History Main / ArtificialZombie

* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}: Literature/PianoLessonsCanBeMurder'' has a variation whereby the villain [[spoiler:Mr. Toggle]] severs the [[HelpingHands hands]] of his victims and cybernetically reanimates them to play perfect piano music. This is visible on the front cover. In the end, [[spoiler:the ghosts of the victims retake control of their hands and drag their murderer to his doom]].

Compare UnwillingRoboticization, which happens to a character who is alive (and horrified). This is effectively the same thing done to one who is dead: they cannot put up any resistance, but neither can they suffer.

* In the first ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' game, the manual's explanation for the Choking Hands and a later level in the game (a ''Franchise/{{Frankenstein}}''-style MadScientistLaboratory opening the fourth episode) imply that the zombies are artificial; Axe Zombies are the successful creations, while Choking Hands are all they can do with the most mutilated corpses.

** In ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' Raiden is mutilated and returns as a creepy corpse version of himself in a robot suit.

* Brandon Heat of ''Anime/{{Gungrave}}'' is revived by science. He has his own personality and free will but must be maintained or he will literally fall apart.

* Unfortunately, cyborg zombiedom sometimes ''is'' contagious. ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'' has DG Cells, a nanobot zombie plague spawning from the MechanicalAbomination that is the Devil Gundam. It would be bad enough if DG Cells merely affected people, but the disease's nanobot nature means it can make its way into the Mobile Trace System and infect HumongousMecha as well, which means only one thing: [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Giant zombie robots.]]

* A major plot point in ''Fanfic/LeftBeyond'' in that most of the Designated Villains are people who died by Divine decree but were reanimated by a metabolic extension controller. Not having a soul makes them FeelNoPain but damages their ability to come up with creative plans.

* ''Film/TheHouseByTheCemetery'' is a good example of when MadScientist is mixed with FrankensteinsMonster.

* The Creature in ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' is almost certainly the most influential example, being a living being pieced together from dead tissue by some (poorly-defined) means and given life. However in the novel the creature doesn't resemble a zombie anything other than visually, being fast, strong, intelligent and actually quite friendly. It spends a portion of the story learning from and helping a family in secret, eventually befriending the blind father of the family. However its hideous appearance results in anyone who can actually see it being repulsed and usually attacking it, eventually resulting in it exacting revenge on its creator.
* The zombies of ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: City of the Dead'' are caused by a corpse being exposed to boneworms or a formula based on boneworm secretions, provided the worms are chased off before they can eat the body. They don't eat flesh or tear people apart unless ordered to, but they're also {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le, hideously strong, don't seem to need light to see, and are not affected by physical force or being blasted. Some mindlessly obey orders, older corpses are clumsy and look gross, and [[UndeadChild Kairn]], who was a CheerfulChild and was dosed soon after he was murdered, has turned dull-eyed and slow of wit, but retains some of his mind, can talk, and still considers Zak his friend, though he follows orders until directly appealed to.
-->''Whatever had happened had definitely changed him. His skin looked sallow and unhealthy. He walked slowly, like he was trudging through mud, and every now and then his body shook with a violent twitch. But he didn't look like the zombies Zak had seen in his dreams. He looked like he'd been ill, but he did not look like the walking dead.''
** The MadScientist creating the reanimation formula injected himself ''before'' he was killed, so he came back with his faculties intact, though he tended to spasm. He injected Zak with the formula and a poison, believing that the spasming was thanks to the death trauma and perhaps slipping into death during a coma instead of being more vigorously killed would eliminate that effect. When Zak came out of his coma he denied the possibility that he was a zombie now, and he wasn't super-strong or immune to pain, but then again he hadn't ''died'' yet, and now and then he twitched, very slightly.
* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}: Literature/PianoLessonsCanBeMurder'' has a variation where the villain [[spoiler:Mr. Toggle]] severs the hands of his victims and cybernetically reanimates them to play perfect piano music. This is visible on the front cover. In the end, [[spoiler:the ghosts of the victims retake control of their hands and drag their murderer to his doom.]]
* Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/HerbertWestReanimator'' serial involves the titular scientist making several attempts to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin reanimate the dead]]. His first few tries all result in {{Flesh Eating Zombie}}s (he blames brain damage) but eventually he [[spoiler:makes one that is smart enough to make more walking corpses. It then orders the new zombies to tear Dr. West limb from limb (and they took his head when they ran off)]]. The most terrifying fact was that all of them were ''fast zombies'' -- they retained the full physical strength they had in life, the quickness of a fit living human, lacked any sort of fear and never gave up unless killed (again) for good.
* Scyldars in A.A. Attanasio's ''The Last Legends of Earth'' are mostly formed from vat-grown flesh and sculpted metal to form killing machines, but the inclusion of a human brain taken from a recently slain person and kept semi-alive pushes them into this trope.
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the MadDoctor Qyburn is involved in so far [[NothingIsScarier undescribed]] experimentation on the dying [[TheBrute Gregor Clegane]] and a bunch of other poor suckers he was given permission to make use of. The end result is one of these, an unstoppable creature that gets named Ser Robert Strong.
* In the ''Literature/{{Boojumverse}}'' story "The Wreck of the ''Charles Dexter Ward''", Dr. Fiorenzo has used forbidden science to produce a serum that reanimates the dead as zombies. And it doesn't just work on humans: the titular ''Charles Dexter Ward'' is a zombified LivingShip.
* The "twinkle-heads" in the ''Literature/{{Revenger}}'' series by Creator/AlastairReynolds are a cross between this and ParasiteZombie. A twinkly is an alien BrainComputerInterface which, with great difficulty and risk, some humans can briefly tap into if they have a skull from one of the aliens. Some people thought it would simpler and easier to plug the twinkly directly into their ''own'' brains. What actually happens is that the twinkly starts communicating with the hardware in their spacesuits, and quickly realises that the person is the least necessary part of the whole thing. Result - a skeletal figure lurching about via its suit's servomotors, searching for other space-travellers so it can cannibalise their suits for repairs.
* In ''Literature/TheBrothersWar'', Ashnod's transmogrants are living people that have been transformed into pickled, blue-skinned zombie soldiers through the power of twisted science.

