Top 10 Zombie Killers!

Oh, and you thought the horror season was over?!

So, I've completed six reviews as pick-of-the-weeks of the scary, gory and dark variety, along with a combined horror-Easter list with Top 10 Scary Rabbits but I couldn't leave without doing another one. Also, through the last six weeks I've covered a number of sub-genres of horror but failed to include my favourite of them all...the Zombie movie! What better way to pay homage to zombiedom than mentioning not just one, but ten brain craving pictures of gory delight.

Below, I pay tribute to mad kings of bat swing, to lords of the chainsaw, to hot thumbs on the shotgun, with filmbore's Top 10 Zombie Killers!

The criteria:

• We're after characters from zombie films, not the film names themselves. This is about the acts of the individual, not the plot of a movie.
• Sorry Walking Dead fans...it has to be zombie killers from films only (this is filmbore after all!), so we cannot include Rick Grimes, Daryl or Michonne in this list.
• And, it's people killing zombies, not zombies killing people, which does mean (unfortunately) that there will be no appearances from everybody's favourite household ghoul, Bub from Day Of The Dead. Pity...
• Most importantly, NO EVIL DEAD! I love the films, but the beings in the trilogy ARE NOT ZOMBIES! They are people possessed by evil spirits to become Deadites, and can still return to normal form.
• And finally, if you want to suggest someone who isn't here but you think deserves to be do the usual and add your input into the comments box at the bottom of the article...except this time I expect you to back up your claim with at least one example of their awesome kills.

WARNING! Mild spoilers and rotting brains are just ahead!

10. Ben (Duane Jones) from Night Of The Living Dead (1968)

What better way to begin but with the man who started it all. He was the first person to not be scared of the creeping horde, and the first to pick up a weapon and strike back against them. His actions couldn't prevent the inevitable but they did begin a train of fellow bravado-filled defenders of humanity, and for this Ben, we salute you!

9. Shaun (Simon Pegg) from Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

Edgar Wright's rom-zom-com was successful for many justified reasons, but it's the central character of Shaun that let us enter into the comical yet starkly real world of zombie aping, ghoul raving, beer craving, queen song bashing goodness. Cricket bat or pool cue, Shaun's relentless in dispatching the neighbourhood rotters to save the girl he loves and get to the pub he loves more!

8. Selena (Naomie Harris) in 28 Days Later (2002)

So zombies can run now?! We better step up our game then! Enter Selena, who spares no thought to slaying these ghouls with the coolness of a puma and survival instinct of a shark. Even when one of her friends receives the slightest of scratches she pauses ever so briefly to contemplate her next action...severing her still-human pal's arm with her machete, then finishing him off. Take no chances...

7.  The Biker Gang in Dawn Of The Dead (1978)

I couldn't be specific to one biker here, as the entire mob that infiltrate our heroes' shopping mall utopia act as one overbearing force in Romero's 10 year follow up to Night Of... Led by the enigmatic make-up effects genius Tom Savini (who some of you know as Sex Machine in From Dusk Till Dawn) they lighten up the movie bringing both fear and comedy to the mix.

6. Vegard (Lasse Valdal) in Dead Snow (2009)

Nazi zombies in Norway. Genius! There are some crazy kills throughout this comical picture from all of the characters involved. But the prize in this Scandinavian hidden gem goes to the craziness of Vegard, for blending vehicle and weapon by mounting a high-calibre machine gun to a snowmobile. Now that is a ghoul slaying car if I have ever seen one!

5. Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) in Planet Terror (2007)

Oh, but welding a gun to a snowmobile is nothing. How about we have it grafted to the stumpy remains of my leg instead? Never has film been some blasé in its self mocking as Rodriguez's answer to Grindhouse, as Cherry turns her disability into a zombie massacring machine. She even uses her new firepower to propel herself at inhuman heights just to get over walls. Now she wanna kill some zombie!

4. El Wray (Freddy Rodríguez) in Planet Terror (2007)

But even with a gun-toting limb, Cheery is nothing compared to her mysterious ex-boyfriend, El Wray. This realised at its best when Wray has to enter a hospital chock full of zombies and their victims to rescue Cherry. And how does he get by a swarm of flesh rotting critters? With just two knives and plenty of skill!

3. Alice (Milla Jovovich) in the Resident Evil series (2002 - present)

Yes, these movies may not be up to much, but you cannot dispute the powerhouse of zombie -slaying super hero Alice from the ongoing Resident Evil series. For over 12 years now she's been dispatching ghouls in the hundreds in more ridiculously over the top ways, including one where she unloads on a horde, then when out of ammo drops the magazine out of her gun and kicks it into a zombie's face! Boom!

2. Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme) in Braindead/Dead Alive (1992)

This list wouldn't be complete without including the goriest film of all time. One of Peter Jackson hilarious early films, Braindead still stands out to this very day. And yes, I love the Father McGruder "kicking arse for the lord" but it's Lionel's infamous slaughter of gatecrashing ghouls with his trusty lawnmower that puts him firmly in the runner up spot. I can still hear the crunching of bones against mower blade...ueeuurrghh!

And the winner is...

1. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) in Zombieland (2009)

Okay, he may not hold the level of body count of Lionel's mowingly blood-spattering attempt in Braindead, or exude the near super human skills of Alice or El Wray, but there is more style in Tallahassee's bat-swinging little finger than any of our other walker slayers.

Tallahassee isn't just good at what he does...he enjoys it! He takes out ghouls purely for sport, laughing as he does so, even going out of his way to make some kills more complicated just to so they'll be that little bit more appealing. He'll ring a shop bell to summon the walker, only to be waiting to the side of the entrance as the confused beast runs past him so he can shoot it "on the burst"...

...all in the name of trying to achieve the zombie kill of the week.

Hell, he even takes one out with a banjo. Eat that Lionel Cosgrove! A BANJO! Such inventive ways to dispatch the invaders not only brings humour to the film but an air of humanity. After a while, surely some people will bored of the standard weening of the rotten, and start to tamper with the system with unusual weapons in strange scenarios. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) may be our narrator, as a normal young man, confused in this new world, but we connect more with the wildness and ferocity of the Twinkie-craving fool who just wants to forget the past and take out the dead in intriguingly different methods.

Speaking of events gone, most touching about his character is the reveal of his inner turmoil, with the loss of his son (earlier, believed to be a puppy). His vulnerability takes you deeper into his longing and helps us to understand how lost he truly is. His defence is his cocky manner and his ability to smash some undead scum and all of this is achieved effortlessly by Harrelson. This role was made for Woody. It's the part he was always meant to play, allowing him to showboat his swagger and charisma in a role that you could easily have hated if played by some else. Instead, he infuses Tallahassee with vim and balls, making actor and character one and the same.

If I survived the first few days of a zombie holocaust, and needed to turn to one of the above assassins, come hell or high bloodied water I'd make sure that Tallahassee was at my side. You can rely on him for his weapon stash, relentless aggression, daily entertainment but mostly...

...Cos he kills 'em like a boss! 

Just Missed Out: Ray (Cockneys Vs Zombies), 

Cholo  (Land Of The Dead), 

Burt (Return Of The Living Dead), 

Martin (Dead Snow), 

Roger (Dawn Of The Dead)

If you disagree, and have other suggestions, please post comments at the bottom of the post. Or, email me directly on topten@filmbore.co.uk.

And don't forget, you can tweet me @filmbore or post on my Facebook page here.