Zombies may be the most famous kind of undead movie character, but they’re far from the only ones. Horror movies have given us reanimated scientists, immortal socialites, domesticated zombies, dead cops, vengeful corpses, and plenty of other things that should have stayed six feet under. For this list of the Top 10 Undead Movie Characters of All Time, we’re looking beyond the usual zombie hordes to celebrate the individual characters who have made the undead such an enduring part of horror cinema. Some are terrifying, some are hilarious, and some are just plain weird, but all ten have left their mark on the genre.
#10 – Mabel Chilton (Ed and His Dead Mother)
Ed and His Dead Mother is an underseen cult classic featuring a young Steve Buscemi as a nerdy son who brings his overbearing mother, Mabel Chilton, back from the dead. Naturally, all hell breaks loose, and comic madness ensues as Mabel’s return causes more problems than her son could have imagined. It’s not a good movie by any stretch, but Miriam Margolyes is great as the campy zombie mama, making Mabel one of the stranger and more memorable undead characters on this list.
#9 – Fido (Fido)
Fido is set in an alternate 1950s where zombies have been domesticated as household servants, creating a bizarre Pleasantville-like world that has survived the Zombie Wars. The titular Fido, played by Billy Connolly, becomes the best friend of young Timmy Robinson, who treats the zombie more like a beloved pet than a servant. When Fido’s control collar malfunctions and he accidentally kills a neighbor, Timmy has to do everything he can to keep his undead friend from being taken away. Connolly is great in what could have been a throwaway zombie comedy, giving Fido a surprising amount of warmth and personality. The result is a pretty damn good little movie with one of the most unusual zombie characters around.
#8 – Judge Hopkins (ParaNorman)
ParaNorman is one of the best animated horror movies of its generation, and Judge Hopkins is at the center of its undead story. Hopkins was the judge who sentenced young Agatha “Aggie” Prenderghast to death for witchcraft, only to be cursed to rise from the grave as a zombie along with the other townspeople responsible for her death. When Norman finally confronts the undead judges, Hopkins admits that they were wrong and helps Norman reach Aggie’s grave so the curse can finally be broken. He may look like a classic animated zombie, but the remorseful Judge Hopkins gives ParaNorman one of its most interesting undead characters, perfectly fitting a movie about guilt, bullying, and learning to accept people who are different.
#7 – Julie (Return of the Living Dead III)
Return of the Living Dead III is often overlooked in the franchise, but Brian Yuzna’s 1993 sequel is actually a pretty damn good take on the undead genre. Melinda Clarke plays Julie Walker, a young woman who is killed in a motorcycle accident and brought back to life by her boyfriend using the military’s Trioxin gas. Unfortunately, being undead comes with an uncontrollable hunger for human brains, and Julie discovers that inflicting extreme pain on herself can temporarily keep those cravings under control. That leads to her becoming one of the most bizarrely memorable zombies in the genre, covering her body with nails, glass, and other sharp objects in an attempt to keep herself from feeding. Clarke brings a surprising amount of tragedy to the role, making Julie much more than just a sexy zombie and turning Return of the Living Dead III into a genuinely strange romantic take on the undead.
#6 – Madeline Ashton (Death Becomes Her)
Death Becomes Her is part horror movie, part comedy, and one of Robert Zemeckis’s most wonderfully bizarre films. Meryl Streep gives one of her best comedic performances as Madeline Ashton, a vain actress who drinks a magical potion promising eternal youth and immortality. Unfortunately for Madeline, being impossible to kill doesn’t mean she can’t be horribly damaged, leading to some of the movie’s most memorable images as her body is broken, twisted, blasted with a shotgun, and eventually held together with makeup and prosthetics. Streep is clearly having a blast playing Madeline as an increasingly unhinged narcissist, and her rivalry with Goldie Hawn’s equally immortal Helen gives the movie its darkly hilarious edge. Madeline may not be a traditional zombie, but she is absolutely one of cinema’s most entertaining undead characters.
#5 – Ed (Shaun of the Dead)
Shaun of the Dead is an all-time favorite and has plenty of memorable zombies, but Ed might be the most memorable of them all. Nick Frost plays Shaun’s lazy, immature best friend, whose inability to take anything seriously somehow makes him one of the movie’s funniest characters. Ed is eventually bitten during the chaos at the Winchester and becomes a zombie himself, but Shaun refuses to let go of his oldest friend. Six months after the outbreak, Shaun keeps zombie Ed chained up in the garden shed, where the two can still play video games together. It’s a hilarious and surprisingly sweet ending that proves friendship can apparently survive even death. I almost want to see the further adventures of these two knuckleheads and what they get into after the credits roll.
#4 – Detective Roger Mortis (Dead Heat)
Dead Heat is the rare zombie buddy cop movie that absolutely must be seen. Treat Williams plays Detective Roger Mortis, an LAPD cop investigating a series of crimes committed by reanimated corpses. After Mortis is killed in the line of duty, his partner Doug Bigelow uses a mysterious Resurrection Machine to bring him back, but there’s a catch: Roger has only about 12 hours before his body begins to break down. Instead of wasting his limited time, Roger goes back to work, using his undead status to hunt down the people responsible for his death while slowly decomposing along the way. Williams is terrific in what is essentially a straight-faced action comedy role, and the combination of zombie horror, buddy cop comedy, and gloriously ridiculous gore makes Dead Heat unlike almost anything else from the 1980s.
#3 – Bub (Day of the Dead)
Day of the Dead introduced one of the most fascinating zombies in George A. Romero’s entire Living Dead series in Bub. Played by Sherman Howard, Bub is a zombie who has been trained by Dr. Logan to perform basic human tasks, from shaving and using a telephone to speaking a few words and handling a gun. He even remembers enough from his life before death to recognize military behavior. What makes Bub so memorable is the glimpse of humanity still buried beneath the rotting flesh, especially when he mourns Dr. Logan after his death and goes after the man responsible. Day of the Dead remains an underseen entry in Romero’s original zombie trilogy, but Bub helped push the genre beyond the idea that every zombie is just a mindless monster.
#2 – Evil Ash (Army of Darkness)
Who could go toe to toe with Bruce Campbell? How about Bruce Campbell! The fan-favorite actor plays both Ash and his evil Deadite doppelgänger in Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness, with Evil Ash becoming one of the most memorable villains in the Evil Dead franchise. Born from Ash’s own dark side, Evil Ash is everything his heroic counterpart isn’t: cruel, sadistic, and more than happy to lead an army of the dead against the living. Forget the fact that he seems to decompose very quickly, Evil Ash has one-liners almost as good as his living version, only with ten times the rigor mortis. Campbell clearly had a blast playing both sides of the character, making Evil Ash the perfect undead foil for one of horror’s greatest heroes.
#1 – Dr. Hill (Re-Animator)
Re-Animator is a fan-favorite cult classic from the 1980s and a great adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft, but David Gale’s Dr. Carl Hill is what makes the movie truly unforgettable. A rival of Herbert West, Hill is a creepy, arrogant scientist who wants to steal West’s re-animation research for himself. That plan goes badly when West kills him with a shovel, cuts off his head, and then brings both the head and body back to life separately. The newly undead Hill discovers that he can telepathically control other reanimated corpses, turning his gruesome second life into a quest for revenge and power. Gale’s performance, combined with the sight of a severed head controlling its own headless body, makes Dr. Hill one of horror’s most bizarre and lasting villains. He loses his head, but that doesn’t stop him from getting vengeance… or going after the ladies.
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