** In the Series 8's GrandFinale ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E11DarkWater Dark Water]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven Death in Heaven]]"), Missy [[spoiler:a.k.a. the Master]] revealed her true self and her plans by using the dead (the recent ones as well using a whole cemetery) by converting the corpses into Cybermen and so she can TakeOverTheWorld.
* A man attempts this in the ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' episode "[[Recap/FringeS03E09Marionette Marionette]]". Using a serum that he invented which dramatically slows decomposition, he preserves a girl's corpse, transplants her donated organs back into her body, and restarts her system with a jolt of electricity. However, he gives up when it becomes clear that though he's reanimated her body, her mind is still gone.

* Every [[GoneHorriblyWrong Experiment]] in ''TabletopGame/BleakWorld'' (except [[SuperSoldier the Super Soldier]]) is this. The Patchwork is a FrankensteinsMonster and BodyOfBodies, [[SecondLawMyAss the Android]] is created by adding technology to a corpse, [[VoiceOfTheLegion Legions]] were corpses who had [[ForScience Demons and ghosts added to them]], and finally the Radio Zombie who are corpses brought back to life [[FateWorseThanDeath (and repeatedly killed by)]] nuclear radiation.
* In the plane of [[GothicPunk Innistrad]] in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', features both the traditional "corpses dug up out of the ground" zombies and zombies called Skaabs, created by Stitchers via cobbling together various corpses in biological experiments to create life. This is represented in game by requiring the player to remove creatures in their discard pile (fittingly called the graveyard) from the game, representing the bodies needed to create them.
* Cyberzombies in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. Tech augments each take away a little piece of someones soul, so a Cyberzombie is what results when you pack so much tech into someone that [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul their soul is eaten away entirely]] but you keep them alive with {{Magitek}}.

* ''VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery'' features steel zombies, which are implied to be a steampunk version of this trope. The alternate flavor text, however, states that they're regular zombies given plate mail and maces to act as EliteMooks by a necromancer
* Most zombies in ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' are magically reanimated. However, as befits the [[{{Steampunk}} "SCIENCE!"]] tone of the technology in the game, there is also a technological device that reanimates zombies.

