppe Mattei, Rolando De Rossi

  Released four years before George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, The Last Man on Earth was the first screen adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, which was a big influence on Romero's zombie opus. The film obviously was, too, as the black-and-white images of lifeless figures swarming the house where Vincent Price, as the eponymous last man on Earth, hides out from them at night pretty clearly prefigure the boarded-up farmhouse of Romero's classic.

  The difference is that in The Last Man on Earth - and Matheson's original novel - the undead are vampires, not zombies.
• 

  (#2) The Crazies

  • Lynn Lowry, Harry Spillman, Richard Liberty, Richard France, Will MacMillan, Lloyd Hollar, Harold Wayne Jones, Lane Carroll

  After George Romero pioneered the modern zombie movie with Night of the Living Dead - but before he continued that trend a decade later with 1978's Dawn of the Dead - he made a film that combines much of what he had done (and would continue to do) in his zombie films with a cautionary tale about a biological device called "Trixie" that accidentally taints the water supply of a small town in Pennsylvania.

  Those who are exposed to Trixie either perish or become exremelty aggressive, while the uninfected locals must contend not only with the "crazies," but also with government troops in hazmat suits and gas masks who have been ordered to aggressively contain the outbreak.
• 

  (#3) 28 Days Later

  • Cillian Murphy, Christopher Eccleston, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Luke Mably, David Schneider, Noah Huntley, Stuart McQuarrie, Megan Burns, Ray Panthaki, Sebastian Knapp, Ricci Harnett, Leo Bill, Marvin Campbell, Alex Palmer, Toby Sedgwick, Paul Kasey, Bindu De Stoppani, Jukka Hiltunen, Nick Ewans, Tristan Matthiae, Junior Laniyan, Terry John, Joelle Simpson, Sanjay Rambaruth, Justin Hackney, Richard Dwyer, Al Stokes, Christopher Dunne, Steen Young, Adrian Christopher, Emma Hitching, Jeffrey Rann, Nicholas James Lewis, Jenni Lush, Alexander Delamere, Kim McGarrity

  One of the movies credited with the cinematic rise of "fast zombies," 28 Days Later plays something like a "greatest hits" mix of George Romero's iconic films. There's just one thing: The "zombies" in 28 Days Later aren't actually zombies at all. They're people who have been infected with the incredibly contagious "rage" virus, which makes them extremely aggressive.

  The virus gets loose when some activists attempt to free infected chimpanzees, and spreads throughout England in a matter of days - 28 of them, as you may have guessed from the name - leading to widespread societal collapse.
• 

  (#4) Mom and Dad

  • Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair, Anne Winters, Zackary Arthur, Olivia Crocicchia, Brionne Davis, Samantha Lemole, Lance Henriksen

  Brian Taylor is the writer/director of Crank, so it should come as no surprise that his contribution to the "zombie" movie subgenre is wild and frenetic. However, it also adds a surprisingly fresh angle. An unknown sort of mass hysteria causes all parents to turn on their children for 24 hours - but they have no inclination to hurt anyone else, and will even defend them.

  By limiting the aggression to those we would normally count on in the event of an emergency, the film changes the dynamic of the "zombie outbreak" scenario in ways that are fascinating to watch as they play out in the background of a story about one family falling apart in the face of insensible aggression. Mom and Dad also features a classically madcap performance by Nicolas Cage.
• 

  (#5) Pontypool

  • Stephen McHattie, Daniel Fathers, Boyd Banks, Georgina Reilly, Hrant Alianak, Rick Roberts, Beatriz Yuste, Laura Nordin, Lisa Houle, Tony Burgess

  In most zombie films, the virus - or whatever it is that's turning people into zombies - spreads through being bitten or scratched. In some versions, anyone who perishes comes back as a zombie, no matter what does them in. Pontypool adds an entirely different spin to the idea.

