Rob Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead, recently recommended three zombie movies that he believes all fans should see. In response to a fan letter, Kirkman suggested Lucio Fulci's 1979 film Zombie, Naoyuki Tomomatsu's 2001 film Stacy: Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies, and Michael and Peter Spierig's 2003 film Undead. While each of these movies includes the typical elements of a zombie apocalypse narrative, they also diverge from traditional zombie mythology in unique ways.

 For example, Fulci's Zombie incorporates voodoo as the origin of the outbreak and features intense gore. Stacy challenges the idea of a zombie apocalypse by focusing solely on teenage girl zombies and introducing a government-sanctioned group to kill them. Undead takes a different approach by involving benevolent aliens in the battle against zombies. Kirkman's recommendations reveal the influences these movies have had on his own storytelling in The Walking Dead.