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' had the Vahzilok, a group of mad scientists and their undead servants animated by machines and chemicals, who kidnap people off the streets and turn them into mindless, stitched up zombies. Mastermind players can also choose this option with Necromancy powers of a science or tech origin.
* The Marked of Kane is a Nod subfaction from the expansion pack for ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer3TiberiumWars'' comprised entirely of these, based on the C.A.B.A.L. supercomputer's cybernetic experiments in [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun the previous game.]] Regular Nod has the ability to deploy a Support Power that turns corpses into Awakened.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': Y-17 trauma override harnesses in Old World Blues. Due to a malfunction, the robotic suits used by the Big Mountain crew eventually took control over the wearers, leaving them trapped inside, until they died of starvation. 200 years after their death, their skeletons are still animated by the harnesses, and they can be found wandering around the facility, armed with lasers or plasma weapons.
** The lobomites, also from Old World Blues, also counts. They were ordinary humans abducted by the [[MadScientist Think Tank]] that had their organic brain replaced by an artificial one. The artificial brain has supposed to receive thoughts from [[BrainInAJar the original one]]; however, since an error in the automated process destroys the original brain instead of preserving it, they ended up turning into mindless beings that walk around the Big Mountain facility doing nothing besides copulating, reliving themselves of their physiological needs and trying to kill almost anything that isn't another lobotomite.
* Vincent Valentine of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' was killed and revived by science. Effectively a zombie with the power of shapeshifting, he nevertheless retains his personality and will of his own, giving him shades of a revenant.

* The zombies from the ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' series of video games are creations assembled/reanimated by sinister baddies, usually in massive numbers. Standard grunts are just reanimated corpses, while the bosses are creatures that have been genetically altered to get a brand-new lifeform. One of the few modern examples where the zombies don't spread their undead status to the living; the HOTD zombies just plain murder people, which fits with the usual main villain plan of trying to thin humanity's numbers.
** However, ''VideoGame/TheHouseOfTheDeadOverkill'' does feature plague-bearing zombies (or [[NotUsingTheZWord 'mutants' as G insists on calling them]]) that follow your standard "Bite -- Infect -- Multiply" pattern, which turns the entire region of Bayou City into a realm of living dead.
** The primary exceptions being the two main characters of ''House of the Dead EX'', but that game isn't really connected to the main series.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' has its Husks, bodies of organics [[ImpaledwithExtremePrejudice put on sinister skewer machines]] known as Dragons' Teeth, sometimes while they're still alive, and slowly transformed into electricity-spewing technological nightmares. The second game introduces Abominations, husks that [[ActionBomb explode]], and Scions and Praetorians, dangerous and ''incredibly'' dangerous (respectively) constructs forged from multiple husks.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' sees series BigBad Sigma brought back after his ''second'' seemingly permanent death of the series in [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 the previous game]], revived by ArcVillain Gate as a weapon of last resort that [[UngratefulBastard ends up blowing his resurrector away shortly after being released]]. The revival is incomplete however, and he's released as a shambling husk who can barely remember anything other than his hatreds. However, the decline reverses in ''VideoGame/MegaManX7''.

** The [[CyberNinja Cyborg Ninja]] in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' is an artificially revived version of Frank Jaeger, Snake's WorthyOpponent from the previous game, ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake''. He's repeatedly compared to a 'ghost'.
** Vamp 'dies' when shot in the head by Raiden in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' but remains as a living corpse with a noticeably paler skin tone. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', it's stated his immortality is due to Naomi's {{nanomachine|s}} technology. [[spoiler:Naomi also used the same technology on herself, and instantly dies after deactivating her nanomachines.]]
** Raiden in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' got mutilated and returned as a creepy corpse version of himself in a robot suit.

* The ''player character'' of ''VideoGame/{{SOMA}}'' is one of these, being the corpse of a human wearing a diver's suit with electronic eyes, a cybernetic processor, and a vocalizer jammed into where the skull once was, all of it held together and animated with a nanite compound called "structure gel", and with [[BrainUploading the recorded brainwaves of a century-dead human downloaded into the resultant conglomerate to give it sapience]]. At one point in the second half of the game, when your diving suit becomes incapable of withstanding the pressure of the lower depths you need to proceed to, you actually repeat the assembly process, using a decapitated corpse in a deep-sea enviro-suit, a "cortex chip" to copy your brain onto, the audio-visual receptors & processors of a disassembled robot, and a generous dose of structure gel to bind it all together.
* In ''VideoGame/TooHuman'', a cyberpunk take on Norse Mythology, the cyborg goddess Hel uses Nidhogg {{nanomachines}} to convert the dead into regenerating monsters. On the "heroic" side the AESIR corporation has valkyries pick up fallen soldiers so they can be [[WeCanRebuildHim rebuilt]] into Einherjar, including the player character Balder.
* Automatons from ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilationKingdoms'' are stated to be this; and that Creon take the length of a Tour of Duty ''very'' seriously. One Engineering unit has the ability to turn any corpse it encounters into an Automaton as well.

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', reanimation is a pretty common occurrence given the GaslampFantasy setting ruled by Mad Scientists.

