5 zombie flicks on Netflx to fuel your apocalypse binge

Start in Las Vegas, where a quarantine wall has turned the Strip into a no-go zone and a $200 million score sits in a casino vault. In Army of the Dead (2021), a billionaire bankrolls a merc team to slip back into the sealed city before the U.S. military wipes it off the map — and they discover “Alphas,” zombies that are faster, organized, and alarmingly smart.

• Cast — Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tig Notaro, Huma Qureshi

Directed by Zack Snyder on a reported $70–90 million budget, the hit also kicked off a mini-franchise, including the prequel Army of Thieves.

Army of the Dead drew more than 72 million Netflix households in its first four weeks.

Big-scale outbreaks

If you want the end of the world at blockbuster size, World War Z (2013) hurls Brad Pitt’s former U.N. investigator Gerry Lane into a global sprint from Philadelphia to South Korea and Israel, chasing any lead that might slow the infection turning people into hyper-aggressive swarms. His wife and daughters are stashed on a military vessel while he races the collapse of every system on Earth.

• Cast — Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Daniella Kertesz, David Morse

The production was famously rocky (extensive reshoots, a rewritten finale ), but the movie ’s scale paid off: it grossed about $540.4 million worldwide on a reported $190 million budget, cementing it as one of the most commercially successful zombie films ever.

Trapped and personal

Claustrophobia powers the South Korean thriller #Alive (2020), where a young livestreamer, Oh Joon-woo, locks himself in his high-rise as a fast-spreading virus turns neighbors into monsters. With food and water running out and communications down, a glimpse of another survivor — Kim Yoo-bin, in the building across the way — becomes his lifeline.

• Cast — Yoo Ah-in, Park Shin-hye

Released in the thick of the pandemic, it became the first South Korean film to top 1 million admissions in 2020, and its international Netflix launch propelled it to the platform’s global No. 1 spot.

For a survival story that swings for the heart, Cargo (2017) strands a father, Andy, in the Australian outback after he’s bitten by his infected wife. With only hours before he turns, he races to find someone he can trust with his infant daughter, Rosie — a mission that folds in the land’s harsh beauty and Indigenous perspectives.

• Cast — Martin Freeman, Simone Landers, Anthony Hayes, Susie Porter, Caren Pistorius

Expanded from an acclaimed 2013 short, the film leans on character over gore and holds an 88% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.

If your apocalypse needs a grin, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (2023) flips dread into freedom. Burned out at 24 and trapped under an abusive boss, Akira Tendo greets the outbreak as his cue to stop going to work — then drafts 100 things to do before he turns, chasing joy amid neon chaos and splatter.

• Cast — Eiji Akaso, Mai Shiraishi, Shuntarō Yanagi, Kazuki Kitamura

The live-action take on the hit manga embraces colorful visuals, absurd comedy, and a surprisingly uplifting streak — enough to land it on Netflix’s global Top 10 for non-English films.