Which is the better film: Night of the Living Dead vs Dawn of the Dead

[Abby is Q]

Night of the Living Dead had more of a historical impact on the horror genre and defined zombies as we know them. It is a transitional movie that connects older atmospheric horror to the bloodier character driven modern horror that followed.

However, Dawn is the more fully fleshed out vision that is the pinnacle of the zombie subgenre. Every major zombie movie, book, comic book, TV show, etc etc has taken cue from this movie if not blatantly ripped it off. It is possibly the greatest horror movie ever.

For me this has always been tough. Night of the Living Dead impacted me more than any other movie ever. It's the reason I love horror. But Dawn of the Dead is a better movie in many ways. I was young when I saw both, but Dawn was the movie that made me realize just how good horror could be. It was wide in scope, lots of fun, but legitimately unsettling too.

I usually go with Night, but they're really just 1a and 1b as far as best horror movie ever for me.