Zombie University T-shirts

Just because your dead, isn't an excuse for being out of shape, or to not have any fun. Nothing builds character and decomposing muscle like sports. Zombie kids can get out there and toss the old pig skin (or anybody else's skin) just like anyone else. Of course the do it a bit slower. With only a few accommodating rule changes, such as night games only, the 15 yard penalty for eating the quarterback, and referees not bring allowed to make the "dead ball" call any more (it gets the players too excited), the game is on! So support your home team or alma mater by sporting one of these snazzy Zombie University Athletic Dept tees.

Here is the latest list of the all time top 10 zombie movies from Goatdog's movie review site. It seems that some of the old favorites have gotten knocked down a peg or two by some of the newer horror film productions.

10. Wild Zero (2000-Japan). This is the most fun you'll ever have at a gender-bending rock 'n' roll zombie movie. This movie is no less than a story of the power of love and music to defeat the forces of evil, which in this case are represented by alien zombies, the recording industry, and close-mindedness in general. It's inspiring, lots of fun, and full of good low-budget gore. It also features Guitar Wolf, a Japanese punk band that is the distillation of the essence of cool. Aoo!

9. Versus (2000-Japan). Part zombie movie, part kung fu flick, part Tarantino-esque crime fest, and nearly incomprehensible, this movie is powered on its enthusiasm and merry blending of genres. The plot is a fascinating blend of mindless nonsense and overloaded story. It has one of the best settings in zombie movie history: the forest of resurrection, where unwitting gangsters have buried their dead for years (complete with loaded weapons). There's little space for thinking about how ridiculous it all is: you're just dragged along helplessly, laughing at the audacity of it.

8. Shaun of the Dead (2004-UK). If zombies stalked the earth, would we be able to distinguish them from the wage slaves and cubicle dwellers that we see every day (or perhaps that we are)? That's the conceit to this hysterical film: for almost the first half, our hero doesn't notice that the slack-jawed Londoners around him are actually the living dead. It slips a little when the zombies overrun the city, becoming more typical, but that first hour and a good ending earn it a place on my list.

7. Zombi 2 (1979-Italy). As far as straightforward post-Romero zombie films go, this is the best of the lot. It lacks the humor of the best of the American and Asian zombie films; instead, it's tense and gory-an old-school horror film without the postmodern twists. Plus, it features a fight between a zombie and a shark, and you can never go wrong with something like that. It is supposed to be a "sequel" to Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which was released in Italy as simply "Zombi."

6. 28 Days Later (2003-UK). This is one of the best horror films to come out in recent years, and it breathes fresh new life into the zombie genre. Instead of the shambling dead, the enemy here is super-charged infected people whose rage is so great that they cease being human. The film takes place at what seems like the collapse of civilization, and the characters venture forth to see what remains of it. While this is a zombie movie more in form than in specifics (the zombies aren't actually dead yet, for example), it's one of the best examples of how the idea of zombies symbolize a host of things. It also contains some really wonderful homages to horror films of the past, especially Romero's famous trilogy.

5. White Zombie (1932). This is what started it all, the first zombie film. Instead of the flesh eating that characterizes post-Romero zombie films, this one relies on atmosphere and expressionistic sets and acting to convey a pretty potent sense of dread. This is a good reminder that blood and guts are not necessary to make a good horror film. Bela Lugosi was never better than he was as Murder Legendre, who can turn people into zombies with the power of his mind (and his cool eyebrows).

4. Army of Darkness (1993). Heroic and ridiculous: that describes this, the capstone of Sam Raimi's films about the adventures of Ash (Bruce Campbell), and it also describes Ash himself. The film is an epic tale of swords, sorcery, undead armies, and true love, but it is also a slapstick classic, featuring more of Campbell's self-destructive antics and wonderfully lame posturing. He's sort of an antihero, in that he's heroic, but mostly despite his best efforts.

3. Night of the Living Dead (1968). This is the birth of the modern zombie film. It is also one of the scariest horror films ever made. It's pretty simple, really: the lurching dead want to devour the living, and it seems like they're destined to win. This film defined the genre forever, made George Romero's career, and also rocketed Roger Ebert to national stardom (he wrote an angry column about children left by their parents at theaters showing this film, and when it was reprinted by Reader's Digest, it made him a household name).

2. Dawn of the Dead (1978). I think this film is superior to its predecessor in almost every way. The inevitability of the lurching undead is jacked up a notch because we know that the seeming victory at the end of the earlier film was a lie. The claustrophobia is improbably more evident; there's something about that abandoned mall that screams isolation. And the social commentary is on full display. This is one of the great social critiques of the 1970s.

1. Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore) (1994-Italy). In addition to being the best of the slapstick zombie films, this film is a brilliant satire on 1990s generation-X ennui, a heart-wrenching story of the vagaries of love, and even a postmodern take on the power of language. There's so much going on in this film, but it's difficult to convince anyone that it is worth seeing because they don't want to look past the surface, which is coated with blood and zombie brains. This might be one of the best horror films ever made.

Goatdog knows his movies! You can check out his other reviews and info at Goatdog's Movies.

Hey! Get your dead on and try out one of the 6 different Zombie University tee designs at Zombie University Athletic Dept. You'll look great, I swear!