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If the words "old zombie movie" make you think immediately of Night of the Living Dead, you need a crash course in zombie movie history. While director George Romero certainly took the zombie mythology to new heights (ones that have been imitated ever since), he certainly didn't invent the creatures.

You might be surprised to know that the zombie has been a stock horror movie monster since the 1930s. What was a zombie movie like before World War II? What were the stories like before Romero? And were they any good? Here are the best movies in zombie history, decade by decade.

The 1930s Zombie: African Roots

Zombies originated in Afro-Caribbean mythology, existing in voodoo tales of corpses being raised up by a sorcerer to serve as slaves. While later movie zombies are re-animated by anything from evil scientists to meteorites, the earliest of films relied on voodoo for zombie action. 1932's White Zombie is notable today for two reasons: it's the first movie featuring zombies that exists in its entirety, and its the movie that inspired the name of horror film producer Rob Zombie's band of the same name. Relying on the voodoo myth, the movie takes place in Haiti with Bela Lugosi as a greedy plantation owner(who happens to also be a voodoo priest), Legendre, nicknamed "Murder". Lugosi is possibly at his creepiest (even rivaling Dracula) as he raises the dead in order to work on his plantation. The scenes of a sugar cane field being tended by a zombie workforce are one of the highlights. White Zombie isn't just a seminal zombie movie, it's also one of the more interesting films of the early sound period.

Other zombie films of the 30s include Ouanga (1935), also set in Haiti and featuring a voodoo priestess. The main character raises two zombies in order to exact revenge on her ex-lover's new white fiancee. The film was remade in Jamaica in 1939 with an all-black cast as Pocomania. Both of these films are weaker than White Zombie, and as rough as low budget horror of the 30s can be, but of value to the fan of early horror films or zombies in general. The 1936 film Revolt of the Zombies is similar (Cambodia this time) and has the added oddity of having used stock footage of Bela Lugosi's eyes in several close ups.

The 1940s Zombie: Zombies Get Silly

Decades before Shaun of the Dead, Hollywood got the idea that zombie movies could actually be funny. No, not unintentionally funny like so many older horror B-movies are, but actual comedies. King of the Zombies (1941) failed

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