It's not surprising that the living dead make a comeback every few years. Zombie flicks have been a movie staple for decades. Here's a look at some of the essential flesh-eating favorites no DVD library should be without: "I Walked With a Zombie"/ "The Body Snatcher" - Warner Bros. unleashes the Val Lewton Horror Collection on Oct. 4, assembling nine of the producer's most memorable spookers along with a new documentary about the master of atmospheric horror. Lewton's contribution to the living-dead genre, 1943's "I Walked With a Zombie," is actually a very loose spin on Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre." Frances Dee stars as a nurse in the West Indies trying to unfold the mystery of her patient's zombielike state. The movie was directed by Jacques Tourneur. "The Body Snatcher" (1945), directed by Robert Wise, stars Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in a Robert Louis Stevenson story involving cadavers being used for experiments. ($19.97 for double feature, $59.92 for five-disc set, Warner Home Video). "Night of the Living Dead," "Dawn of the Dead," "Day of the Dead" - There are so many versions of each of George A. Romero's definitive trilogy that it's tough to decide which to dig up. For "Night," the 1968 black-and-white nightmare that laid the groundwork for every flesh-eating corpse picture to follow, go with the Millennium Edition ($24.98, Elite Entertainment). It features a good-looking print and most of the extras from previous editions. For 1978's "Dawn," the shopping-mall-set satire that upped the gore ante, pick up the Ultimate Edition ($49.98, Anchor Bay), offering three versions of the film along with a disc's worth of extras. For "Day," the 1985 underground nightmare in which mankind tries to get in touch with its inner zombie, we recommend the Special Divimax Edition ($29.98, Anchor Bay) for its high-grade transfer and multiple extras. As for remakes, skip 1990's "Night," but don't miss the ferocious 2004 revisiting of "Dawn," one of the best modern horror updates in recent memory (Widescreen Director's Cut Edition, $19.98, Universal). "Zombie" - Italian director Lucio Fulci's 1980 effort to cash in on Romero's "Dead" pictures was originally marketed overseas as a sequel to "Dawn of the Dead." The low-budget cheapie boasts a few nifty effects, but Fulci's other American effort, 1980's "Gates of Hell," is more beloved by horror aficionados, although currently it is unavailable. ($14.98, Anchor Bay) "The Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead 2" - Before he gained mainstream acceptance with the "Spider-Man" films, director Sam Raimi's biggest claim to fame was "The Evil Dead," a grisly, cartoonish 1983 low-budget classic in which teens in a remote cabin are possessed by evil spirits and transformed into white-eyed killers. His 1987 "remake" - "Evil Dead 2" - is as brilliantly funny as it is scary, and Raimi remains one of the most influential pioneers of horror's new wave. (Both $19.96, Anchor Bay). "The Return of the Living Dead" - Director Dan O'Bannon's 1985 fright fest comes off like parody, but his inspired use of running zombies (versus Romero's molasses-slow stalkers) added an unexpectedly terrifying twist to the genre. ($14.95, MGM/UA) "Re-Animator" - Director Stuart Gordon's 1985 gory great about H.P. Lovecraft's med-school mad scientist stars Jeffery Combs as the maniacal Herbert West, a precocious egghead whose green-glowing re-agent brings injectees back from the dead but with deadly results. ($19.99, Elite Entertainment) "Dead Alive" - This 1992 cult classic about a rat monkey from Skull Island whose bite transforms humans into bloodthirsty zombies was directed by Peter Jackson ("The Lord of the Rings" saga).