Shudder's New Zombie Horror From George Romero's Daughter Earns Strong Rotten Tomatoes Score

Queens of the Dead has won over critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The new Shudder zombie movie, which is set at an LGBTQ+ warehouse party, was directed by Tina Romero. 2025’s Queens of the Dead boasts a star-studded cast that includes Katy O’Brian, Jack Haven, Riki Lindhome, Jaquel Spivey, Cheyenne Jackson, and Margaret Cho.

One of the most facets of the movie is the fact that Tina Romero is the daughter of horror titan George A. Romero, whose 1968 movie Night of the Living Dead is the progenitor of the modern zombie apocalypse genre. Romero later expanded the universe into a six-film Dead franchise that includes 1978’s Dawn of the Dead and 1985’s Day of the Dead.

Rotten Tomatoes has now aggregated enough critics’ reviews for the movie to earn an official Tomatometer score. While the score could fluctuate as more reviews are added, at the time of writing, 39 different critics have weighed in to give Queens of the Dead a near-perfect score of 92%. If this score holds, the movie could eventually be Certified Fresh.

In addition to the aggregated score being high, critics’ individual Queens of the Dead reviews give it high scores as well. While it has only received one perfect score, from B-Sides and Badlands‘ Bee Delores, it has also earned a 9.5 out of 10, several 4.5 out of 5 scores, and a multitude of scores above 7 out of 10.

Overall, critics are agreeing that the movie is a fun romp that is a lovable homage to Tina Romero’s father’s legacy. This has been the case to the point that the movie is tied with the Rotten Tomatoes score of his classic Dawn of the Dead, which is the second best-reviewed zombie movie he ever directed.

Below, see a breakdown of how Queens of the Dead‘s Rotten Tomatoes score compares to George A. Romero’s zombie movies:

While George A. Romero’s zombie movies have not always been critical hits, as evidenced by the fact that his final installment in the Dead franchise earned a dismal 29%, they almost all received Fresh reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Tina Romero has now lived up to the standard that he set with the majority of his zombie outings.

Because Queens of the Dead is Tina Romero’s feature directorial debut (after helming the short films Little Girl Blue and Rainbowarrior), this is a promising start to a filmmaking career that could very well contain just as many genre classics as her father, should she choose to continue following in his footsteps.