Funny Zombie Movies: Top 9 Hilarious Undead Films

Looking for funny zombie movies? The undead don't always have to be terrifying; sometimes they're downright hilarious. From stumbling through cities to cracking jokes, these nine films prove that the apocalypse can be a comedic goldmine.

If you're tired of grim survival horror and want a lighter take on the zombie genre, then prepare to laugh your way through our top picks. These films offer a perfect blend of scares and silliness, proving that even the end of the world has its funny side.

Top Picks for Funny Zombie Movies

Ready for some undead hilarity? Here are our top nine funny zombie movies that will have you laughing out loud.

9. Little Monsters (2019)

Directed by Abe Forsythe, Little Monsters features a washed-up musician (Alexander England) who chaperones his nephew’s kindergarten field trip, which goes awry when a zombie outbreak occurs. The group finds themselves trapped at a petting zoo, and their only hope is the relentlessly positive kindergarten teacher, Ms. Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o), who protects the kids while singing Taylor Swift songs and slicing zombies in half.

It's delightfully absurd and anchored by Nyong’o’s performance. The film leans more on charm than innovation, but its candy-colored cinematography, tight editing, and playful soundtrack make it a fun entry in the genre.

8. Fido (2006)

Directed by Andrew Currie, Fido is a humorous take on 1950s suburbia, but with zombies as domestic help. In this alternate reality, a radiation cloud has brought the dead back to life, and corporations have found a way to tame zombies using electronic collars. A family buys a zombie servant named Fido (Billy Connolly), and their young son (K’Sun Ray) forms a bizarre friendship with him, until Fido accidentally eats a neighbor.

Fido earns its spot because of its strong world-building and fresh satire. The film’s washed-out retro color palette and stylized direction mirror 1950s American propaganda, cleverly critiquing conformity and repression. The mix of dark humor and social commentary is surprisingly effective.

7. Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

Directed by John McPhail, Anna and the Apocalypse is a British high schooler Anna (Ella Hunt) wants to escape her sleepy town and travel. But then zombies crash the Christmas season, and suddenly, Anna and her classmates are fighting through musical numbers and blood-soaked halls. It’s a full-blown zombie musical, with songs playing while heads get smashed in with candy canes and seesaws.

Turning a zombie outbreak into a musical shouldn’t work, but the movie commits so hard to the concept that it mostly pulls it off. The choreography is smart, and the songs are surprisingly catchy. It also blends tones well.

6. Warm Bodies (2013)

Directed by Jonathan Levine, Warm Bodies is set in a post-apocalyptic world, a zombie named R (Nicholas Hoult) eats the brains of a teenage boy and absorbs his memories—then falls in love with the boy’s girlfriend, Julie (Teresa Palmer). R begins to recover his humanity, and his transformation sparks something larger, challenging the undead state of things.

It earns the sixth spot for its creative take on zombie lore and surprisingly nuanced direction. Visually, the film leans into muted palettes that slowly warm as R “comes back to life,” echoing the central theme.

5. The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Directed by Dan O’Bannon, The Return of the Living Dead sees a couple of bumbling warehouse workers (James Karen and Thom Matthews) accidentally release a toxic gas that brings corpses back from the dead, with a twist. These zombies run, talk, and actively crave brains. What follows is an outrageous descent into chaos, punk rock, and acid rain in a grimy industrial town.

It’s ranked fifth because it was ahead of its time in many ways. The practical effects are grotesquely imaginative and still hold up, the editing is spot-on, and the direction is unapologetically energetic. But what really sets it apart is how it introduced new zombie behavior that’s now a genre canon (“Brains!”).

4. Braindead ( Dead Alive ) (1992)

Directed by Peter Jackson, Braindead features a mama’s boy (Timothy Balme) who struggles to control his undead mother (Elizabeth Moody) after a Sumatran rat-monkey bites her. Soon, the entire neighborhood is infected, and what follows is an all-out splatterfest featuring lawnmowers, intestines with minds of their own, and the bloodiest dinner scene ever filmed.

This is Peter Jackson in unhinged mode, and it ranks fourth because of how far it pushes the limits of zombie comedy. The editing is frenzied, the camera work is wild, and the practical effects are insanely ambitious, even by today’s standards. The sheer volume of gore is cartoonish, not gross, and the comedic timing lands more often than it should.

3. One Cut of the Dead (2017)

Directed by Shin’ichirō Ueda, One Cut of the Dead features a low-budget film crew making a zombie movie in an abandoned warehouse when a real zombie outbreak crashes the shoot. The first 30 minutes are one continuous take, and the rest of the film rewinds to reveal how the madness was choreographed behind the scenes.

Third place feels right because this is a love letter to filmmaking disguised as a zombie comedy. The one-take opening is a technical feat, but it’s the second half that makes the movie brilliant. The structure is risky, the payoff is huge, and the humor is layered.

2. Zombieland (2009)

Directed by Ruben Fleischer, Zombieland is the zombie apocalypse, but make it a road trip comedy. Four unlikely survivors (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin), each with quirks, rules, and trust issues, team up across a ruined America to find safety, Twinkies, and possibly friendship.

Zombieland is the tightest package on this list in terms of pacing, editing, and tonal balance. The narration works, the graphics are clever, and the cinematography finds beauty in ruins. The performances are sharp across the board.

1. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Directed by Edgar Wright, Shaun of the Dead features Shaun (Simon Pegg) who is stuck in a rut—dead-end job, failed relationship, and a social circle that’s mostly pints and PlayStation. Then the zombie apocalypse hits, finally giving him a reason to step up… by grabbing his hungover best friend (Nick Frost) and a cricket bat, and storming the local pub.

Shaun of the Dead is at the top of the list because it’s the blueprint. Edgar Wright directs with sniper precision, turning quick cuts, mundane routines, and background chaos into storytelling gold. The script is airtight, the transitions are exemplary in visual rhythm, and the humor lands to stick. But beneath all the blood and banter, there’s actual emotional depth.