History Main / OurZombiesAreDifferent

* ''Film/ArmyOfTheDead'' has three types: the classic mindless ones called Shamblers, who eat flesh and are slow (and dry to the point of becoming immobile under the Sun and heat in Las Vegas); the Alphas, who are much stronger, agile and smarter; and Zeus, the leader and the one who creates the Alphas, with peak strength and intelligence (and even ''emotional'' intelligence).

-->'''Cyril:''' Ralph, Zangief saying, labels not make you happy. Good . Bad. (Grunts) You must love you.

-->'''Cyril:''' Ralph, Zangief saying, labels not make you happy. You must love you.

* ''WebOriginal/HamstersParadise'': The Severe Infectious Harmster Transmissible Tumor is a kind of infectious cancer that primarily infests the central nervous system, and which spreads through tissue contact -- especially through bites and ingestion of tainted flesh. The damage to its victims' nervous systems reduces and eventually destroys their ability to lucid thought and perception while increasing their aggression to facilitate its spread, while the damage to the nervous system leaves the host vulnerable to other diseases. The result as hordes of groaning, zombie-like shamblers, literally rotting alive and often missing limbs, jaws or eyes, driven to attack and infect as many others as they can before their rotting bodies finish falling apart.

* ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'': Though the filmmakers tried to avoid making a "zombie movie", the Infected of this film started the modern idea of "sprinting zombies", and many consider the Infected to simply be another archetype of "zombie" anyway. Unlike typical zombies up to that point, the Infected were intelligent, extremely fast, and while they did bite and tear people apart, they didn't actually ''eat'' them.

* ''Franchise/EvilDead'' combines zombies with DemonicPossession in the form of the Deadites, people who are killed and then reanimated by a Kandarian demon summoned by reading from a TomeOfEldritchLore (referred to variously as the Necronomicon Ex Mortis and the Naturom Demonto). They retain their intelligence and memories, which they use to wield weapons and taunt the survivors, including occasionally pretending to be FightingFromTheInside. Possession is spread not only through bites and bodily fluids, but also by wounds caused by weapons wielded by Deadites. Nothing short of total dismemberment will take them down, with their limbs still capable of moving and, if intact enough, even attacking after being cut off; one scene in ''Film/EvilDead2'' has the protagonist fighting [[EvilHand his own severed hand]] that he [[AmputationStopsSpread cut off to avoid getting possessed]], ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'' has the BigBad raising [[DemBones an army of Deadite skeletons]], and the pile of gore at the end of ''Film/EvilDeadRise'' shows little pieces of viscera still twitching in vain.

* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'' has two types of zombie: There are the ''plods'', which are essentially just corpses reanimated with magic to serve as a tireless workforce (they are accepted because slavery is of course much worse). The plods do still have HorrorHunger, and thus wear metal masks all the time, and they have a certain glint in their eyes that might indicate some awareness. They are not really "alive", however, unlike the ''galit''. A galit is an undead with a soul attached, and on very rare occasions (or maybe only through a certain ritual, it has not been explained in-story) retain their personality, memories and conscience as well. This is the case with main character Duane, who ironically enough hates seeing undead due to his religion stating it is blasphemy to let corpses go unburned. Due to this form of undeath allowing the soul to stay in place, the galit might more accurately be referred to as revenants or ghouls, or simply TheUndead. Unlike the "recycled labor" that is the plods, creating galit by binding souls to corpses is considered BlackMagic and a fearsome sin by the populace. It should also be noted that despite retaining their soul, a galit is still not a perfect undead, and have both HorrorHunger as well as rotting limbs. Duane has spent six years fighting against his own subconscious trying to make him eat people, and at night he has to shackle himself so that his SanitySlippage doesn't make him go out on [[FleshEatingZombie a mindless hunt for human flesh]]. That said, he doesn't actually require any food to keep going, it's just that hunger is the motivating force that keeps plods going. If he wasn't ravenous, he'd drop redead on the spot.

