During the height of The Walking Dead, I remember people being curious about what was going on outside of the show’s relatively narrow scope. “What’s happening outside the United States?” was a common refrain. Well, the spinoff Daryl Dixon is here to answer those questions, as they pertain to France at least. But let us not rely on The Walking Dead to tell us everything about how zombies may affect the globe. Over the years, many international zombie movies have attempted to answer this question on their own home turf, and I’d like to present to you a sample platter of fun, classic, and/or unique installments in the genre from around the world.

My goal is to highlight movies (no short films or TV shows) that are both shot and set in the home countries of the people who made them, though international cinema has an amount of crossovers and co-productions that prevents these lines from always being incredibly clear. But we will be avoiding American productions about global zombies, like World War Z. This has also unfortunately excluded the entire slate of Italian zombie movies, as far as I can tell, because Italian filmmakers were seemingly allergic to setting their movies in, say, Rome, instead of New York City or Papua New Guinea or wherever.

If I’ve left a country/territory off the list, it’s not necessarily because they have made no zombie movies (though many genuinely haven’t, especially in Africa). There are just a hell of a lot of territories, and we’re just covering a smattering. I’m already stretching my word limit way too thin.

Also, we will primarily focus on viral, bitey, George Romero-esque zombies (whether fast or slow), rather than voodoo zombies. The intention here is not to ignore the important folklore from which the word “zombie” sprung, but to recognize that what we are talking about here are two entirely distinct entities. Romero himself recognized this when he made the original Night of the Living Dead and called the undead revenants “ghouls” rather than “zombies.” But sometimes you just can’t stem the tide of language and how it shifts around a concept.

Without further ado, let’s adjust our flight caps and take off to explore how each continent has handled the undead plague…

A Selection of Standout International Zombie Movies

ASIA

Hong Kong – 生化壽屍/Bio Zombie (1998)

Right out of the gate, we’re exploring the range of genres to which zombies can be adapted, as this entry, released 20 years after Dawn of the Dead, applies screwball comedy tropes to the framework of the Romero classic, following two mall employees stumbling their way through the beginning of a zombie apocalypse in a wacky adventure that includes an infected soft drink, severed heads, and bootleg VCDs.

India – Zombivli (2022)

This Marathi-language outing is also a horror-comedy, but it additionally showcases the zombie genre’s penchant for social commentary, as it is set in the real Indian city of Dombivli. It darkly satirizes the bad reputation that the city has elsewhere in the country, and how citizens might be treated if there really was a zombie outbreak.

Indonesia – Zeta: When the Dead Awaken (2019)

This action-horror movie takes on a more serious tone, following a delinquent teenager and his mother, who is dealing with the early stages of Alzheimer’s, as they attempt to defend their apartment building from an undead menace.

Japan – バトルガール/Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay (1991)

One Cut of the Dead doesn’t really count as a zombie movie, even though it’s great, so for Japan I’m offering up Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay, which has a Night of the Living Dead-esque touch in having the zombie plague be brought to Tokyo by a meteor. It also engages with the common trope that humans can be just as dangerous as zombies during the apocalypse.

Pakistan – ذبح خانہ/Zibahkhana (2007)

This Urdu- and English-language movie follows teens encountering zombies while on their way to a concert and has many political overtones, including the first sign of trouble being protests over the dwindling water supply in the countryside.

Philippines – Day Zero (2022)

Day Zero has political overtones that simultaneously allow it to be an action-packed adventure, as the hero is a former soldier who has just been released from prison and is expertly fighting through a zombie wasteland to save his family.

South Korea – 부산행/Train to Busan (2016)

You probably don’t need me to sing the praises of Train to Busan, but long may it reign, and long may it continue to not get that English-language reboot they keep threatening to make.

Taiwan – 哭悲/The Sadness (2021)

This is our first proper encounter with a “rage virus” movie, where it could be argued that they’re not technically zombies. But you know what? I don’t care one bit about splitting hairs, personally. The Sadness acts as any good zombie outing should. It’s gnarly, terrifying, large-scale, bleak, and an experience you won’t soon forget.

Turkey – Ada: Zombilerin Düğünü/Island: Wedding of the Zombies (2010)

This Istanbul-set zombie comedy is an example of one of the most common zombie movie tropes (“What if we set an undead uprising in this unusual place?”) but also an example of the found footage subgenre at the height of its popularity.

