1. Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) - From £0.01
You may have by now guessed that I am a Lucio Fulci fan girl. I have picked ZFE (Zombie Flesh Eaters) as the number one cheapo nasty because zombies always go down well with everyone. All the world loves a zombie! People may call this film a rip off of Romero's Dawn of the Dead, and yes, there is that element, but ZFE is highly enjoyable in its own right, and at least its zombies actually look like zombies - crumbly, rotten and maggoty - instead of just looking like they had a lick of green paint on their faces a la Romero's zombies. There are some amazing set pieces which have rightly passed into zombie film fan legend - the spike through the eye, the zombie versus the shark, the beautifully filmed awakening of the zombie Conquistadors. There is more gore in this film than you can shake a leg at - really good quality gore. I also love the electronic synth opening theme of ZFE and the music throughout is highly evocative of menacing zombie mayhem. The music is second only to Cannibal Holocaust's lyrical score by the genius Italian film composer Riz Ortolani. The ending of the film is brilliantly camp and simultaneously terrifying. Most of the action occurs upon a Caribbean island. Only two people survive the zombie onslaught and they get a boat and sail on it for New York. They also brought with them a friend who had been injured by zombies (and of course we all know what happens to man when zombie takes a bite out of him). He is behind locked doors but has now obviously become a zombie and is trying to get out to eat his friends. As the door rattles, our survivors listen in horror to the radio which screams "The zombies have taken over New York! I repeat the zombies have taken over New York! Oh the zombies have opened the door! They're in the building! They're coming in! Argh!". Cut to a scene of hundreds of zombies shuffling down Broadway. This just warms the cockles of my heart. The end of the world is nigh. For a start, if you are a zombie fan who has never seen this film, you absolutely must find a penny from somewhere to watch this epic. If you are just interested in exploring video nasties, this is 1p well spent on one of the best films on the list. Simply zombie-marvellous! On this note we end on a Fulci-tastic, flesh eating one penny high!