Movies
The Best Zombie Films You Can Watch on Shudder Right Now
A list of the the best zombie horror films you can stream on Shudder right now.
Howdy, Horror Press reader! You know usually I’d start the article with a folksy aphorism, or a fun story, but Editor James-Michael said “think fast” and threw some sort of rat-monkey into the basement where I type these articles up before shutting the door.
Long story short, I’ve been bitten by it and I’m having trouble focusing, so right to brass tacks. Today we’ll be highlighting the best zombie films you can watch on Shudder, to make that movie night selection just a little bit easier.
I will also clarify, there are a lot of zombie-like movies on Shudder, with films like Demons, Azrael, and The Sadness filling those ranks. So, for the purpose of defining the zombies, we’re going with ravenous, mindless, undead creatures who specifically infect others by biting or scratching or eating them. So, while Night of the Living Dead technically never calls them zombies (they’re actually some of cinema’s first “ghouls”), it counts as a zombie film.
The Best Zombie Horror Films You Can Stream on Shudder
ZOMBIE (1979)
“You’re not actually going to start the list with that movie right?”
It’s a list of zombie movies. It’s called Zombie.
More importantly, Lucio Fulci’s cult classic is the quintessential Italian zombie film. Known as Zombi 2 in the rest of the world (since the first Zombi is the Italian localization of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead), it’s a very simple zombie film executed wonderfully. Beyond the legendary underwater zombie versus shark brawl that has made this movie a bit of a meme among horror fans, this is also the stomping grounds of Fulci’s most frequent collaborator: Giannetto De Rossi, a special effects artist so good I considered putting his name in bold for emphasis.
This is arguably the best of Rossi’s work, made most memorable by the film’s iconic scene of a worm-infested zombie rising from its grave. Really, it’s a top-notch highlight reel of all the skills that made Rossi an invaluable asset on a gamut of films ranging from David Lynch’s Dune to Alexandre Aja’s High Tension. If makeup and effects are what makes a horror movie for you, you have to watch this one.
BLOOD QUANTUM (2019)
Now this, this is a modern zombie movie with a whole lot of substance, and a fair bit of sauce.
When a zombie epidemic rips through the Northern reaches of Canada, it turns out one slice of the country’s demographics is completely immune to the virus: the indigenous First Nations people, who quickly set up a reservation fortress to safeguard the community. Jeff Barnaby uses this premise to skewer the unfortunately all too common divide between white Canadian citizens and their First Nations counterparts, the history of which is soaked in heaps of racial violence and an ugly colonialist legacy.
Beyond its thoughtful narrative, Blood Quantum also delivers on some of the nastiest practicals in a zombie movie from the past decade, with some being on par with Rossi’s work above thanks to an award-winning makeup and visual effects team. The action is good, the story is great, and the films’ thematic underpinnings make for a phenomenal watching experience that sticks with you and makes you want to learn more about the film and the surroundings it came up out of.
DEAD SHACK (2017)
When you have deadbeat parents watching over you that you can’t rely on, and you’re left to fend for yourself on a weekend out in the sticks, what are you to do when you find out your neighbor has zombies in her house? Suit up and try to kill them yourself, to hilarious effect.
One of the two horror comedies on this list, Dead Shack reminds me a lot of another highly underrated Shudder offering, Boys From County Hell. It’s got dark humor that’s more slapstick than the dry Irish flavor from Boys, but like that film, it’s supplemented by a fairly strong and charismatic cast of young actors, thrust into a hilarious situation where things just keep going wrong.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
And in the softest of softball lobs I’ll ever put in one of my recommendation articles, here’s George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead! It is such a classic, I don’t even know what I can say about it that hasn’t been said; it’s just such a core component of horror cinema, every frame has been pored over like an ancient text on how to make low-budget filmmaking legendary.
Having rewatched it for this article, Duane Jones’ performance in this movie is still unbelievably compelling after all these years, and it feels so fresh still because of the vocal command he projects. It’s a masterclass in acting in general and has cemented him as one of my favorite horror protagonists of all time. He’s simply the blueprint.
