George Romero invented the zombie movie playbook. With bonafide classics like Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, he codified and solidified just about everything we know and love about the silver-screen walking dead. But if you're a zombie movie fan, you can't just watch the classics over and over. Hell, even a zombie would get tired of the same human entrails every day (well, maybe not). Are you ready for some deeper cuts?

These are some of our favorite zombie movies you've never heard of, you may have missed, or you've been itching to check out for some time. They rewrite, subvert, play into, and invent some new rules. They range wildly in tone, emotional exploration, the level of gore, and even filmmaking styles. And now, they're ready for you to sink your teeth into.

Check out which zombie movies we've pegged as the ones you should watch ASAP.

Warm Bodies

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Image via Lionsgate

Director/Writer: Jonathan Levine

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry, Dave Franco, Analeigh Tipton, Cory Hardrict, John Malkovich

Jonathan Levine (50/50, Long Shot) is an underrated contemporary auteur, one less marked by signature visual stylizations than his commitment to emotional vulnerability and beautiful, sensitive performances. When he applies that sensibility to the YA zombie space, look out! Warm Bodies puts Romeo and Juliet through a zombie apocalypse filter, with Nicholas Hoult as a zombie Romeo, Teresa Palmer as a human Juliet, and John Malkovich as Palmer’s aggressively untrusting father. The film plays several layers deeper than this initial pitch (a Levine trademark!), using its slow-burning love story to dissect the core of humanity in us all, no matter what a lack of pulse might say. Hoult is an endearing sad-boi protagonist, one whom we actively root for to keep reclaiming his pre-zombie life through the damn power of love -- even when he gobbles up human flesh and brains, as zombies are still wont to do. Though I think the film’s MVP performance comes from Rob Corddry, Hoult’s zombie best friend, whose gift for stylized physical comedy comes second only to his gift for reopening his eyes to the world of genuine human connection.

One Cut of the Dead

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Image via Shudder

Director/Writer: Shin'ichirô Ueda

Cast: Takayuki Hamatsu, Mao, Harumi Syuhama, Yuzuki Akiyama, Kazuaki Nagaya

The crazy thing about One Cut of the Dead is that you will be wondering why everyone keeps telling you to watch this movie for, say, 25 minutes or so. Writer/director Shin’ichirô Ueda‘s horror-comedy starts off as a zombie flick with an interesting premise—a crew filming a zombie movie gets trapped in what appears to be an actual zombie outbreak—with the added twist of being one unbroken shot. It’s fun, it’s gory, and it’s perfectly fine…and then One Cut of the Dead turns completely on a dime and becomes the best zombie-comedy since Shaun of the Dead. The pay-off of this movie is absurdly, gut-bustingly worth the wait and builds to one of the satisfying final stretches you could imagine. Don’t search for spoilers or a synopsis, just hit play. — Vinnie Mancuso

The Return of the Living Dead

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Image via Orion Pictures

Director: Dan O'Bannon

Writers: Dan O’Bannon, Rudy Ricci, John A. Russo, Russell Streiner

Cast: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa

“They’re back from the grave and they’re ready to party!” Thus sayeth the poster for The Return of the Living Dead, a sprint away from the grimy misanthropy and sharp social satires of any of George Romero’s classically canonical zombie films. Instead, Return is, well, a damn party, a raucously good time to throw on with a group of raucous friends eager to laugh, cover their eyes, and marvel at the audacity of the thing. Shaking off the grim shackles of Alien, Dan O’Bannon lets Return off the leash, crafting a self-aware tale of young punk-rockers who love, among other morbid time-passers, partying in cemeteries. Obviously, zombies are going to attack them. But O’Bannon’s frames and stages his zombie attacks with a self-aware sledgehammer sense of humor (literally calling out Night of the Living Dead) and genuinely inventive additions to the zombie canon (this film likely features the first instance of “zombies eating brains” and “fast zombies"). Set to a head-bangingly authentic punk soundtrack and featuring some of the funniest horror-comedy set pieces and character decisions you’ll ever see, The Return of the Living Dead is perhaps the perfect party zombie flick.

