25 best apocalypse movies

Day of the Dead (1985)

Where many zombie films show the moment when the walking dead emerge, the third film in George Romero's Dead series shows what happens in the aftermath. The zombies have already taken over, and humanity is reduced to small enclaves – including a military outpost where a group of scientists are researching the living dead. 

As one scientist attempts to train docile zombie Bub, tensions mount with his superior Captain Rhodes. Like the previous Dead films, Romero uses the zombies as a device to heighten the tension while a very human struggle plays out between the survivors.