Biology of.....Zombies
 

I figured it would be cool to get some folklore vs movie vs your opinion on what makes some of our favorite traditional horror monsters.... I may take this and turn it into an article series on my site (full creative credit will be given for all contributions, if i decide to go to "print" with them).

First off, zombies. (all hollywood refernces use Romeroesque zombies, as i do not like the ROTLD movies)

traditionally, they were the reanimated corpses, created by evil voodoo preists (as opposed to the good ones, who would never do such a thing) mostly as slave labor. Games like Dungeons and Dragons mildy altered this basic idea for their zombies (created by evil mages or preists)

Now hollywood has given us "rules" for them. You decide on Fast Vs Slow. i will try to cover both.

Slow:

Easy to justify, decay would quickly limit the usefulness of muscle tissue, making them slow and uncoordinated.

Fast:
They ARE people, and the human body is capable of some pretty incredible feats, especially when the person is unable to feel pain, and has no regard for onesself.

there are common themes though. Head trauma kills them. This makes sense, one way or another, the brain is what moves us and processes our world. Without it, there is no way for the body to function.

Romero's zombies in the original NOTLD seemed to be afraid of fire. the ones in the new Dawn seemed oblivious to it. i have to agree with the new one on this, if a zombie will take gunshot after gunshot without flinching, why would it "fear" fire, especially when they dont "know" anything.

Tool Use:
the original movies do show a certain degree of tool use. The zombie that attacked Johnny used a rock to break the car window. in the original dawn, one uses a crowbar to break the window of a truck roger was in. In Day, Bud used a gun.
Hell, in the original dawn, they figured out how to use a ladder.

Do they retain that level of thought, for lack of a better word?

Ihave always wondered how long the zombies would persist. Do they stop rotting? that doesnt appear to be the case. Does the rot stop at a certain point? Does it continue, but slow down to the point that you cant tell?

I wondered how long they would live if you could not eat anyboby. Would they die or begain to eat each other.

I always figured they ate out of instinct, rather than need. Basically, they ARE maneaters, but they gain nothing from it.

As to Voodoo, there is also a concoction of herbs and the juices of a certain fish that makes a living human being into a zombie....if we're to believe the much biased folklore about Voodoo or rather Voodou.

The Irish have a story about a man, cursed by the faeries, having to carry a talking corpse on his back all night, and if he should drop the corpse, it would run, [I]very quickly and jump on the man's back

I can jive with zombies being fast. The greater version of the zombie is the vampire, right? Speaking of vampires, they have zombie servants called revenants....if you want to take folklore in count and not fucking bloody White "sucks shit " Wolf.

sweet never new that

slow or fast:
imo zombies should be slow, muscle decomposition and bodily functions are all reduced to a corpse like undead state. Their bodies seam to shut down and the only thing that they want is to feed on human flesh. With decomposed muscles and body parts, fast movement would be pretty difficult...no matter how much the zombie 'disease' had infected them.

If it is able to remove all thinking, consciousness and sane thoughts from a victim’s carcase, so that they feel no pain imo thoughts provoking the knowledge of fast movement would be nonexistent. Also, slow zombies give a much greater effect during a film, because of the slow impending doom for their victims.

killing one:
Since zombies do not appear to have any continuing brain functions, apart from minor instincts (see below) I feel that complete removal of a zombie’s brain would end its 'undead' life. However, as seen in many zombie films, gunshots to the head, some of which do not completely remove the brain or end with decapitation, still result with stopping a zombie.

imo as said, the only way to stop a zombie should be complete decapitation and removal of the brain, since there is still some form of basic instinct remaining in the brain. What I would like to see in zombie films is complete decapitation and any zombies that have minor injuries such as a small handgun holes in the head, to still be moving. Many scenes in films show zombies being stopped in their tracks by small arms fire, with a brain still intact, which would still be able to function in an unread state.

fire etc:
As for fire, I'm similar to you on this one, why a zombie would be more scared of fire than a gun I don’t know why. They’ve obviously retained some sort of fear to fire and not guns. maybe the idea came about as a sort of 'caveman' instinct...whereby fire has always been know as a danger and used for protection since the beginning of man on this planet.... think of cavemen using fire for protection and as a weapon to be scared of.

thoughts and tools:
Zombies could retain some form of mental instinct, locked somewhere within their brains. As Humans...the most intelligent life form, the decomposing of the body and brain would be a gradual process, as seen in many zombie films. A victim doesn’t necessarily become 'zombified' upon being bitten. Their body and mental state goes through a gradual transition from human to a 'moving' rotten corpse.