  The film follows a radio DJ during an outbreak of bizarre aggression that seems to be tied to language itself. Director Bruce McDonald stresses that the individuals infected by this linguistic virus are not zombies, however. Instead, he calls them "conversationalists." In an interview, he describes the three stages of the virus:

  The first stage is you might begin to repeat a word. Something gets stuck. And usually it's words that are terms of endearment like sweetheart or honey. The second stage is your language becomes scrambled and you can't express yourself properly. The third stage you become so distraught at your condition that the only way out of the situation you feel, as an infected person, is to try and chew your way through the mouth of another person.
• 

  (#6) Bird Box

  • Sandra Bullock, Sarah Paulson, Rosa Salazar, Danielle Macdonald, John Malkovich, Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Rel Howery, David Dastmalchian, Amy Gumenick

  Not every "zombie" movie actually needs zombies - or even zombie stand-ins. Take Bird Box, for example, the 2018 adaptation of Josh Malerman's novel of the same name. In the film, entities that we never see (for obvious reasons) cause anyone who sees them to take their own life. The societal unraveling that follows feels a lot like the kind of gradual apocalypse that you get in just about every zombie movie, but without the slow-moving (or fast-running) masses of the undead.

  Instead, everyone has to navigate their world blindfolded or risk accidentally sneaking a peek at something that they must not see.
• 

  (#7) Assault on Precinct 13

  • Austin Stoker, Charles Cyphers, Tony Burton, Darwin Joston, Nancy Kyes, Peter Bruni, John J. Fox, Laurie Zimmer

  The vicious thugs in John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 may not be mindless zombies - but as far as the people inside the eponymous precinct are concerned, they may as well be.

  These villains may use side arms instead of teeth, but they are eerily silent and unwilling to listen to reason. Though their targets have no idea why, the band of bad guys have sworn a blood oath to take out everyone inside the precinct, and they'll do whatever it takes to get it done. As the crew swarms the building, turning enemies inside to unlikely allies, this classic siege picture owes as much to Night of the Living Dead as it does to Rio Bravo.
• 

  (#8) The Signal

  • Steve Warren, A. J. Bowen, Sahr Ngaujah, Justin Welborn, David Bruckner, Michael Wade, J. Jacob Adelman, Ben Bailey, Chad McKnight, Anessa Ramsey, Alexander A. Motlagh, Matthew Stanton, Nicholas Lyle, Kid Richmond, Scott Poythress, Claire Bronson, Suehyla El-Attar, Luanne Byrd, Bill Rampley, Stacy Melich, Thomas Wallis, Lindsey Garrett, Dan Bush, Cheri Christian, Christopher Thomas, Rebecca Napier White, Michael Germon, J. Howard Bach, Tracy Martin, Pat Yeary, Linda Burns, Nikki Bingham, Ngozi Lamar Beane, Jeremy Motlagh, Ryan Lewis, Steven Westdahl, Mark Holbrook, Eric Pace, Tonya Kennedy, Heather Young, Scott Hodges, Willie Stodhill, Marcellus Thurman, Edward Morgan, Terril A. Closs, Marirosa Hoffman, Jeremy Turner, John Clifton, Seth Zimmerman, Crystal Mitchell, Jenna Burke, Robert Sanders, Quillian Hightower, John Wroblewski, Patrick Thompson, Kasey Perdue, Tiffany Dennise, Kalina McCreery, David Strickland, Melissa Randle, Joy Burke, Tristan Towne, Joseph Waldrop, Crystal Thomas, Lawrence Johnson, Angele Masters, Robin Acker, Jennifer Caldwell, Alexis Hale, Marc McPherson, Biluxi, Becky Ballard, Robert Sterling, Johnny Burke, Peggy Randle, Robyn Elder, Robert Lane, Jenelle Warner

  All telecommunications devices, radios, TVs, etc. have begun to transmit nothing but a strange signal that amplifies a listener's emotional traits, causing most people who hear it to become extremely aggressive.

  Told across three distinct stories, or "transmissions," The Signal was written and directed by indie filmmakers David Bruckner, Dan Bush, and Jacob Gentry, with each one tackling a separate segment. The three filmmakers have since gone on to work on films like V/H/S, Southbound, The Ritual, The Vault, and Synchronicity.
• 

