Zombie! Zombies! ZOMBIES!

[BreakABone]

This is just something I am curious about since so many shows/movies/games have some form of zombies in them.

Curious what school of zombies everyone prescribes to?

Are your zombies... dead and then re-animated or are they deformed by some type of infection/disease.

Do your zombies possess enhance speed or are they slow roamers?

Do they gain enhanced strength and others or nothing at all?

Loners or travel in pack?

Can they attack each other?

Sure there are tons of other questions, but some off the top of my head.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v352/lottieloo/jp/Aleksi_Zombies_boxcover_600_600.jpg
http://www.wonderlandblog.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/10/13/219581402_4cd89ec4cc.jpg
http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/main/wp-content/uploads/MarvelZombies.jpg

[magus113]

My kind of zombies are they move quickly and in packs but they don't attack each other.

[Combine 017]

I like the kind of zombies that are in L4D, but only the common infected.

Infection.
Quick and slow.
The strength of a normal human.
Alone and in packs.
And fight each other every so often.

[Swan]

I have to go with the Walking Dead type of zombie.

Roamers and Lurkers. Slow and travel in packs. Attracted to loud noise.

Awesome

[flamb]

**lots of text warning**

i'm just going down the main post of queries, then adding any thoughts i have at the end (i've been watching/playing SO MUCH zombie stuff lately so ive been pondering it quite a bit)

zombies as a raised dead just doesn't make sense to me; it has to be a viral type of thing. imo no zombies are actually dead yet. they are just infected people. kind of an extreme rabies-esque scenario.
zombies are only as efficient as they were in 'life.' they could APPEAR to move quicker or be stronger than they were as humans, but that's more so a factor of any pain/fatigue receptors just getting blocked off in favour of the virus needing to spread.
on the same point, that's why a lot of zombies are portrayed as slower and clumsier. if they get damaged in, say, the legs, they cant walk as fast simply from the physical limitations received (even though they will ignore it and just press on as hard as they can regardless). if someone is a big tough guy as human, he'll likely be a big tough zombie.
as far as packs or loners, it could go either way. zombies don't tend to eat other zombies, and as earl and i talked about earlier, this could be either the survival mechanism of not eating spoiled foods, or, again, going back to the need of the virus to spread as much as possible, so they wont be compelled to bite other zombies. why would zombies attack each other? i think some self-preservation would stay intact if one was attacked by another, but from what i've said already, this wouldn't happen too often, unless someone was a very "fresh" zombie, enough to convince others that there was still some uninfected flesh going on at least. i would think the zombie virus' point is just to spread, and that doesnt work too well with already infected zombies.

the odd thing is pretty much every zombie will die in a while anyways, be it from ignoring any injuries they took, or the virus destroying their systems to a point beyond function. even if they wound up being a fully healthy zombie, they wouldn't take care of themselves past a few days.
another thing that irks me about zombies is you never see a helpless zombie; by which i mean a zombie that has taken so much injury that they are more or less crippled to the point of being unable to move. i would think this would be the majority of zombies. like, a zombie wont just bite someone once and then leave them alone. they'll keep eating flesh until they simply can't.

extra question: if you were a normal human, and you ate zombie flesh, would you turn zombie?

holy shit i was thinking and typing for so long and i hope i made some sense

[Swan]

When you see a crippled zombie what do you mean exactly?


I have seen plenty of movies where there are zombies destroyed to the point where they can't walk or crawl yet they still keep trying to move and feast

[Professor S]

Th only real zombies are the Romero/Kirkman zombies. Slow, hungry and LOTS of them. You are not afraid of any one of them, but you fear the inevitability of your fate (you will be a zombie when you die, regardless of being bitten) and those survivors you are with.

[The Germanator]

Th only real zombies are the Romero/Kirkman zombies. Slow, hungry and LOTS of them. You are not afraid of any one of them, but you fear the inevitability of your fate (you will be a zombie when you die, regardless of being bitten) and those survivors you are with.

I was pretty much going to say this. Those are the classic zombies. It's fun and interesting to see new twists on zombies in films (28 Days Later), but when I think good 'ol zombie, I think Romero.

[Dylflon]

Flamb posted some interesting points.

I've never thought of zombie actions being entirely compelled by the will of the virus that infects them.

[Angrist]

What's been bugging me about zombies: how do they feed themselves? They go running around killing people, but after a bite or two they have enough. That's just weird.

Same with starvation. They should start eating each other near the end, so they get to survive longer.
Are there vegetarian zombies?

I like both slow and fast ones. Fast ones are scarier, slow ones are more fun. Amazing what huge numbers can do.
And I guess I prefer the dead zombies over the infected ones.

[Soviet Stinger]

The kind of zombies that just got cut in half with something insane or shot.

[Professor S]

Read this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Zombiesurvivalguide.jpg

[Combine 017]

The kind of zombies that just got cut in half with something insane or shot.

Like a giant saw blade that was fired from a Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator?