I suspect the same process would be similar to what happens to the brain. Everyday functioning, such as knowing how to open a door, use a toothbrush, or scratch your ass would be lost pretty soon, as these are things we do without thinking, whereas some things that get 'locked' into our brains during human state could be retained... but not necessarily everything, things like places we visit or a house we recognise could still be retained in basic form.

Also.... how do zombies know that human flesh is what they crave? The still are capable of retaining an instinct for the need to feed, why do they attack humans instead of raiding the fresh meat counter at the local supermarket....why don’t they eat each other, do they require human flesh for some reason that helps them retain some form of instinct??

rotting:
I believe that a zombie would continue to rot to the level where all natural human proteins and molecules muscles etc would be consumed. As evidently shown in zombie films, a zombie is infact 'dead' and the infection or whatever is within their bodies. Enables minor body functions to continue.

All human flesh would be 'taken over' to produce this 'undead' state where rotting stops. Somehow the process of natural rotting, such as in a naturally dead corpse, would no longer happen, because the infection could somehow 'preserve' the whole zombie features of the undead state.

Perhaps the consumation of human flesh is what keeps the zombie moving. Going back to the Voudou zombies...they don't eat flesh.

In movies and stories, we like a little magic, so the "life" in living flesh, that power, keeps the zombie "alive" or rather motivated to feed.

I definitely feel that there are internal instincts and perhaps memories deep in the consciousness of the zombies' brains. Perhaps the oh so creepy moan is an attempt to communicate.

Here's my question: If a zombie finds enough flesh, lives awhile...will it "evolve?"

I only had time to skim what you wrote, shanks, but wow. that is some really good stuff. With that much,. ill have to list you as co-author :D

I will read it more thoroughly in a little while.

i cant wait until i do more of these :)

well, after reading the synopsis for Romeros Land Of The Dead.... the zombies are going to evolve, as to into what and how I dont know.

glad to help out dude :)

I normally need a good thread like this to provoke me into giving views on stuff like this. It's not like me to start a thread of my own... im too lazy lol :D

I think i will hold off on the other ones until i am back from the honeymoon. Plus, zombies should give plenty to talk about :)

I will wait because these are subjects i would liketo dedicate my full attention too, and i dont want to do them an injustice by not being around for them for a week.

Just FYI

I believe that damage to the "higher" brain my cause death, but if the damage is minor, that woud cause the 'twitchers" in the new dawn of the dead.

One assumption i have made in the "fast vs slow" debate is as follows:

they Can be fast, but only for a limited amount of time. the first couple of days after death, the body would still be mostly intact, and real decomposition would not have started quite yet, makingit perfectly plausible for them to sprint. however, it would be a temporary condition that would deteriorate over time.

that being said, i still prefer the slow ones as well. ill leave my speedy "zombies" as infected, but still living, humans, thank you :D

One movie I saw not long ago, and was pretty bad, but had a kinda different view on zombies, was "Teenage Zombies"

It kinda mixed the original kind of zombies (Like what Haunted mentioned) with the ones from Return of the Living Dead, kind of.

It was about this mad scientis who wasx creating drugs hat would turn people into zombies, to do not only her bidding...but to create an army of zombies for the US.

I liked it

imo the only zombies that should be able to attack people should be the corpses that are in the morgues, vaults, or are people that are killed by zombies. i dont like the movies where they claw their way out of the earth. anyone buried in the lats 30-40 years would probably have been put in a locked metal coffin, six feet under. no way they are getting out.

... so much to say.honestly vod,they could offer a collage level coarse on the subject.in my mind zombies lumber or stumble or walk real damn slow if you prefer....they just seem more menacing that way(to me at least)not that running zombies could'nt happen.let's say(for argument's sake)that apon dieing or being bitten...that for a short period of time they can perform feats such as running or bipedal locomotion for that matter.

...then skip ahead to several killings later.they would eventully die(in the very permenant(still)sort of way)rotting to nothing thus presenting no futher threat.

:)

what i never understand about zombies, is how can they see? since eyes decay very quickly. so how the fuck can a zombie see anything?. but anywho,

Actual decomposition usually appears to be slowed down in the case of zombies.

Good call, though. Soft tissue is always the first to go.

I always thought that zombies didn't need to see you in order to know you were there for the eating. I have seen several scenes from films where zombies have been involved in some activity (like eating a corpse, or taking a dump), and a live human being entered the vicinity. The zombies would stop what they were doing, and slowly get up and shuffle towards the living. Almost as if they "sensed" the living through some other means than sight. This would also explain how all the zombies knew there were people in the farmhouse in NOLD, and that there were people in the mall in DOTD.

Also, in the original folklore, a zombie could be stopped with salt.