I have a deep and consuming love for zombie movies but, paradoxically, I only love three. I mean, 28 Days Later is ok. So is the remake of Dawn of the Dead (except for that gratuitous and completely idiotic birth scene). But I think having fully ambulatory zombies who can run is cheating. It's a lot harder to terrify the audience with a slow moving horde, and it's also a lot of fun to watch the resulting hubris that causes the living to fail.
The only three I love are Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Return of the Living Dead. I like how the first two combine the nightmare with social commentary. And I like how the third chooses instead to pit the zombies against a car load of 80's stereotypes.
Here's a nice scene from that movie where Rick James and two white guys chat with a torso they've chopped in half.
