4. The Dead (2010)
The Dead is the newest film on this list, and what makes it so great is how it manages to present more traditional zombie scares in a more unusual setting. Set in Africa, it has only two real protagonists, a United States Army Engineer trying to get home and an African soldier trying to find his son. The Dead smartly uses old school, slow, Romero style zombies, which is a nice contrast to many of the films on this list. By effectively utilizing slow zombies, the film is imbued with that classic sense of tension and dread. There are few scenes in this film without a zombie, because even if theyre not attacking their presence is felt constantly. Youll notice them in the background of shots, lingering off to the distance, hobbling slowly toward the camera. This sort of unnatural determination is part of what made slow paced zombies so creepy to begin with and The Dead understands this. A simple, straightforward zombie film, The Dead is exactly what purists of the genre should be looking out for.