Zombies might not be the movie world's oldest supernatural threat, but their presence extends back at least a century. It was director George A. Romero's pantheon of films, starting with Night of the Living Dead in 1968, that finally revealed the potential behind these shambling, flesh-craving creatures. At their best, zombie stories tap into pertinent universal fears, a versatile characteristic that helps them facilitate blistering commentary on politics, class inequality, gender, race, and sexuality discrimination, and more.