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4 Awesome Zombie Movies That Still Need Sequels
George A. Romero’s “Living Dead” movies are the gold standard when it comes to zombie films, at least when it comes to the first three. But, over the years, plenty of other zombie flicks have come along, some straightforward and some with a pinch of comedy running throughout. Furthermore, some of them proved to be franchise starters, e.g. 28 Days Later, Zombieland, The Return of the Living Dead, and Train to Busan, while others work best as one-offs, such as Shaun of the Dead. What follows are the zombie movies that fall between those two categories, the ones that were good enough to start franchises, and even ended with a cliffhanger, but nothing ever came of it.
The only qualifications for inclusion are that they could have naturally led into a subsequent story and were solid enough to receive such a subsequent story, even if audiences didn’t appreciate the film at its time of release. They are ranked by how much they would benefit from a sequel, as opposed to their overall quality as films.
4) Slither
James Gunn’s directorial debut, Slither, shows all the strengths he’s continued to display in his larger budget works. A sense of humor, elaborate costumes, an ability to coax fun, devoted performances from his actors, it’s all here. More than anything else, though, it’s a love letter to particularly goofy ’80s horror movies, including the next entry here on our list.
The film excels at balancing body horror, tongue-in-cheek humor, and a small-town vibe. Unfortunately for the small town’s residents, they’re currently being taken over systematically by extraterrestrial slug parasites, especially Michael Rooker’s humorously named Grant Grant, who ends up being a grotesque monstrosity the size of a living room. By film’s end, Grant is blown up, all but three of the town’s residents are dead, and the parasites have seemingly been entirely eliminated. However, the infection hasn’t been fully wiped out, as a cat is taken over when it approaches what’s left of Grant’s body.
3) Night of the Creeps
A cult classic ’80s genre-blender that not nearly enough people talk about, Night of the Creeps is a joyous, bonkers affair. This is a film that covers a lot of bases. It works as a comedy, it works as a coming-of-age story, it works as a science fiction movie, and it works as a horror tale.
Director Fred Dekker incorporates a few horror subgenres in his narrative, but it’s the zombie film that receives primary focus. The story concerns an alien experiment that is shot out of their spaceship and lands on Earth, at which point the slugs (hence the inspiration it provided James Gunn and Slither) begin taking over people on a college campus. The ending is also a case of the invaders being seemingly eliminated only for one little critter still on the loose. In fact, the movie had two endings, one which was intended by the director and one which ended up in the final cut. Both imply the invasion continues. In the theatrical conclusion, a slug jumps from an infected dog’s mouth toward Jill Whitlow’s Cynthia. In Dekker’s intended ending a group of slugs burst from the head of Det. Ray Cameron (scene-stealer Tom Atkins), which then go to find new hosts at a cemetery.
2) Army of the Dead
Army of the Dead did fairly well for Netflix back in 2021, at least well enough to get the ball rolling on building a zombified universe. But then last year all of it was cancelled, from Planet of the Dead to the animated prequel series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas.
So now all we have is the entertaining Army and the slightly better heist film prequel Army of Thieves. It’s an unceremoniously brief conclusion to what was clearly meant to be an ever-expanding world. It all comes down to the duo of Rebel Moon films being a critical and commercial failure. Director Zack Snyder himself confirmed that Rebel Moon and Army of the Dead were set to exist in the same universe, which would have been revealed in Lost Vegas. Even though Army of the Dead performed well, it was likely just too large a risk for Netflix to invest another hundred or so million in Snyder’s vision. However, while a third Rebel Moon is best left avoided, there is still quite a bit of potential in Planet of the Dead.
1) World War Z
Paramount is finally, after 12 years of setbacks and false starts, developing a sequel to Marc Forster’s World War Z. But, until the cameras start rolling, we’ll still file a World War Z sequel under “We’ll believe it when we see it.”
World War Z is the exact type of franchise that can cover a different group of characters in each film. But it’s likely we will again be following Brad Pitt’s Gerry Lane, considering the success of F1 is what inspired Paramount to once more get the ball rolling on this globe-trotting, teeth-gnashing adventure. Either way they go, this is without a doubt an apocalypse tale that shouldn’t be relegated to a single two-hour film.
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