Top 10 Zombie Outbreaks, Part 2, By 'Forest Of Hands And Teeth' Author Carrie Ryan

Author Carrie Ryan is doing her best to prove that zombies — like the "Unconsecrated" in her book, "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" &— are the new vampires. On Thursday, Carrie and fiancé JP Davis (the man responsible for her zombie craze) shared #6-10 of their favorite zombie-infected movies, books, TV shows and video games. Here, just in time for your own Halloween marathon, are their top five:

#5: "World War Z" (book)
Carrie Ryan: Max Brooks book proves that the zombie apocalypse is, in fact, possible. Not only is this book riveting in scope, but it's really amazingly well written.

JP Davis: The "zombie occupation" period of our history has been sadly neglected in our educational system, and many of our children don't even know that once the world was largely occupied by living corpses with a taste for human flesh. Max Brooks says "never again."

#4: "Shaun of the Dead" (2004 movie)
Carrie: For anyone who isn't sure about zombies, "Shaun of the Dead" is my first recommendation. I don't think I've laughed as hard at a movie! It's also deeply terrifying and tragic at times — a total emotional roller-coaster.

JP: Simon Pegg and company found the perfect balance of comedy and horror by keeping their zombies from being goofy and letting the humans fill in the laughs. But when those laughs turn to genuine screams, you'll know you've found a movie that will stay with you for a long, long time.

#3: "Dawn of the Dead" (2004 movie remake)
Carrie: I avoided scary movies my whole life until my second year of law school, when JP convinced me to go see the "Dawn of the Dead" remake with him. I know the movie has a lot of haters, but it scared me and wowed me and made me think. It sparked my love of zombies and turned me into a Richard Cheese fan — I owe a lot to this movie!

JP: The "Dawn" remake offers something the original never did for me: It's actually scary as hell, and it connects with modern audiences. I have no idea how I suckered a young Carrie Ryan into seeing this, but a few bruised fingers later, the seeds were planted that would someday grow into "The Forest of Hands and Teeth."

#2: "28 Days Later" (2002 movie)
Carrie: I watched much of this movie hiding behind my hands. It was the first zombie flick I watched after "Dawn of the Dead," and I made JP promise to tell me when something scary was about to happen. Both the original and alternate endings sparked many a discussion about how the world would react if something like that actually happened and led to many happy hours daydreaming about survival strategies.

JP: Prior to "28 Days Later," the zombie had been resigned to the horror ghetto of gag-monster. Then along came Danny Boyle with his claustrophobic, world-devouring plague of the flesh-eaters and super-charged rage-fueled Londoners, bringing us back to the real seed of terror George Romero sewed in 1968: the idea the living are as much the enemy as the dead.

#1: "Night of the Living Dead" (1968 movie)
Carrie: I wasn't a huge fan of "Night of the Living Dead" the first time I saw it. The characters made me want to bang my head against anything sharp and pointy. But then I heard director George Romero explain that that was the point of the film: to express his frustration at how we as a world/society/community can't get our acts together to solve these huge issues like hunger, poverty, inequality, etc. Oh, so the frustration on purpose! Brilliant!

JP: It may be a cliché to give "Night" the top spot, but if you've seen it, then you know that any list of the best zombie media that doesn't have this as its number one isn't worth the bandwidth it's printed on. Or with. Or however that works.

Tags 28 Days Later, Books, Carrie Ryan, Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, Night of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead, The Forest Of Hands And Teeth, World War Z