PENINSULA (2020)
The oft-forgotten sequel to Train to Busan, I wrote a retrospective article about Peninsula last summer for Horror Press. You can find a more in-depth analysis of the film there, but I’ll give a basic rundown here: Peninsula is a massive departure from its predecessor in tone, plot, action—honestly, its entire cinematography is cut from different cloth. Trading in sentimental horror on trains for pulse-pounding action sequences in zombie-filled car chases, director Yeong Sang-ho weaves a wild action-horror film that’s got a high rewatch value. It is an easy-to-enjoy thrill ride through post-apocalyptic South Korea.
ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2017)
If there’s any country that knows how to do zombie movies better than America, it’s Japan. An independent horror film in a sea of Japan’s bigger budget splatter films, One Cut of the Dead made waves not just for its 37-minute one-shot that opens the movie and gives the film its title, but for the sincerely heartwarming message it has to send about the struggles of making horror movies. I’ve kind of mentally dissociated One Cut of the Dead as a zombie movie because it’s just one of, if not the most, perfect pieces of meta-horror that I’ve had the pleasure of watching. I can’t guide you through this one without spoiling a whole bunch, but I can guarantee that you will leave this movie glad you watched it.
Also, a small sidenote: Harumi Shuhama’s performance in this makes me smile every time I watch it. She’s deeply talented, we need her in more horror movies.
(POM!)
MADS (2024)
Saving the best for last, last year’s MadS is maybe the film I was least excited to watch and the one I was most impressed with the result of.
For a very long time, I would have stopped being impressed with one-take movies a while back (I know it sounds odd because I just sang One Cut of the Dead so much praise, but stick with me). Because when you watch enough one-takes you can see the clear points where they cut. If the simulation breaks, the gimmick kind of just dies. But MadS is not only a true blue one-take (if it is spliced together takes, it’s unbelievably skilled at hiding it), it uses that one shot to build a kind of tension that made my spine start to tie around itself tight. It’s composed in uncomfortable closeups for most of the runtime, but even when the shots go wide, its composition, its lighting, its sound design, and the way director David Moreau makes the camera move makes you feel like you can’t get far enough away.
It made me unironically feel like I had pressure building on my neck as the film makes you watch the infection spread. MadS above all else serves up one of the most harrowing depictions of a zombie outbreak ever, and its tactile effectiveness is a testament to its cinematography; a cinematography that doesn’t let up until that final shot, and sticks to you like superglue with you after it’s wrapped up.
I don’t know about you, but it feels like I stepped out of the theater after seeing Wolf Man, blinked, and suddenly it was September. It’s been a very busy year in general, but as always, especially so for the horror genre. We’ve had some misses and some hits, but overall, I’d say it’s been a strong year (though maybe not quite as strong as 2024 and its deluge of incredible movies).
Though your mind might still be primarily occupied with a more recent release, there have been a lot of incredible movies to hit both theaters and especially streaming services like Shudder in 2025. So, we here at Horror Press have decided to put together a shortlist of the best horror the year has had to offer so far.
The Best Horror of 2025 So Far
Feel free to wave this list in the face of your friends who say that all the horror they’ve watched this year is bad. Or just to celebrate because your favorite made the cut! Without further ado, let’s start with…
Dangerous Animals
Fun and insane animal horror movies are so hard to come across these days, but Dangerous Animals chums the waters with some fresh meat for the subgenre. Sean Byrne, best known for his work on the Australian sleeper hit The Loved Ones, tells a story reminiscent of Wolf Creek on the high seas.
A surfer and her boyfriend fall prey to a boat captain who promises a thrilling cage diving experience, but with a catch: he secretly enjoys torturing people before feeding them to sharks. Jai Courtney shines as the antagonist Tucker, whose mealy-mouthed grins and demented demeanor sell the danger our leads are in.
Clown in a Cornfield
The pick for the best slasher offering this year (until Black Phone 2 releases, #JoeHillHypeTrain) is a no-brainer. Shudder has finally delivered the long-awaited adaptation of Adam Cesare’s Clown In A Cornfield. And helmed by Eli Craig of Tucker & Dale vs. Evil fame no less! In the now dead hamlet of Kettle Springs, Missouri, a group of teens run afoul of its former mascot Frendo. While it initially presents itself as a basic corn-fed killer clown movie, if you stick with it, you’ll find it’s actually much more clever and thrilling than it lets on.