* In ''WebVideo/TheMercuryMen'', a construction worker killed by the Mercury Men is reanimated by [[BrainInAJar The Battery]] in order to carry it around.
* The "Little Ones" from AudioPlay/WereAlive may have been "grown" in Ink's TortureCellar.

* The Creature in ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' is almost certainly the most influential example, being a living being pieced together from dead tissue by some (poorly-defined) means and given life. However in the novel the creature doesn't resemble a zombie anything other than visually, being fast, strong, intelligent and actually quite friendly. It spends a portion of the story learning from and helping a family in secret, eventually befriending the blind father of the family. However it's hideous appearance results in anyone who can actually see it being repulsed and usually attacking it, eventually resulting in it exacting revenge on it's creator.

An Artificial Zombie is what happens when you try to reanimate someone with science (and usually also ForScience), causing them to [[CameBackWrong Come Back Wrong]]. The good news is that if they go berserk and start [[FleshEatingZombie consuming human flesh]] (and they probably will - zombies will be zombies, after all), they have an almost zero percent chance of spreading zombification and creating a ZombieApocalypse.

* Sid Barett from ''Manga/SoulEater'', who was brought back to life by [[MadScientist Stein]]'s experiments. It's PlayedForLaughs, as the only difference between now and when he was alive is that his skin is blue, his eyes are all-white, and "That's the kind of man I was" has become his {{Catchphrase}}.

Subtrope of OurZombiesAreDifferent. Compare FrankensteinsMonster and WeCanRebuildHim. See also SkeleBot9000.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'':

* The zombies from the ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' series of video games are creations assembled/reanimated by sinister baddies, usually in massive numbers. Standard grunts are just reanimated corpses, while the bosses are creatures that have been genetically altered to get a brand-new lifeform. One of the few modern examples where the zombies don't spread their undead status to the living; the HOTD zombies just plain murder people.

* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', the protagonists encounter zombie-like creatures called guldos in the Land of Morytha. [[spoiler:When the characters meet the Architect near the end of the game, he reveals that the creatures were once humans, and were the product of humanity's attempt to achieve immortality using technology that would eventually become the Core Crystals.]]

* Cyberzombies in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. Tech augments each take away a little piece of someones soul, so a Cyberzombie is what results when you pack so much tech into someone that their soul is eaten away entirely but you keep them alive with {{Magitek}}.

* Unfortunately, cyborg zombiedom sometimes ''is'' contagious. ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'' has DG Cells, a nanobot zombie plague spawning from the MechanichalAbomination that is the Devil Gundam. It would be bad enough if DG Cells merely affected people, but the disease's nanobot nature means it can make its way into the Mobile Trace System and infect HumongousMecha as well, which means only one thing: [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Giant zombie robots.]]

* Unfortunately, cyborg zombiedom sometimes ''is'' contagious. ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'' has DG Cells, a nanobot zombie plague spawning from the robotic abomination that is the Devil Gundam. It would be bad enough if DG Cells merely affected people, but the disease's nanobot nature means it can make its way into the Mobile Trace System and infect HumongousMecha as well, which means only one thing: [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Giant zombie robots.]]

* In the manga version of ''Manga/BlackButler'', the Phoenix Society attempts to cure all ailments, including death. The result isn't pretty.
* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex 2nd Gig'' has a few brain-dead cyborgs remotely operated or by AI after death, even acting like they were still alive.

* Zombies are the main antagonist's {{Mooks}} in the ''Manga/OnePiece'' Thriller Bark arc. They're corpses modified by [[MadScientist Dr. Hogback]] and then reanimated with people's [[AnatomyOfTheSoul shadows]] by [[BigBad Gekko Moria.]]
* Sid Barett from ''Manga/SoulEater'', who was brought back to life by [[MadScientist Stein's]] experiments. It's PlayedForLaughs, as the only difference between now and when he was alive is that his skin is blue, his eyes are all-white, and "That's the kind of man I was" became his CatchPhrase.

* ''ComicBook/{{Finder}}'': Inverted, the zombies are still alive but they still go about scuffling along in packs. This is because they're ''office workers''; they have a chip in their brain that let's them do all their work on the internet while their bodies are sent out shambling to get more exercise.
** One woman's husband shows up to get a look at her because he just got a post card announcing her promotion.
* While ComicBook/SimonDark himself was brought to life using MadScience and DarkMagic his murderous predecessor was created before his creator gave in and tried combining his science with magic.