* ''Franchise/EvilDead'' combines zombies with DemonicPossession in the form of the Deadites, people who are killed and then reanimated by a Kandarian demon summoned by reading from a TomeOfEldritchLore (referred to variously as the Necronomicon Ex Mortis and the Naturom Demonto). They retain their intelligence and memories, which they use to wield weapons and taunt the survivors, including occasionally pretending to be FightingFromTheInside. Possession is spread not only through bites and bodily fluids, but also by wounds caused by weapons wielded by Deadites. Nothing short of total dismemberment will take them down, with their limbs still capable of moving and, if intact enough, even attacking after being cut off; one scene in ''Film/EvilDeadII'' has the protagonist fighting [[EvilHand his own severed hand]] that he [[AmputationStopsSpread cut off to avoid getting possessed]], ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'' has the BigBad raising [[DemBones an army of Deadite skeletons]], and the pile of gore at the end of ''Film/EvilDeadRise'' shows little pieces of viscera still twitching in vain.

* In ''Literature/TheWhiteRabbitChronicles'', the zombies are infected spirits instead of walking corpses, and hunger for human souls instead of flesh.

* In ''LightNovel/TheEmpireOfCorpses'', zombies are manmade workers of varying intelligence referred to as Frankensteins. They are also the main source of infantry in military battles, and some can even be made into skilled fighters.

* Ayumu from ''LightNovel/IsThisAZombie'' was revived by the {{Necromancer}} Eucliwood Hellscythe and is looking for his killer. With MagicalGirl [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot powers]]... revenant mixed with voodoo.

* The titular character of ''The Living Dead Girl'' (directed by Jean Rollin, who also made ''Film/TheGrapesOfDeath'', above) has been turned into a blood-sucking zombie by {{toxic waste|CanDoAnything}}. She still looks fairly normal, but depends on her girlfriend to bring her victims, and despises her own existence.

* In ''LightNovel/TheEmpireOfCorpses'' zombies are manmade workers of varying intelligence referred to as Frankensteins. They are also the main source of infantry in military battles, and some can even be made into skilled fighters.

* Kikyo from ''Manga/InuYasha'' was created from her ashes and grave soil and powered by the souls of the dead. {{Revenant}}, artificial, and voodoo (except she's too powerful to control and almost immediately kills her creator).

** The first variety are ones actually called "Zombies" which appear in ''Manga/PhantomBlood'' and ''Manga/BattleTendency'' and are created when a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampire]] either sucks the blood out of a human or brings the dead back to life with their own blood. These people become willing servants of the Vampire who created them, with varying levels of their own will and varying degrees of remaining visible humanity. These Zombies can only be defeated by means of the Ripple or exposure to sunlight. DIO eventually perfects this ability of his to where he can create new Vampires instead by the time of ''Manga/StardustCrusaders'', as Vanilla Ice is a fully fledged Vampire and not called a Zombie.
** In ''Manga/StardustCrusaders'', Cameo's Stand Judgement allows him to to create lifelike golems of humans out of dirt, which will then proceed to eat any human nearby. Due to his disguise as a JerkassGenie, Cameo uses Judgement to trick Polnareff to lowering his guard by "reviving" his dead sister.
** In an odder example in ''Manga/GoldenWind'', [[spoiler:Bruno Bucciarati actually dies during his initial fight with Diavolo and Giorno Giovanna attempts to use Gold Experience's life-giving power to resurrect him. It seemingly works, but the revived Bruno has no heartbeat and is still slowly dying. It's implied that Bruno's own resolve is what is keeping him still alive.]]
** ''Manga/StoneOcean'' villain Sports Maxx's Stand Limp Bizkit allows him to use the corpses of the dead around him to turn their "spirits" into invisible but still tangible wraith-like "zombies" with enhanced strength. Limp Bizkit works on dead of any age or species, as a taxidermied alligator is turned into an invisible zombie. [[spoiler:Even Sports Maxx himself becomes a zombie under the power of his own Stand.]] However, these zombies can be killed again through conventional means.

* When people die in ''LightNovel/SundayWithoutGod'', nothing really changes except the fact that they decay. They're still like normal humans, only they don't age or need to eat or sleep, and the only way they can truly die is if they're properly buried by a certain kind of gravekeeper.