Predator: Killer of Killers
When I say Dan Trachtenberg does not miss, he does not miss in the slightest. The current creative director of the Predator franchise, fans of the series have been eating good ever since his work on 2022’s Prey, and have Predator: Badlands to look forward to early next month.
While Predator: Killer of Killers could have easily been a cheap animated film to tide over fans while they wait for Badlands, it proved to be one of the best films in the franchise yet. An anthology film featuring Yautja hunting throughout human history and across cultures, the animation here is slicker than slick. Killer of Killers delivers the action horror that everyone has been asking for from the franchise for years.
The Ugly Stepsister
When I heard The Ugly Stepsister was a collaboration between a bevy of film institutes and production companies across four different Nordic countries, I wondered what made it so special. What I saw explained it. While it is technically Cinderella, it’s specifically a retelling of Aschenputtel, one of the original and much darker iterations of Cinderella collected by the Brothers Grimm. And dark this is.
Told from the perspective of Cinderella’s stepsister Elvira, we watch her spiral as she tries to beautify herself in the ugliest of ways, all in an effort to secure a wealthy male suitor. Truly inspired costuming, grotesque body horror played for both shock and laughs, and a dead-on sense of comedic timing make this one a very memorable watch.
Weapons
Director Zach Cregger’s sophomore outing in the horror genre following his smash hit Barbarian is well-loved, and for good reason. This time, Weapons shines a spotlight on lives in a small town, and how they intersect, trying to make sense of a horrifying incident: the disappearance of 17 children who run out the front doors of their homes in the dead of night.
Cregger dances deftly on the line between horror and comedy in a way I can only describe as masterful, creating a film that is both viciously funny and aggressively disturbing. Where the film goes is a curveball, even for those who have seen the trailers, and a delightful one at that, since Weapons brings a new horror icon to the stage.
Companion
And speaking of Zach Cregger, this sci-fi horror is another one of his productions. If you’ve somehow avoided seeing anything about Companion until now and don’t know what it’s about, keep it that way and go watch it immediately. The ad campaign spoiled it, but the story is undeniably enthralling even if you know where it’s going. This movie features what is, by far, Sophie Thatcher’s most dynamic performance yet, supported by a stellar cast and the film’s pitch-black humor.
Fréwaka
The first Irish-language horror film is also one of the nation’s best cinematic offerings yet. A gripping and immersive folk horror film, it follows a home nurse named Shoo assigned to a superstitious older woman named Peig who lives on the edge of a remote village. Shoo soon begins to see dark ongoings in her dreams and waking life, plagued by the same mysterious group that Peig has been dealing with her entire life.
Fréwaka is a precision-made film, chock full of high impact editing and cinematography. It evokes a kind of existential monster, both man-made horrors of human cruelty and the mythological ones that lie deep in belief and the dark corners of Irish folklore. In short, unsettlingly effective.
Ash
Flying Lotus’ directorial career has been a point of interest for me ever since the genre shapeshifter that was Kuso and the demented parody that was his segment “Ozzy’s Dungeon” in V/H/S/99. And even with the high hopes those ventures gave me, Ash is so much more than I could have expected.
After astronaut Riya wakes up to nightmares of bodies being melted and screams of agony, she finds herself as one of only two survivors in a mission to colonize a planet gone horribly wrong. Ash is a lovely middle point between Event Horizon and The Void, a mixture that is sure to please those of us who like our science fiction dripping with an evil atmosphere and dark visuals. It also boasts some of the best color grading and lighting in any film this year.
Sinners
If you haven’t seen Sinners already, what have you been up to? Brain science? Rocket surgery? Here, visionary director Ryan Coogler tells the tale of a repressed young black man in 1930s Mississippi, trying to break away from his preacher father’s restrictive ways. His journey to do so lands him a performance at a juke joint out in the woods, one he plays so well that it lures in an ageless and relentless vampire.
Michael B. Jordan, Jack O’Connell, and Wunmi Mosaku lead an all-star cast through a mystical horror story with purpose. It explores the meaning of culture, religion, music, and the Black American experience—all while delivering one of the best vampire films of all time. The showstopping original soundtrack by Ludwig and Serena Göransson that it boasts isn’t half bad either.
