4 Horror Films To Watch If You Loved ’28 Years Later’

Like the nefarious creatures at the heart of the film, 28 Years Later proves that zombies never truly die or fade from public consciousness.

As its previous installment similarly illustrated, zombies remain as horrifying today as they did in the early 2000s or throughout the 1980s. An intelligent and well-crafted horror film that lives up to the acclaim of its creative precursors, 28 Years Later once again solidifies the 28 Days Later franchise as the definitive zombie series of the modern era.

As audiences flock to theaters in order to see the terrifying new zombie film, we wanted to highlight a few similarly worthwhile horror films to watch after 28 Years Later, ranked in order from worst to best.

The Mist (2007)

While it doesn’t fall into the clear-cut category of a zombie film, The Mist is nevertheless an audacious supernatural horror movie featuring similarly suspenseful scares as 28 Years Later – most especially when it comes to its cult-like antagonists and horrifying outside threats. Battling unending waves of increasingly terrifying monsters, The Mist is no doubt among the most underrated adaptations of a Stephen King story to date (not to mention one of the darkest).

Dawn of the Dead (1980)

A landmark entry in the zombie genre, Dawn of the Dead continues to hold up as one of the foremost films people think of when they hear the words “zombie movie.” Pushing the world of Night of the Living Dead forward in some haunting new directions, Dawn of the Dead also shows humanity’s struggle to survive in the bleak new world they find themselves inhabiting. A clever satire lampooning the consumerism of the 1980s, it also lives on as a startling example of Romero’s proficiency within the horror genre, allowing him to further define the zombie film for modern audiences at the time.

28 Days Later (2002)

The film that started it all, it’s difficult to even begin describing the resounding influence 28 Days Later had on contemporary pop culture at the start of the 2000s. Reigniting interest in the long deceased zombie subgenre, 28 Days Later made the shambling hordes of the undead relevant in mainstream media again, kicking off a massive resurgence in the horror subgenre not seen since the glory days of George Romero in the 1980s. Dark, disturbing, and frequently suspenseful in regards to its main storyline, ambiguous characters, and tense pace, it’s among the very finest zombie films to ever exist in the genre.

28 Weeks Later (2007)

The spiritual sequel to the aforementioned 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later somehow manages to remain just as vividly unnerving as the series’ previous entry. Jumping ahead in the chronology of the Rage Virus’ epidemic, 28 Weeks Later forms a fascinating second chapter in the overall universe of the 28 Days Later franchise, paving the way to a must-watch zombie sequel unlike any other.