10 Zombie Horror Movies That Have No Right Being This Good

The first feature length film from Ruben Fleischer, a comedy TV director who was completely untested in the horror genre, Zombieland had none of the makings of a runaway hit.

It came loaded with a budget of only $23.6 million, which was not a lot given the popularity of the cast involved and that comparable films such as Zack Snyder's debut Dawn Of The Dead (2004) had a larger budget a whole half decade earlier. Add to this that the cast -- Abigail Breslin, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Emma Stone, playing a quintet of zombie apocalypse survivors -- were best known for comedy roles, with roughly zero horror cred between them, and things were not looking so hot.

Against all odds, however, Zombieland managed the unthinkable, winning the hearts and minds of critics and audiences, and smashing the global box office, surpassing the aforementioned Dawn Of The Dead as the top-grossing zombie film in the US.

The proof was very much in the blood pudding, and the film's unique blend of irreverent comedy and unflinchingly gory zombie kill-a-thons stuck the landing. Eisenberg and Harrelson make the best of the unlikely duo formula, and a rich seam of rock music, star cameos and stylised elements, such as dynamic titles, cutaways and a list of survival rules and zombie-killing strategies grant it near-infinite rewatchability.