8 Best Zombie Movies of the 1980s, Ranked

Thanks to Romero, and some other filmmakers who tackled the zombie sub-genre, it was a well-established one by the time the 1980s came around. So, it’s not surprising, then, that the decade had some good zombie movies. Admittedly, maybe none as good as either Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead, but still a handful of cult classics, and even a couple of genuine/ordinary film classics, too.

8 'Dead & Buried' (1981)

Maybe it’s not a perfect zombie movie, but Dead & Buried is still a good one, and also pretty underrated overall. It’s got a small-town setting, like plenty of zombie movies, though the premise is a little stranger than usual, since it’s about previously murdered people seemingly coming back to life, but then also maybe not. Things stay mysterious, and Dead & Buried naturally gets pretty twisty.

That makes it a little unconventional, for a zombie movie, but the definition has to be stretched somewhat for present purposes (the biggest stretch is still to come; sorry in advance). But yeah, this is good, even if it’s a little different for this particular sub-genre. The atmosphere of Dead & Buried is uniquely eerie, and the surprises it has in store (even if they're revealed quite slowly) make it a film worth digging up and out of obscurity.

7 'Night of the Creeps' (1986)

Night of the Creeps has a “zombie” of alien origin, but when it starts causing chaos and carnage, things do feel in line with the zombie sub-genre. A body infected by an alien is frozen and then thawed out about a quarter of a century later, at which point the body comes back to life and then infects more people, with all of this unfolding in and around a college campus.

So, it’s a college movie, a comedy, a sci-fi film, and also something that aims to parody the horror genre quite broadly… beyond the zombie sub-genre, in other words. Again, there are enough zombie-related things in Night of the Creeps for it to be classified as a zombie film. It is a weird watch, and not always great, but it really commits to the bit and the fun can be, corny though it sounds, sort of infectious, as a result.

6 'Lifeforce' (1985)

Directed by Tobe Hooper, of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist fame, Lifeforce is a wild watch, and also one of the quintessential sicko films of its decade, or maybe even all time. It’s more than a little perverted, and it also gets fairly extreme with its violence, so those who like their horror movies boundary-pushing (and genre-hopping, since this is more than just a sci-fi/horror flick) might get something out of this.

It is that previously alluded to movie that feels like a stretch to label as a zombie one, because the antagonists here (a race of aliens that are kind of like vampires) want to harvest life force from human victims. Those drained of life force can keep draining the life force of other humans, which is where the zombie thing kind of comes in. With Lifeforce, you’ve got alien vampires, mindless zombie-like creatures created by the alien vampires, gratuitous nudity, and a pre-Star Trek: The Next Generation Patrick Stewart. What’s not to like?

5 'The Beyond' (1981)

For its time, The Beyond was considered graphic enough to be banned in a fair few territories, though it doesn’t feel as intense nowadays. It’s still gory, technically, but some of that might come down to special effects having come a good deal further, and some parts of The Beyond looking a little rough in comparison. But still, for its time, the bloodshed and carnage here did indeed get the job done, and too effectively for some territories, apparently, at that.

The living dead here are also a bit different from most other zombie movies, because The Beyond has a premise that involves an entrance to hell inside a hotel a young woman inherits, which… yeah, obviously, things don’t go well, and bad stuff happens. It’s very supernatural for a zombie movie, but as long as that’s not a deterrent, then this Italian-produced (though English-language) movie is well-worth checking out.

4 'Night of the Comet' (1984)

Technically, there are flaws here, but there’s also so much about Night of the Comet that works that the flaws don’t really matter all that much, or feel particularly noticeable, once the film gets into the groove Madonna-style. It is aggressively 1980s in style and energy, like to the extent you might expect out of a movie made today trying to put a heightened spin on the decade with a story set during it, but Night of the Comet did so right in the thick of it.

You have to go with the wild premise here, because it’s about a comet that wipes out most life on Earth, and changes life for anyone left standing, owing to zombies becoming a thing because of the comet, too. It’s more about comedy than horror or anything else you might expect out of your average zombie movie, yet that’s okay, because Night of the Comet is funny and admirably bold. There are plenty of things to like and appreciate here, in other words.

3 'The Return of the Living Dead' (1985)

There’s a gas that’s released early on in The Return of the Living Dead that causes the dead to return from the grave, and then a small town falls apart, but it’s kind of comedic. At least, The Return of the Living Dead has a good deal of intentional schlock to it, and it’s about as unapologetic as B-movies get, when it comes to delivering things that really feel B-grade.

B-grade in a good way. Also, The Return of the Living Dead ups the stakes beyond an outbreak of zombies, with some Cold War-era paranoia and unease seeping into the whole thing, as you might expect for a movie released around this time. That might make The Return of the Living Dead sound like a mess, and kind of contradictory regarding tone and what it’s trying to say, and it is pretty messy, but mostly in a charming and entertaining – rather than frustrating – fashion.

2 'Re-Animator' (1985)

Including this one signifies another risk of upsetting the zombie purists, since it’s about scientific experiments to resurrect dead bodies, rather than some kind of supernatural occurrence bringing the dead back to life, or a virus making people infected (and, for what it’s worth, some people don’t like infected zombies being counted as true zombies). But still, Re-Animator is going here. It may be a little more in line with Frankenstein, that kind of sci-fi/horror, but it feels more like a zombie movie as it goes along.

Things spiral out of control more and more, and Re-Animator has that zombie movie feel once there are multiple dead bodies that have been reanimated. It’s also gruesome, like a good many zombie movies, so it’s got that going for it. And Re-Animator works well as a dark comedy, too, a little like Return of the Living Dead. That came out in 1985, too. And speaking of, there’s one more all-timer of a zombie movie that happened to be released that year.

1 'Day of the Dead' (1985)

Even compared to Return of the Living Dead and Re-Animator, Day of the Dead is especially notable when it comes to the level of violence and gore it features. It’s got some of the most disgusting practical effects ever put to screen, rivaling The Thing in that department… well, probably exceeding it, really. The Thing is disgusting at times, but not as graphic with its imagery as Day of the Dead.

This movie saw George A. Romero upping the intensity found in Night of the Living Dead (1968) and, to a slightly lesser extent, Dawn of the Dead (1978). There’s no hope here, really, for the people who've survived in a world that feels, at the time the movie starts, long dead. And you're stuck underground with the main characters pretty much the whole time, so you really feel the madness and despair for a good while before the carnage seriously starts going down. It’s not exactly a fun zombie movie, but it is a great one, and feels deserving of being singled out as its decade’s best.