Train to Busan

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Image via Next Entertainment World

Director: Yeon Sang-ho

Writer: Park Joo-suk

Cast: Gong Yoo, Ma Dong-seok, Jung Yu-mi, Kim Su-an, Kim Eui-sung, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee

If you’re a fan of zombies, you need to watch Train to Busan. It’s as simple as that. Yeon Sang-ho’s fast-moving zombies-on-a-train picture works as a relentless purveyor of high-octane entertainment, a slice of genre gold that bests many contemporary American pieces of popcorn filmmaking from a sheer point of craft and momentum. But it also digs deeper, finding the beating heart at the center of the genre about monsters whose hearts no longer beat. Gong Yoo and Ma Dong-seok play the father and daughter at the center of this train ride. They’re on their way to Busan to visit Ma’s mother, Gong Yoo’s ex-wife, and things aren’t going the best. Gong Yoo is neglectful, obsessed with work, and needlessly closed-off to his loving, curious daughter. But when the zombie apocalypse strikes, you better believe these two find the time to work on their relationship and become closer -- while, you know, fighting killer zombies who are desperate to eat their flesh. Yeon and screenwriter Park Joo-suk are masters of their genre and how to heighten what’s already there into something unique -- many of my favorite scenes in the picture start in a familiar place of zombie tropes (can someone kill a family member who’s turned?) before blossoming into something much richer. It’s a remarkable picture, this Train to Busan.

The Girl With All the Gifts

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Image via Saban Films

Director: Colm McCarthy

Writer: Mike Carey

Cast: Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, Glenn Close, Sennia Nanua

Not unlike a Last of Us, The Girl with All the Gifts’ zombie disease comes from an authentic-feeling fungal mutation, a disorder which causes humans to turn into what savvy zombie film viewers might call “fast zombies,” but what the characters in this film simply call “hungries.” This choice is one of many grounding choices in the film, a refreshingly tangible, frighteningly prescient take on the societal coping mechanisms and militaristic pseudo-fascism that occur among times of mass panic and pandemic (sound familiar? Hahahahahaha). Among its many ingenious screenplay choices (Mike Carey adapting his own novel) comes the central hook: Half-human, half-zombie children will exist in a world of common zombie apocalypse, and we have to teach them to retain their humanity while eschewing their desire to, y’know, bite and eat people. But one girl -- a girl with all the gifts, even -- will change this precarious balance. And this girl, a beyond brilliant performance from 13-year-old Sennia Nanua, goes on a transformative, scary, thrilling, and even heartwarming adventure that feels like a dryly British take on a classic Amblin picture. Final thought: Glenn Close as the villain is a big “yes please” from this guy.

Maggie

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Image via Roadside Attractions

Director: Henry Hobson

Writer: John Scott 3

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin, Joely Richardson

Arnold Schwarzenegger in a damn zombie movie? Woo-hoo! Sign us up! We can’t wait to see Arnie blast way hordes of undead monsters, offering perfect quips after each… sorry, what’s that? Schwarzenegger’s zombie movie is a quiet drama about a father and daughter? And he gives the most self-contained, subtle work of his career? Well… that works too. After cutting his teeth designing the title sequences for works like Sherlock Holmes and video game masterpiece The Last of Us, Henry Hobson made his directorial debut on Maggie. Its tone is similar to The Last of Us, using zombie fiction tropes as a springboard for a deeper, richer exploration of family, grief, and the attempt to delay an inevitable fate. It’s a pity Hobson hasn’t made a feature film since Maggie, as his work here is quite remarkable. He presents stylishly still images, rendering the grim truths of the world with appropriate gravity without backsliding into ponderous misery-porn. And he coaxes exquisite performances out of Abigail Breslin as the title role and Schwarzenegger as her father.

Schwarzenegger basically lives in one queasy, unanswerable question that takes one trope of a zombie film and stretches it out in unbearable slow motion: Can he kill his daughter as she turns into a zombie? Thus, Schwarzenegger’s inherent stillness is purposefully pointed in on itself. Try as he might to keep his exterior veneer calm and collected, his insides are constantly revolting against him. It makes for a downright lovely performance, a place Schwarzenegger had never traveled before, a place halfway between vulnerability and stoic grimness.