[Zen]

Read this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Zombiesurvivalguide.jpg

excellent read :nod:

[Combine 017]

Ya, I agree with Flamb, except for the zombies attacking each other. They may not bite or eat each other, but they can still attack each other.
Maybe its just some random zombies bumping into each other, but they still might attack, whether they want to eat each other or not; I dont know.

[Soviet Stinger]

Like a giant saw blade that was fired from a Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator?

EXACTLY like that, my Ravenholming fellow.

FUN FACT, Father Grigori is wearing converses, if i recall correctly.

[KillerGremlin]

I like all zombies. If I had to pick a favorite I'd pick the Romero zombies. I wish someone would make a zombie RPG with Romero zombies. I don't care much about the zombie origin story...dead rising, infection, whatever. I figure zombies don't attack each other, they can travel in packs, and they possess no more strength than what the host is capable of.

Here's how I see it though.There are really 2 main genres in the world of zombies.

1) There's the Romero zombies that are slow and mindless; these are the zombies in Shaun of the Dead and the popular comic The Walking Dead.

2) Then you have the "fast" zombies.

3) Other (which I'll discuss in brief, but this is like "Return of the Living Dead")

Let's start with 1). It is my opinion that the "Romero" zombie is more of a vehicle to study human nature. These zombies are slow and stupid and do not pose an immediate threat, especially in small numbers. Therefore human survival is very likely. This allows the author to set up a situation where humans are trying to survive in a post-Apocalyptic environment. Usually this results in a fairly cynical outlook on human nature. Romero's genius is that he is able to not only use zombies as a vehicle to study human nature but he ALSO makes movies that are pretty scary. As Prof S noted, in Romero's films there is a theme of inevitability, a slow and drudging realization of impending doom. A notion that you cannot escape and you will become a zombie. There are themes of despair. And lots of gore to boot! On top of looking at human nature and scaring you, Romero also decided to make Dawn of the Dead a social commentary. You know...slow, mindless zombies...walking in a mall. What a mockery of consumerism! Yay!

2) Fast zombies. The infected. Etc. I feel like the fast zombies are immediately more frightening. But as we saw in 28 Days/Weeks Later, humans don't really stand a chance against these fast zombies. I love the 28 series and I look forward to the release of 28 Months Later. I think you can combine fast zombies and a wonderful post-Apocalyptic survival story. I thoroughly enjoyed Zach Snyder's 'revision' of Dawn of the Dead that came out in 2004.

3) Other is the mesh of the monster genre with the zombie genre, or the parody takes at the zombie genre. I'd probably dump the Resident Evil Trilogy into here too. There's not much to say here except, "BRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAIIIIIINNNNNNNSSS!"


Finally, my favorite scene from Kill Bill Vol. 2 is the part when Uma gets buried alive. I always wondered if Tarantino is a Fulci fan. I have great respect for horror filmmaker Lucio Fulci. In his 1980 film, City of the Living Dead he brings us this AMAZING scene:

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Seriously, is this not one of the scariest scenes from a movie, ever? The build up is fantastic...and the view from inside the coffin. And the way the axe almost hits her. Oh man. Brilliant film making!

Here's a longer clip but there's music over it ruining the magic:

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[Angrist]

That's a good song, but it's terrible in the combination with that clip.

[BreakABone]

Something that came up in the Walking Dead, what if you eat the flesh of an infected, who hadn't turned yet.... would that spread it... or stop.. or I don't know

[Combine 017]

EXACTLY like that, my Ravenholming fellow.

FUN FACT, Father Grigori is wearing converses, if i recall correctly.

And his shotgun's name is Annabelle.

Even with the original Xbox (does not have mods... AT ALL!) I have still managed to get that shotgun. (they fixed that in the Orange Box. :( ) But Annabelle has the power than the 357. revolver(fires 6 revolver shots at once{maybe more?}), and is more accurate than anything else in the HL2 universe... but is a complete glitch weapon to get.

[Teuthida]

Been perusing Tony Moore's (the original artist on Walking Dead among other things) site. Zombie nerd:

http://tonymooreillustration.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1397&g2_serialNumber=1

[BreakABone]

Time for random bump, I thought it would be an interesting idea to put together our own Zombie Survival Guide and post over on the mainpage

http://nerdsontherocks.com/?p=67

Started with this, which we can change, but let's hear some rules for surviving the Zombie invasion.

[Typhoid]

-Always have an escape route.
-Always have at least 1 person with the ability to kill zombies with an axe or blunt object.
-Bring clean socks. Nothing is worse than running from Zombies in wet, smelly socks.

[Combine 017]

Know where you can acquire weapons.
Travel during the day only.
Find other survivors.
Brains and blood come out of clothes, swamp mud doesnt.

[FuzzTop]

A copy of Shaun of the Dead should be part of a necessary orientation package

[Angrist]

Find other survivors.Then kill them. NEVER TRUST ANYONE!

Always have water (and food) stored for half a week.

Don't be quick to let anyone in your bunker.