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnon The Many]] began due to Alan Jonah and his Basement Club's experiments with Ghidorah's DNA, and it's at one point revealed that the Basement Club have specifically infected dead corpses with the Many, causing them to reanimate.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' sci-fi AU [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/7026787/chapters/15988369 Prosthenisis]] puts a DarkerAndEdgier take on the Night Howlers by making them dead cyborgs whose ArtificialLimbs were hacked and remotely controlled, usually they were killed by their own prosthetics as well.

[[folder: Film -- Live Action]]

* Zombies in ''Film/DeadHeat'' are created using a chemical/electrical device that restores animation for about 12 hours, after which the zombie's tissues undergo rapid liquification. If reanimated immediately after death, the zombie will retain its sentience and personality; wait a bit before zapping a corpse, and brain decomposition makes it a compliant {{Mook|s}} with no individuality. [[spoiler: Unless you're Joe Piscopo, whose persona re-asserts itself when spurred by bad in-jokes.]]
* ''Film/DeadlyFriend'': the eponymous [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot undead girlfriend psycho robot buddy]].

* The monsters in ''Film/FrankensteinsArmy'' are actually horrific cyborgs, cooked up by the direct descendant of Doctor Victor Frankenstein -- his grandson, in fact -- during World War II. The trope is lampshaded and given a huge Take That, as "Stitching people together with knives for hands [is] something only the Nazis could think of".
* The ''Film/ReAnimator'' series, loosely based on the Creator/HPLovecraft story, possibly the classic film appearance of this type, are created by a mad scientist's serum.
* The second combat sequence in ''Film/SuckerPunch'' featured WWI German soldiers revived with "clockwork and steam". That's right, [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot steampunk zombies]].
* Similarly, the creatures of ''Film/ZombieHolocaust'' (1980) are created when a MadScientist transplants the brains of the living into the bodies of the dead. The movie itself is a mashup of zombie movie and CannibalFilm (the title being a nod to ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'').

* Literature/ZombiesVsUnicorns story ''Children of the Revolution'' has zombies most like this, though with a bit of PlagueZombie thrown in as they can infect others.

--> Whatever had happened had definitely changed him. His skin looked sallow and unhealthy. He walked slowly, like he was trudging through mud, and every now and then his body shook with a violent twitch. But he didn't look like the zombies Zak had seen in his dreams. He looked like he'd been ill, but he did not look like the walking dead.

* Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/HerbertWestReanimator'' serial involves the titular scientist making several attempts to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin reanimate the dead.]] His first few tries all result in {{Flesh Eating Zombie}}s (he blames brain damage) but eventually he [[spoiler:makes one that is smart enough to make more walking corpses. It then orders the new zombies to tear Dr. West limb from limb (and they took his head when they ran off)]]. The most terrifying fact was that all of them were ''fast zombies'' -- they retained the full physical strength they had in life, the quickness of a fit living human, lacked any sort of fear and never gave up unless killed (again) for good.

* In the Literature/{{Boojumverse}} story "The Wreck of the ''Charles Dexter Ward''", Dr. Fiorenzo has used forbidden science to produce a serum that reanimates the dead as zombies. And it doesn't just work on humans: the titular ''Charles Dexter Ward'' is a zombified LivingShip.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': In "Spider in the Web", a murder and several assaults are committed by a agent of a black-ops organization called "Bureau 13", whose "Project Lazarus" developed a method for reviving, brainwashing, and cybernetically enhancing a recently-killed person.

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E10TheDoctorDances The Doctor Dances]]", the gas mask zombie child Jamie is revealed to be this. The Doctor speculates the [[{{Nanomachines}} nanogenes]] found his dead body wearing a gas mask and exhibiting the collapsed chest cavity, crushed skull, scar on the left hand, etc. that all the gas mask zombies develop on turning; but because the nanogenes had no idea what a healthy, living human being is supposed to look like, they brought Jamie back wrong and...

** The [[Characters/DoctorWhoDaleks Dalek puppets]] of the Eleventh Doctor era are a deliberate case of this. They're created by the Daleks essentially hollowing out humans' (or any other sentient humanoid species') bodies and filling them with Dalek technology. Either a perfect fresh body or a dessicated skeleton will come back.
** In the Series 8's GrandFinale ("[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E11DarkWater Dark Water]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven Death in Heaven]]"), Missy [[spoiler: aka TheMaster]] revealed her true self and her plans by using the dead (the recent ones as well using a whole cemetery) by converting the corpses into Cybermen and so she can TakeOverTheWorld.
* A man attempts this in the ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' episode "Marionette". Using a serum he invented which dramatically slows decomposition, he preserves a girl's corpse, transplants her donated organs back into her body, and restarts her system with a jolt of electricity. However, he gives up when it becomes clear that though he's reanimated her body, her mind is still gone.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' gives us the Borg, possibly the most famous example, if a subdued one. Subverted in that the Borg are not dead, and can even be reclaimed from their state.

