Night of the Living Dead

No. 2: "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" (1974)

As successful as "Night of the Living Dead" was, it didn't immediately lead to a whole slew of zombie movies. It took Spanish director Jorge Grau, working in England, to bring the mayhem to the next level. "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" ... more(aka "The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue") is one of the best zombie pics ever, a slow-boiling creep-fest that erupts in full color into a gory cavalcade of blood and guts, paving the way for the next decade of grue. It even makes the zombies the results of an environmental disaster, giving the flick some redeeming social value.

('Let Sleeping Corpses Lie'/Everett Collection)