Avoiding the low-hanging fruit can be of difficulty when picking the worst zombie movies, the sub-genre is littered with so-bad-they're-good films that seemingly put little effort into ever being taken seriously by audiences. The ones that do though, can often walk a fine line between intense horror and laughable silliness.

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Since George Romero brought the dead up from their shallow graves back in 1968, the zombie movie has been a constant fixture at the box office, recently experiencing a resurgence after the success of AMC's hit series, The Walking Dead. Yet few have been able to replicate the same critical and commercial success and now find themselves lying prone, alongside the corpses that are failed zombie movies.

10 Army Of The Dead's Script Lacks Brains For Audiences To Feast On

Army of the Dead (2021) Cast

Director Zack Snyder showed he could give life to the zombie genre back in 2004 with his remake of Dawn Of The Dead. His second zombie outing though, Army Of The Dead, was a very different story. A convoluted script with a concept that's never fully realized, the movie centers around a heist within an infected and infested city of Las Vegas.

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The film fails to figure itself out, with wild shifts of tone leaving stars Dave Bautista and Garret Dillahunt looking lost and uninterested in their performances. And with a runtime just shy of 2 and a half hours, it's far from the fast-paced popcorn fun that zombie fans expected.

9 The Dead Don't Die Lulls Audiences Into Dead Silence

Adam Driver Bill Murray and Chloe Sevigny In The Dead Don't Die

Few undead adventures boast the quality of the cast of The Dead Don't Die. Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny, the list goes on. Yet the on-screen talent sadly wasn't enough to save this zom-com, it opened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 to a mixed reception, and its mediocre IMDb score of 5.5 shows it didn't quite live up to expectations.

The movie's poor pacing and unfunny script left audiences with more yawns than laughs or scares, paling in comparison to hilarious hits like Murray's other zombie flick, Zombielandand the much loved Shaun Of The Dead.

8 Resident Evil: Afterlife Is A Disappointing Resurrection For Director Paul W. S. Anderson

Resident Evil Afterlife Arcadia

An absolute juggernaut in the video game world, Capcom's Resident Evil franchise shows no signs of slowing down, with comics, movies, and video games releasing every year. Paul W. S. Anderson helmed the film series, writing and directing the original movie, Resident Evil, in 2002. The sequels that followed declined in quality without his directorial guidance, and so Anderson stepped back into the director's chair for the fourth installment, Resident Evil: Afterlife.

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Anderson's return didn't stem the flow of the series decline. Even Wentworth Miller returning to his Michael Scofield roots, breaking out of prison as Resident Evil's Chris Redfield, wasn't enough to make the film a success.

7 REC 3 Marks A Sharp Drop In Quality For The Series

Rec 3: Genesis Chainsaw wielding Girl

The original REC was a revelation, giving a fresh take on the zombie movie with its found-footage style. Horror and scares aplenty, the Spanish film was a huge success in 2007 and led to an American remake the year later. A Spanish sequel followed, with the original director and core cast in tow.

Then came the third movie, REC 3: Genesis. It made an admirable attempt to switch things up for the franchise, leaving the found-footage subgenre behind early in the film, as well as changing director and star. The changes alienated fans, and almost derailed the franchise. Luckily a fourth film would follow, REC 4: Apocalypse restored original star and director, and got the series back on track.

6 Ving Rhames Is No Match For This Zombie Apocalypse

Ving Rhames In Zombie Apocalypse

Before Zombie Apocalypse, the sight of Ving Rhames on a zombie movie's poster understandably caused excitement. The actor was praised for his performance in Zack Snyder's Dawn of The Dead remake, leading a group of survivors with his effortlessly cool, smash-mouth style.

He brings the pain to the undead once again here, but a lackluster story, low budget, and awful CGI make Rhames's performance, and the movie as a whole, far less enjoyable. The film did feature a zombie tiger before it was cool though, so it always has that going for it.

5 Romero's Career Ends On A Low With Survival Of The Dead

Zombie Horde In Survival Of The Dead

The Godfather of the dead, George A. Romero, started it all back in 1968 with his trilogy of zombie classics. The director's filmography is a showcase of the genre at its finest. Yet Romero's later years failed to replicate the success he started out with, and the twilight of his career features the subgenre at its least inspired, the worst offender being Survival Of The Dead.

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A loose sequel to 2007's Diary Of The Dead, Survival attempts to return to the series roots, ditching the found-footage technique used in Diary, however, the combination of poor acting and tiresome script left fans disappointed.

4 Cell Wastes A-List Talent

Samuel L Jackson In Cell

Screen legend Samuel L. Jackson is arguably the master of enhancing a movie with nothing more than pure charisma. The actor can take a questionable concept like Snakes On A Plane and transform it into a devilishly enjoyable popcorn flick. As the title hints, Cell is a movie about an apocalypse started by a cell phone signal. Based on a Stephen King book, and starring genuine talents like John Cusack and the aforementioned Jackson, there was certainly potential for an excellent viewing experience.

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While this film does not feature the undead per se, it consistently treads the dead-tired tropes of the zombie movie, gifting audiences with a slog of a watch, and earning its place amongst the worst the subgenre has to offer.

3 House Of The Dead Should Have Kept Living On Consoles

The Monster and one of the survivors in The House of the Dead

Video game adaptations have seen an increase in quality in recent years, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu and Sonic The Hedgehog being fine examples of the transition done to near perfection. But for a long time, video game movies seemed destined only for the local DVD store's bargain bin.

The undisputed king of these bad video game movies was German director Uwe Boll, with his 2005 adaptation of Alone In The Dark being regarded as one of the worst films ever made, regardless of genre. However, it wasn't Boll's first disastrous video game adaptation, 2003's House Of The Dead, based on the popular Sega game of the same name, was arguably even worse. The film currently has an embarrassing score of 2.1 on IMDb.

2 Rave To The Grave Isn't A Party You'd Want An Invite To

Return Of The Living Dead Rave To The Grave

Horror as a genre tends to have a bad reputation for regurgitating the same old ideas, recycling franchises and characters as if the environment depends on it. Return Of The Living Dead was once an exciting, amusing, tongue-in-cheek look at the undead hordes, but after many brainless installments, it's become the cinema equivalent of flogging a dead horse.

Despite director Ellory Elkayam having experience with the horror-comedy genre, (he helmed 2002's Eight Legged Freaks) Return Of The Living Dead 5: Rave To The Grave takes the series to new lows. Awful acting, unbelievable special effects, and a near non-existent plot make this film nothing more than an exploitation of an established name.

1 Night Of The Living Dead Went Public (& Sadly 3D)

Night of The Living Dead 3D

George Romero essentially invented the genre with his Night Of The Living Dead trilogy, but due to some mishandling when it came to legal issues, the original zombie flick fell into the public domain. The cheap cash-in, Night Of The Living Dead 3D was born, and the public suffered for it. Offensive to the original in every way, the tasteless reimagining of the Romero classic did not sit well with fans or critics.

This wasn't the first remake though, in 1991 Tom Savini had far better results with his freshening up of the title. Savini's Night of The Living Dead also featured an excellent performance from a young Candyman himself, Tony Todd.

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