  (#9) Attack the Block

  • Nick Frost, John Boyega, Luke Treadaway, Jodie Whittaker, Chris Wilson, Adam Buxton, Joey Ansah, Lee Nicholas Harris, David Cann, Franz Drameh, Maggie McCarthy, Flaminia Cinque, Karl Collins, Leeon Jones, Adam Leese, Chris Mansfield, Jumayn Hunter, Terry Notary, Simon Howard, Lee Long, Dylan Charles, Jermaine Smith, Sammy Williams, Philip Harvey, Alex Esmail, Yvonne D'Alpra, Michael Ajao, Danielle Vitalis, Selom Awadzi, Haneen Hammou, Paige Meade, Pascoe Willis, Jacey Sallés, Natasha Jonas, Stephanie Street, Gina Antwi

  Aliens are invading London - or, at least, one London housing block - and it's up to a bunch of inner-city kids to stop them. That's the logline for Joe Cornish's directorial debut, which launched the career of John Boyega and also features future Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker.

  The result is a zombie-style siege movie in which the things doing the sieging are brilliantly conceived low-budget aliens. Essentially Vantablack gorilla suits with glow-in-the-dark teeth, the effect is one of the best simple monster designs of the past decade. It helps that the movie they're in is fast, fun, and full of heart.
• 

  (#10) The Bay

  • Will Rogers, Kristen Connolly, Andrew Stahl, Jane McNeill, Michael Beasley, Christopher Denham, Tim Parati, Kether Donohue, Stephen Kunken, John Harrington Bland, Lauren Cohn, Kenny Alfonso, Justin Welborn, Frank Deal, Anthony Reynolds, Jack Landry, Jonathan Hart, Nansi Aluka, Brandon Hanson, James Patrick Freetly

  In Barry Levinson's eco-horror faux documentary, a mutant strain of the super creepy tongue-eating louse - a real isopod that eats and replaces a fish's tongue - makes the leap from fish to humans.

  The infected humans mostly perish horribly, rather than turning on one another, but the unspooling disaster echoes the epidemic structure of most zombie movies. Plus, the gross little isopods, themselves, are kind of the zombies in this equation, jumping from host to host and leaving devastation and gruesome demises in their wake.
• 