Bring Her Back
I won’t mark this with the caveat of “so far”—this will be the most disturbing film you see this year. Bring Her Back blew any expectations you might have had from the Phillipou Brothers’ Talk To Me out of the water. While the premise of an orphaned brother and sister who are sent to live with an off-kilter foster mother and another mute child she’s fostering might seem predictable, this film is anything but.
It’s truly an emotionally draining watch, blow after blow with both the physical and emotional trauma it puts its characters through, and forces you to watch. It refuses to let you breathe for even a minute in its final act. It’s definitively Sally Hawkin’s finest hour as an actress, and beyond this short list, it’s firmly some of the best horror of all time.
2024 was pretty damn swamped with horror. Longlegs, Heretic, Nosferatu, I Saw the TV Glow…even over halfway into 2025, fans are still catching up on every horror flick they might have missed last year. Early on, though, we were given one of the best horror-rom-coms of the 21st century…and no one seemed to really care. Did people stop liking fun? It seems to be the only explanation for why this movie did not catch on more. Directed by Zelda Williams and written by the legendary Diablo Cody, Lisa Frankenstein was designed to be a cult classic, and should be remembered as one.
A Vibrant 80s Aesthetic That Screams Originality
One thing to note about this movie right off the bat is how unapologetically itself it is. The film is an absolute vibe, boasting an original aesthetic. There is so much 1980s nostalgia saturating the mainstream (cough, cough, Stranger Things), so it could be hard to imagine why we need another tongue-in-cheek horror-comedy set in the era. Lisa Frankenstein takes a completely original approach to the 80s. Its fashion and music concern themselves with the alternative, new wave-ish, goth-y side of the decade. It does not glorify what was big and popular, but rather picks it apart in ridiculously kitschy designs.
The film feels like a mix of Tim Burton’s brightest, suburban aesthetics, mixed with the grittier side of 80s culture and music. It is a bit of a, dare I say it, Frankenstein’s monster of a wavelength. With such striking originality, it’s hard to say why exactly the film did not find its way into viewers’ hearts.
The Bride of (Lisa) Frankenstein
The leads in the film are both phenomenal. Kathryn Newton is funny and full of life as the protagonist, who feels like a more light-hearted version of Wednesday Addams. Cole Spruce is phenomenal as the creature, playing an old-school, lovable monster. They truly play the movie as equal parts Edward Scissorhands and Juno. Speaking of…
Diablo Cody’s Cinematic Universe: A Horror-Comedy Legacy
What really puts this film on the next level is its writing. The film is written by the legendary Diablo Cody, creator of classics such as Jennifer’s Body and Juno. The film continues her legacy of teen-centric stories, combining drama, comedy, and, more often than not, bloody horror. Her originality shines through in this film without a doubt, with the humor evoking a distinctly mid-2000s indie flick feel.
Additionally, in an interview with Deadline, Diablo Cody said, “…this movie [Lisa Frankenstein] takes place in the same Universe [Jennifer’s Body]. Jennifer’s Body is of course revered as a classic horror-comedy, blending brutal supernatural lore with a ton of humor. That movie has a much higher fan base than Lisa Frankenstein, however, Cody has confirmed that these films share the same Universe. This alone should give fans of the genre another chance to consider this movie. Plus, with news of a potential Jennifer’s Body 2, Lisa Frankenstein could potentially be part of what one day may be an iconic trilogy.
A Deeper Love Letter to Art and Creation
For all the pomp and frills of teen dramedy, romcom-ishness (new word!) and bloody horror, Lisa Frankenstein has some more to say than what meets the eye. The movie is not just a romance between Lisa and The Creature. It is a romance between Lisa and art itself.
Lisa’s character is an artist from the beginning, sewing and designing her own art and fashions, fascinated by the art surrounding her. She has a passion for art and art history, and desires to create. In a sense, through her sewing and construction, The Creature is an art piece. The movie is literally a romance between her and the act of human creation.
In one of the movie’s best sequences, Lisa has a dream sequence in which she is married to the bust of The Creature, and the room is decorated like George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon. This iconic short film from the turn of the 20th century remains one of the most impactful and inspirational films ever made, helping to pioneer narrative storytelling in film. By referencing and paying homage to this movie, Lisa Frankenstein draws a throughline between Lisa’s creation and the creation of art as a whole. This is a movie that understands its place in film history and appreciates the importance of creation on both a Divine and human creative level.
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