In fact purists and fans of The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks (like us) will argue against this movie, as the "zombies" are not really the living dead but rather infected people, who turn into rabid like flesh eating monsters.
Like Max Brooks we are not fans of the virus-plagued monsters, but we do have to admit that these extreme aggressive infected, combined with the change, which occurs only moments after being bitten, do make the living dead scarier than ever.
The action is offset in a classic zombie setting with some mismanaged genetic research turning all of London populace into infected before spreading to the rest of UK. Our hero wakes up from a coma alone in the hospital (just like Rick Grimes in the Walking Dead) and must deal with the fact that the world he previously knew no longer exists. And, of course, with the infected that live in it now.
28 Days Later deserves a spot on our list. Not because it introduces the fast-running zombie, which has become popular in many modern films, but because it portrays post-apocalyptic survival in a tense atmosphere, which is very memorable. The opening scenes in an empty London in particular leave a big impression.