Anna and the Apocalypse

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Image via Orion Pictures

Director: John McPhail

Writers: Alan McDonald, Ryan McHenry

Cast: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Marli Siu, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Ben Wiggins, Mark Benton, Paul Kaye

Few films have to satisfy as many genres as Anna and the Apocalypse, but this Scottish gem ticks all the boxes handily while singing and dancing through the heartfelt chaos. Part Christmas movie, part high school musical, and part zom-com, Anna and the Apocalypse is surprisingly great at being all three, bouncing between holiday spirit, teenage hormones, and laugh-out-loud horror-comedy (or sometimes, heartbreaking zombie drama) with such tonal precision director John McPhail makes it look deceptively easy. Sure, this is probably the only musical where you’ll see a zombie in a snowman suit get decapitated by a see-saw or watch a gang of singing teenagers dispatch the undead with watermelons and a PlayStation controller, but it’s also just a damn good musical to boot with earworm songs, great ensemble numbers, and — arguably the toughest to pull off of all — great (and hilarious) new Christmas songs you’ll immediately add to your yearly playlist. – Haleigh Foutch

Dead Alive

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Image via Trimark Pictures

Director: Peter Jackson

Writers: Stephen Sinclair, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh

Cast: Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody, Ian Watkin

A word to the wise: Maybe don’t watch Dead Alive (Braindead in its native New Zealand) while casually snacking. It’s one of the more perversely, hyperbolically gory flicks I’ve ever seen, eager to split open, shred up, and coat its humans with all kinds of inventive viscera for your viewing pleasure. And, speaking from personal experience, that can lead to some unwanted nausea if you’re casually throwing back popcorn. Made squarely in Peter Jackson’s pre-LOTR “batshit low-budget genre” period (Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles), Dead Alive tells the story of a nebbish mama’s boy (Timothy Balme) who falls in love (Diana Peñalver) while dealing with the oppressive neediness of his cartoonishly horrid matriarch (Elizabeth Moody). Oh, and also, his small New Zealand town is infected by a zombie virus, causing everyone to turn into vicious flesh-eaters -- starting with his mum. Jackson is having an absolute ball with this sucker, turning zombie tropes into Terry Gilliam-esque fantasies of black comedy and visually garish sucker punches. The badass zombie-hunting priest, the attempts to hide a zombie baby, the “lawnmower climax” -- this flick is jam-packed with invention and audacity, all with a rootable emotional center to boot. Just, like, skip the snacks.

Pontypool

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Image via IFC Films

Director: Bruce McDonald

Writer: Tony Burgess

Cast: Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly, Hrant Alianak, Rick Roberts, Boyd Banks, Tony Burgess, Rachel Burns

I think zombies are so terrifying because of how primal their symptoms and actions are. When you become a zombie, you lose your intellectual self, and revert into a state of pure, vicious animal instinct. Pontypool understands this inherent, subconscious fear, and thus cannily positions the source of zombification into one of our most prized higher level functions: Language. Tony Burgess’ ingenious screenplay (adapted from his own novel) finds Canadian shock jock Stephen McHattie in his element: a radio booth. He’s safe, he’s in control, he’s in his power. Right? Wrong. Because he’s about to be under attack via the corruption and weaponization of words. Folks suffering under this virus (staged with increasing, pressure-filled suspense via the low-budget bottle episode craft of cult maestro Bruce McDonald) repeat certain words with obvious confusion. Then, these words devolve into out-and-out nonsense. And finally, with these hosts driven to madness by their lack of understanding, they have no choice but to bite and consume whoever’s in front of them. It’s a terrifying, tricky, suspense-fueled, and inventive take on zombie tropes, one that proves you don’t need a multi-million dollar budget to scare the hell out of people. All you need are actors, a room, and words. Just be careful what those words are.

Dance of the Dead

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Image via Ghosthouse Underground

Director: Gregg Bishop

Writer: Joe Ballarini

Cast: Jared Kusnitz, Greyson Chadwick, Chandler Darby, Carissa Capobianco, Randy McDowell, Blair Redford, Mark Oliver, Justin Welborn

Listen: You could hear little old me prattle off why Dance of the Dead is worth your time. Or you could take Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert’s word for it. As Tapert says: “This was a movie that Sam Raimi and myself and another associate watched on a Sunday afternoon. We howled and we howled till Sam’s wife and kids started banging on his office door wondering if we were alright. I think I’ve watched it about five times so far.” Hey, if it’s good enough for Sam Raimi to howl at, it’s good enough for you! Dance of the Dead puts a zombie attack in the center of a high school prom, using its characters’ burgeoning hormones and immediately identifiable dreams and desires as delightful springboards of reaction to a genre explosion. Joe Ballarini’s script starts its characters from a place of high school cliche -- and these cliches are delightfully rendered -- but isn’t afraid to twist them and turn them into emotional generators, either. And director Gregg Bishop, who went on to craft all kinds of underrated genre films, stages the hell out of his low-budget affair, understanding that his film needs to scare, make us laugh, and make us feel in equal measure. Dance of the Dead will make you wish your high school experience included a zombie outbreak.