AFRICA

Nigeria – Ojuju (2014)

This low-budget zombie movie is to the slums of Lagos what Zombivli is to Dombivli, and it has a deeply felt message about how pollution affects the disenfranchised.

South Africa – Last Ones Out (2015)

This one isn’t necessarily fully South African, as it has an American protagonist who becomes trapped in a zombie-infested area, but that feels about right considering how much of South Africa’s filmmaking economy is designed to appeal to Hollywood sensibilities.

NORTH AMERICA

Canada – Pontypool (2008)

Probably the most unique outing on this list, Pontypool, which is set in a radio station in the real Ontario town of the same name, follows a zombie virus that is spread through language. It’s a head trip and a half, but uses its limited scope to craft an unforgettably chilling apocalypse outside of its isolated location by mostly using just sound and language.

Cuba – Juan de los Muertos/Juan of the Dead (2010)

This Goya Award-winning zombie comedy follows a small business owner putting his zombie killing skills to good work.

Mexico – Santo Contra los Zombies/Santo vs. the Zombies (1961)

This is my lone exception to the voodoo-style zombie rule, but if you’re dropping by Mexico, you’ve got to check in on what Santo is up to. I don’t make the rules. The iconic silver-masked luchador fought many a monster in his day, and zombies were no exception.

SOUTH AMERICA

Argentina – Plaga Zombie/Zombie Plague (1997)

This low-budget affair isn’t the most respected on the list, but it did launch a four-film franchise, so mad props to Plaga Zombie.

Brazil – Mangue Negro/Mud Zombies (2008)

This movie about zombies attacking in and around a mangrove swamp is another pollution parable. It just goes to show that across the world, we’re fighting the same battles, whether they be against the environmental crisis or the undead.

Uruguay – Virus-32 (2022)

This “rage virus” outing introduces a unique wrinkle that gives its protagonists 32-second periods during which they can regroup. They’d better think quick.

Venezuela – Infección/Infection (2019)

This movie takes on a relatively familiar plot – a father crossing a zombie hellscape to save his son – but by doing so allows you to experience the multitude of ways that this same story can be told in a variety of different cultural contexts.

EUROPE

Denmark – Sorgenfri/What We Become (2015)

What We Become turns small town Sorgenfri into an orgy of bloody terror over the course of a brutal summer that blends a coming-of-age movie with a family drama with the end of the world.

France – La Horde/The Horde (2009)

This is essentially a crime movie slamming into a zombie movie, as the main characters are police officers and gangsters locked in a bloody battle. And honestly, very little feels more in tune with the sensibilities of French cinema than that concept.

Germany – Rammbock: Berlin Undead (2010)

In another very European move, the rage virus at the center of Rammbock can be controlled by regulating one’s adrenaline and staying calm. If this was French, it might lean in on ennui, but here it feels like an evocation of pure, stereotypical German efficiency, for better or worse.

Greece – Το Κακό/Evil (2005)

This movie, in which the undead descend upon Athens, is credited as the first Greek zombie movie, which shows how late in the game certain cinema cultures have been despite the genre’s decades-long popularity. Glad to have you joining the party, Greece!

Norway – Død snø/Dead Snow (2009)

Let’s not put on airs here. This movie about Nazi zombies ripping through a group of vacationers in a mountain cabin is simply a rip-snorting good time.

Spain – [REC] (2007)

This one – which follows a news anchor doing a ridealong with firefighters who end up getting quarantined in a Barcelona apartment building – is essentially a “rage virus” movie, though the origins of the zombie menace get more and more Catholic as the franchise continues. That’s how you know it’s from Spain, after all! Regardless, found footage horror has never been more claustrophobic or terrifying than [REC].

UK – 28 Days Later (2002)

This is the seminal “rage virus” movie, but it is also perhaps the best zombie or zombie-adjacent movie at evoking the eerie emptiness of iconic real-life locations.

OCEANIA

Australia – Little Monsters (2019)

With a cast that includes Lupita Nyong’o and Josh Gad, this movie doesn’t lean in as hard as possible on its Australian-ness, but drawing a parallel between a gaggle of schoolchildren and an undead horde is nevertheless a recipe for a good time.

New Zealand – Braindead/Dead Alive (1992)

Speaking of a good time, Peter Jackson’s seminal zombie film Dead Alive is one of the most distinctive entries in any genre. It is unquestionably a zombie movie, but it also carves out its own unique aesthetic and tonal niche at every turn. It is a thing all its own, and that thing is glorious.