* Most zombies in ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' are magically reanimated. However, as befits the [[SteamPunk SCIENCE!]] tone of the technology in the game, there is also a technological device that reanimates zombies.

* The Possessed, the zombies ''du jour'' from ''VideoGame/{{Doom 2016}}'', are of this variety, created by exposure to Lazarus Waves. As per the name, they're actually being possessed by demons from Hell.

** The lobomites, also from Old World Blues, also counts. They were ordinary humans abducted by the [[MadScientist Think Tank]] that had their organic brain replaced by an artificial one. The artificial brain has supossed to receive thoughts from the original one, however, since an error in the automated process destroys the original brain instead of preserving it, they ended up turning into mindless beings that walk around the Big Mountain facility doing nothing besides copulating, reliving themselves of their physiological needs and trying to kill almost anything that isn't another lobotomite.

* The zombies from the ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' series of video games are creations assembled/reanimated by sinister baddies, usually in massive numbers. Standard grunts are just reanimated corpses, while the bosses are creatures that have been genetically altered to get a brand new lifeform. One of the few modern examples where the zombies don't spread their undead status to the living; the HOTD zombies just plain murder people.
** However, ''VideoGame/TheHouseOfTheDeadOverkill'' does feature plague-bearing zombies (or [[NotUsingTheZWord 'mutants' as G insists on calling them]]) that follow your standard "Bite - Infect - Multiply" pattern, which turns the entire region of Bayou City into a realm of living dead.

-->'''James''': "Hey, EDI. Husk bites... they don't turn you into a husk or anything, right?"
-->'''*{{beat}}*'''
-->'''[[RobotGirl EDI]]''': "I recommend you apply medigel."
* ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' sees series BigBad Sigma brought back after his ''second'' seemingly permanent death of the series in [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 the previous game]], revived by ArcVillain Gate as a weapon of last resort that [[UngratefulBastard ends up blowing his resurrector away shortly after being released]]. The revival is incomplete however, and he's released as a shambling husk who can barely remember anything other than his hatreds. The decline reverses in [[VideoGame/MegaManX7]] though.

** Vamp 'dies' when shot in the head by Raiden in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' but remains as a living corpse with a noticeably paler skin tone. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', it's stated his immortality is due to Naomi's nanomachine technology. [[spoiler: Naomi also used the same technology on herself, and instantly dies after deactivating her nanomachines.]]

** Nanomachine zombies are also briefly encountered in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', and parasite zombies are more common in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''.
** A weird variation is the Basilisk from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' - a quadrupedal walking tank containing an AI modelled after The Boss. Its battle animation contains a lurching bipedal walk clearly modelled after a zombie.

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' reanimation is a pretty common occurrence given the GaslampFantasy setting ruled by Mad Scientists.
* All of the zombies in the ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' {{Verse}}, most notably [[WebComic/SkinHorse Unity]].

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' sees BigBad Sigma brought back from the dead after his defeat in the previous game. The revival is incomplete and he returns as a husk of his former self. [[CatharsisFactor Many players note how satisfying it feels to see him in such a tattered, pathetic state after all the damage he wrought in the previous 5 games in the series.]]

** The lobomites, also from Old World Blues, also counts. They were ordinary humans abducted by the [[MadScientist Think Tank]] that had their organic brain replaced by an artificial one. The artificial brain has supossed to receive thoughts from the original one, however, since an error in the automated process destroys the original brain instead of preserving it, they ended up turning into mindless beings that walk around the Big Mountain facility doing nothing besides copulating, reliving themselves of their physiological needs and trying to kill anything that isn't another lobotomite.

** The lobomites, also from Old World Blues, also counts. They were ordinary humans abducted by the [[MadScientist Think Tank]] that had their organic brain replaced by an artificial one. The artificial brain has supossed to receive thoughts from the original one, however, since an error in the automated process destroys the original brain instead of preserving it, they end up turning into mindless beings that walk around the Big Mountain facility doing nothing besides copulating, reliving themselves of their physiological needs and trying to kill anything that isn't another lobotomite.