* The zombies in ''Nightmare City'' take the cake as far as being nebulously-defined. They run around like humans and kill other humans with guns, knives and whatever they've got available, yet despite being intelligent, they never speak. They do consume human flesh and blood, but seemingly as an afterthought. Some of them have more caked oatmeal on their faces than others; some seem almost normal. How new zombies are made is totally unexplained, and whether or not headshots are needed to kill them differs from scene to scene.

* ''LightNovel/TheWeaknessOfBeatriceTheLevelCapHolySwordswoman'' has the zombies of the Underworld, which are a combination of Revenant (they retain all of the skills and memories they had in life) and Voodoo (they are completely subject to the will of the Underworld Lord). Anyone who dies, regardless of the cause, will have their soul captured by the Underworld and become another zombie. These zombies can't be permanently killed, as their souls will return to their Underworld to be reused.

* The ancient Greeks had a plethora of names for the undead, stemming from the fact that ancient Greece was made up of various independent kingdoms. Among the many names of the undead was ''vrykolakas''. These zombies were said to rise from the dead in order to feast on the living, with particular fondness for livers, putting them firmly in the FleshEatingZombie category. A related type spoken of in Crete called A Kathakano were also said to posses the very video-game suited ability of vomiting up scalding hot blood, making them one of the first examples of undead that utilize a ZombiePukeAttack.

* The ancient Greeks had a plethora of names for the undead, stemming from the fact that ancient Greece was made up of various independent kingdoms. Among the many names of the undead was ''kathakano''. These zombies were said to rise from the dead in order to feast on the living, with particular fondness for livers, putting them firmly in the FleshEatingZombie category. Kathakano were also said to posses the very video-game suited ability of vomiting up scalding hot blood, making them one of the first examples of undead that utilize a ZombiePukeAttack.

As ''Night'' was accidentally entered into the public domain due to an error in the end credits, it quickly became the object of imitation and emulation by many other directors. Most zombie invasion stories, even those not explicitly based on Romero's films, follow the same conventions, though there are major points of contention. While Romero is responsible for most of the "general" zombie conventions, the more specific and visible zombie tropes are more often inspired by the later works of John Russo, ''Night'''s co-writer. Most zombie movies mix-and-match conventions from the Romero and Russo canons. The Russo canon in particular (''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'') is the reason most people will respond with "[[BrainFood Braaaiinnnns]]" when zombies come up in conversation, and most depictions along those lines are references to it. Zombie canon was turned on its head with the release of the video game ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' in 1996 and the film ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' in 2002, which heavily influenced and popularized the modern trend of super-fast, super-angry zombies (usually infected sort-of-alive humans as opposed to the reanimated dead) that has carried over to numerous works of fiction and entertainment.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':

** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' introduces the Unkindled, a new subrace of undead who tried and failed to link the fire and become a Lord of Cinder. They (like the protagonist) are resurrected when the bell of Firelink Shrine tolls and are tasked with finding the Lords of Cinder and bringing them back to Firelink Shrine to sit in their thrones and help rekindle the first flame. They do not seem to possess the darksign like regular undead as they do not hollow when they die, but they can hollow when marked with the Dark Sigil. Unkindled have a burnt motif to their designs, their clothes flacking with ash as their clothes glow like burnt leaves; they lose this burnt motif if they die and can regain it (and their maximum health) using an Ember.

** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' introduces the Unkindled, a new subrace of undead who tried and failed to link the fire and become a Lord of Cinder. They (like the protagonist) are resurrected when the bell of Firelink Shrine tolls and are tasked with finding the Lords of Cinder and bringing them back to Firelink Shrine to sit in their thrones and help rekindle the first flame. They do not seem to possess the darksign like regular undead as they do not hollow when they die, but they can hollow when marked with the darksigil. Unkindled have a burnt motif to their designs, their clothes flacking with ash as their clothes glow like burnt leaves, lose this burnt motif if they die and can regain it (and their maximum health) using an Ember.