7 Zombie Movies with Brrraaaains!

Brad Pitt's World War Z has arrived, and to get you into the apocalyptic zombie frame of mind, we have a horde of top zombie invasion flicks to choose from -- fun, funny and frightening -- and get you in the mood for braaaains. Batter up!

The creepy 1968 black-and-white, micro-budget indie from George A. Romero that started it all was remade in 1990 by special-effects splattermaster Tom Savini and packs a surprisingly solid punch. Savini cut his teeth on films including the original Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th, and the tale of ordinary people looking to survive a zombie invasion by holing up in a remote farmhouse works wonders on the psyche without one pixel of CGI.

Sure, George A. Romero's memorable Night of the Living Dead 1978 follow-up set the bar for the Zombie movie genre with its gross-out effects and subversive setting in a shopping mall, but director Zack Snyder impressively improved on the original with this clever 2004 remake. With Ving Rhames, Sarah Polley and a pre-Modern Family Ty Burrell fending off the legions of the undead -- who can now run after your brains at top speed – the updated Dawn is equipped with a clever script, smart soundtrack and unexpected decisions by its main characters that keep you guessing who will live and who will die 'til the final frame.

Versatile director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) turned his attention to the horror genre in 2002 with this intense film that takes place in a post-apocalyptic England… While not technically a true zombie movie (the predators are afflicted with a "rage" virus), the film has the distinction of being the first of its kind to speed up the hordes from foot-dragging speed bumps to sprinting monsters, making them a legitimately scary force to be reckoned with. Inception star Cillian Murphy plays a man who wakes up in the hospital to discover the London landscape completely devoid of people, only to find out the hard way that a deadly virus has put a serious damper in everyone's day.

London is overrun with bloodthirsty zombies, but will slacker flatmates Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Ed (Nick Frost) even notice? This clever 2004 satire of George A. Romero's enduring zombie movies and other cult flicks follows the duo's grand scheme to rescue Shaun's mom and ex-girlfriend, take them to the local pub, "hole up, have a cup of tea and wait for this whole thing to blow over." The film made Simon Pegg (Star Trek) a stateside star, enviably streamlined the horror-comedy genre, and turned the cricket bat into a choice anti-zombie weapon.

One of the goriest, most outrageous zombie films ever made is actually an early film by none other than Middle-earth master Peter Jackson. The hilarious 1992 cult classic follows a young man, Lionel (Timothy Balme), who must watch over his horrible mother. After a Sumatran rat-monkey bites her and turns her into a zombie, she soon infects the rest of the town and all hell breaks loose. Can Lionel survive and still be with the oblivious love of his life (played by Diana Penalver)?

More brrraaaains!!! This 1985 horror-comedy classic was one of the first films to tweak the zombie genre for laughs, following a group of clueless punks who party in a graveyard next to a mortuary where their pal Freddy (Thom Matthews) works, only to be caught by surprise by chemically resurrected, decomposed dead folk. Can lovestruck teens Freddy and Tina (Beverly Randolph) survive the experience, even after Freddy is exposed to the deadly, experimental army chemicals and develops a taste for his girlfriend's brain?

Nut up or shut up! Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg play mismatched partners making the most of the post-apocalyptic landscape after the world is overrun by zombies in this 2009 horror comedy. When the snarky Emma Stone enters the picture, Eisenberg has a renewed purpose in life, taking Emma and Abigail Breslin on a cross-country pilgrimage to an amusement park. Will they make it to their safe haven alive -- and nab that last Twinkie on earth? Watch it simply for the curious zombified cameo by Bill Murray.