  (#11) Stake Land

  • Kevin Kline, Danielle Harris, Kelly McGillis, Connor Paolo, Christina Cole, Larry Fessenden, Sean Nelson, Bonnie Dennison, Michael Cerveris, Dave Eggar, Chance Kelly, Adam Scarimbolo, Marianne Hagan, Stuart Rudin, Nick Damici, Gregory Jones, Heather Robb, Tim House, Laurent Rejto, Jim Mickle, Phyllis Bash, Graham Reznick, Brian Spears, Lou Sumrall, Jean Brassard, Beth Mickle, Eilis Cahill, Lorenza Ponce, Traci Hovel, Vonia Arslanian, Lizz Morhaim, Alexis Molnar, Adam Folk, James Godwin, Lou Lou, Eric Stanze, Peter Phok, Derek Curl, Brent Kunkle, Bryce Burke, Asa Liebmann, Angelique Biasutto, Vlad Iorga, Robert Bishop, Charlie Palmer, Joyce Northacker, Rich Kitchum, Garrett Jester, Rich Baker, Melissa Day, Dennis Michele, Wendy Dillingham, Andrew Adams, Michael Thomas, David Riegel, Richard B. Garcia, Dianne Marshall, Jonathan Spano, Erin Filuprit, Dorothea Swiac, Amanda Williams, Kyle Mieczkowski, Terri Seca, Anastasia Iorga, Corinne Nanghton, Brian Finnegan, Scott H. Thompson, Ethan Kitchum, Jackie Baker, Holli Evans, Lissette Almonte, Dave Strohm, Matthew Witte, Linda Cousin, Zsolt Zilary, Bea Blacksberg, Michael Weidner, Malcolm Haight, Geoff Samuels, John Johnson, Howie Futterman, Bella Reid, Robb McCleary, Skip Dillingham, Steve Witte Jr., Sage Byron, Robert Wenrich Jr., Lisa Hill, Robert Schlueter, Jacques Roy, Peter Molnar, Tanya Stake, Pamela Martin, Maximilian Frey, Mary Small, Carlie Owens, Patrick Cecilian, Dave Hartman, Ryan Owens, Lisa Scalf, Saul Elliott, Charles Freas, James Enfield Ashby, Adam D. Dries, Steven Futterman, Scott Prizier, Joyce Kennedy, Thomas W. Holdener Jr., Daniel Zimmerman, Rosie Simmons, Jofre Romarion, Arthur Kadyshes, Richard Blacksberg, Amber Plaut, Anthony Spina, Jack Walker, Brittany Dauber, Robin Williams, Alicia Caseler, Brandon Spano, Arlene D. Vining, Christine Byron-Steen, Amy Altarelli, Melissa Drexel, Glen Cooper, Sue Witte, Anastasia Neimann, Lisa Kern, Simon Kantola, Danny Mefford, Dominique Biasutto, Robert B. Maxim, Matthias Hickey, Jeremy Zook, Richard J. Treitner, Jeffrey W. Telepu, Lauren Baker, Paul McLain, Harley Shamro, Kimberly Sullivan, Tim Mcgee, Jason Wagner, Chris DeCicco, Henry Hyneman, Jessica Jester, Pamela Banner, Judi Jarvis, Jusin Farrell, Sharon Nichols, Shawn Snow, Austin Paterson, Caitlin Logan, Robin Linzey, Alex Fretz, Beth Marri, Jamis Kruger, Katie Bornhoeft, Carol Molnar, Jennifer Holz, Grant McCord, Mona Lessnick, Triston Daly, James Mickle, Kathleen Anderson, Ann Cover, Greg Kennedy, George Zook, William Palinski, Jeremy Stake, Alison O'Brien, Gregory Forsman, Ally Caselli, Brian Prizer, Dave Prizier, Chris Eddinger, Storm Stanley, Robert Joedicke, Sarah Hagakorz, Shane Delameter, Judy Johnson, Travis Baldwin, William McLain, Rich Deem, Robert Stanley, Dustan Miller, Terry Anderson, B. Beddoe, Michael Murphy, Amber Certain, Genesis Quinones, Richard Elliott, Mike Jensen, Z.Z. Tommsisco, Robert V. Vinning, Daru Oda, Victoria Baker, Bianca Molnar, Christopher Kijeh, Amy Spano, Emily Cain, Juan Pablo, Mike Hill, Kasey Bornhoeft, Josh Baker, Frank Brenkle, Eric Owens, Seamus Boyle, Yu Nagasaka, Joshua Hotz, Carl Steen, Steve Heller, Gary Robertson, Linda Reid, Jackson McCord, Jake Rasmussen, Shaun Keen, Briana Freymoyer, Kyle Fultz, Jack Fessenden, Jeanette Thompson, Gus, Piper, Dakota, Gibson, Carmine Simmons, Joseph Hodges, Frank Brewer, Frank Harris, Sebastian Naskaris, Tim Gehling, Kristi Ganette, Stanley A. Kijeh, Keith Spano, Gaudys Sanford, Aidan Ploutz, Cullan Lafferty, Cynthia Baldwin

  Jim Mickle followed up his 2006 debut Mulberry Street - which is also a zombie movie that isn't really about zombies - with 2010's Stake Land, a post-apocalyptic flick that follows a young man named Martin (Connor Paolo) who joins up with a hunter who just goes by the name of "Mister" (Nick Damici) to survive in the Appalachian Mountains in the wake of an outbreak of vampirism that has slain or turned most of the populace. Think of it as The Walking Dead but with vampires.

  Mickle's blue-collar aesthetic - which he would later put to use adapting Joe R. Lansdale stories to the big and small screens - is on full display here, and the Rust Belt setting provides a very different backdrop from those of most post-apocalyptic films.
• 

  (#12) The Earth Dies Screaming

  • Dennis Price, Virginia Field, Thorley Walters, Anna Palk, David Spenser, Vanda Godsell, Willard Parker

  Sure, there are blank-eyed, Romero-style zombies in this black-and-white British shocker, which was actually released four years before Romero's zombie classic, but they're not the main threat.

  Most of the population has been done in by a mysterious gas, while the survivors are hounded by silent, unstoppable robots who take lives with a simple touch. The fact that the targets of the robots return as zombies with "gray blobs" for eyes seems like adding insult to injury for the poor survivors by that point.
• 

  (#13) Pulse

  • Koyuki, Kōji Yakusho, Kumiko Aso, Haruhiko Katô

  What's scarier than a zombie apocalypse? How about a ghost apocalypse? That's what seems to be going on in this creepy 2001 film, known in Japan as Kairo and remade in the US in 2006 as Pulse.

  The ghosts' point of entry appears to be the internet, and those who encounter them become listless and depressed, and usually take their own lives. The infiltration is insidious and slow in this haunting, hypnotic film from acclaimed director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, with the desperation of your average zombie flick replaced with desolation and despair as ghosts flood back into the world and the living begin to lose the will to live anymore.
• 

  (#14) The Mist

  • Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Alexa Davalos, Toby Jones, Andre Braugher, Samuel Witwer, Melissa McBride, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, Frances Sternhagen, Buck Taylor, Chris Owen, Andrew Stahl, David Jensen, Ritchie Montgomery, Julio Cedillo, Louis Herthum, Juan Gabriel Pareja, Nathan Gamble, Ron Clinton Smith, Jackson Hurst, Ted Ferguson, Amin Joseph, Robert C. Treveiler, Ron Fagan, Kim Wall, Cherami Leigh, Eric Kelly McFarland, Jimmy Lee Jr., Ginnie Randall, Brian Libby, Chuck Vail, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0339472/, Dodie Brown, Tiffany Morgan, Jay Amor, Amy McGee, Walt Hollis, Travis Fontenot, Cindy McBride, Kip Cummings, Kevin Beard, Steven E. Williams, Tammy Eaton, Gregg Brazzel, Kristin Barnhart, Brandon O'Dell, Mike Martindale, Michaela Morgan, John F. Daniel, Brian Scott Hunt, Derek Cox-Berg, Taylor E. Brown, Kelly Lintz, Walter Fauntleroy, Sonny Franks, Susan Malerstein, Darrick Mosley, Pamela Houghton

  "There's something in the mist!" Frank Darabont's 2007 adaptation of Stephen King's 1980 novella of the same name looks and sounds like a monster movie - and it has plenty of monsters, to be sure - but, like most zombie movies, it reminds us that the worst monsters are those in our own mirrors.

  The mist and its attendant creatures may be the threat that galvanizes the conflict, but they ultimately prove less frightening than what the survivors become as they are driven to turn on one another by fear and their own worst instincts. And like the best zombie flicks, it can be seen as a political parable, or just a good ol' fashioned horror yarn, without losing any of its impact either way.
• 

  (#15) I Am Legend

  • Will Smith, Emma Thompson, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith, Alice Braga, Dash Mihok, Marin Ireland, April Grace, Charlie Tahan, Darrell Foster, James Michael McCauley

  Richard Matheson's classic 1954 novel I Am Legend has been officially adapted to the screen three times - and unofficially several others, including serving as a partial inspiration for Night of the Living Dead - but this 2007 Will Smith vehicle is the first time that the movie version kept the novel's title. While the novel and the first film adaptation are about vampires, and 1971's The Omega Man changes them to Luddite mutants, this version makes the culprit a genetically altered version of the measles virus, which wipes out 90% of the world's population, and turns most of the rest into photophobic mutants called "Darkseekers."

  Will Smith plays a virologist who is one of the only survivors and who lives an isolated existence in a ruined and depopulated Manhattan with his faithful German Shepherd. His days are spent gathering supplies, looking for survivors, and trying to find a cure for the virus. His nights are spent barricaded inside his fortified home, hiding from the Darkseekers. That is, until he encounters other uninfected survivors...
• 

  (#16) Cold Skin

  • David Oakes, Aura Garrido, Ray Stevenson, John Benfield, Iván González, Winslow Iwaki, William Frater

  This Shudder exclusive is not only a zombie movie that isn't about zombies - it's also like an action-packed version of Robert Eggers's 2019 indie The Lighthouse. The story follows a meteorologist who arrives on a remote island where his only human companion is a surly lighthouse keeper named Gruner. At night, however, he finds that the island is far from uninhabited, as fish-people swarm up out of the ocean and descend upon his cabin. The only safe place on the island is the heavily fortified lighthouse, where Gruner and the meteorologist form an unlikely truce to defend themselves against the aquatic threat.

  However, as with any good zombie movie, the real monsters aren't the ones outside the walls, and it doesn't take long before Gruner and his new ally's detente is tested.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking