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Our Zombies Are Different
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For instance, these zombies follow a hilariously rigid social code.
The word "zombie" originated in the Voudon beliefs of the Caribbean, referring to a body "revived" and enslaved by a sorcerer. (Some of the oldest aspects of zombie appearance are actually symptoms of tetrodotoxin poisoning, a neurotoxin used in certain voudon rituals.) In this form, it has been known in America since the late 19th century. However, it wasn't until the 1960s that George Romero's Night of the Living Dead attached the word to the living dead who eat the flesh of the living.
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 cannon in particular is the reason most people will respond with "Braaaiinnnns" when Zombies come up in conversation, although he is more or less the only person to use it outside of comedy.
The most common zombie archetypes are as follows:
- Type V: Voodoo. The original zombie. Reanimated by black magic. May either do their creator's bidding or go insane and turn into type VF.
- Type C: Construct. Similar to Frankensteins Monster, this is the zombie you get when attempting to reanimate somebody/bodies from the dead— With Science, For Science! If they go berserk (which they probably will— zombies will be zombies), they have an almost zero chance of spreading Zombification and creating a Zombie Apocalypse.
- Type F: Flesh-Eating. Your typical B Movie zombie, it eats the skin, brains, or various other organs from the living, typically turning them into zombies— which makes them a lot like a ghoul, really. Can also be merged with Type V or P.
- Type P: Plague-bearing. Created by a virus or occasionally machine or somesuch. These are the zombies that are guaranteed to turn others into zombies due to their highly communicable virus or nanobots or whatever. Almost always merged with Type F.
- Type PS: Parasite: A subtype of Type P, these zombies are created specifically via exposure to a form of parasitic lifeform, be it the only stage or part of a series of mutations. Good for videogames, as the advanced mutations allow for advanced enemies and bosses to still be zombies.
See also Everythings Deader With Zombies, Zombie Apocalypse, Not A Zombie. Not Using The Z Word happens when creatures that otherwise fit the profile perfectly are not called zombies.
Examples:
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Type V
Anime and Manga
- The zombies of One Piece's Thriller Bark Story Arc are a combination of types V and C. They're reanimated by villain Gecko Moria's Living Shadow-based Kage-Kage Devil Fruit. Through it, Moria can steal shadows off a living person and put them into dead bodies rebuilt by Doktor Hogback.
Comic Books
- Marvel Zombies
- Solomon Grundy, from the DCU and the DCAU, was a mobster who was killed and thrown in a cursed swamp. The curse caused him to reanimate decades later as a soulless, grey monster. Fortunately he doesn't reek due to being a Golden Age GL foe and thus made largely of plant matter.
- The hordes of undead raised by the Zombie Priest from The Goon are fairly standard, although a few are capable of speech and performing complex tasks. The Zombie Priest himself isn't actually a zombie, but rather a demon in disguise. There's also Willie Nagel, a friendly and intelligent zombie.
- The recent creation of the Black Lantern Corps in the Blackest Night storyline sees wide swaths of DCU characters being transformed into a combination of Type P and F zombies bent on ensuring that death will never again be cheap.
Film
- The zombie mill workers in the 1932 film White Zombie, as well as the 1966 Hammer Horror Plague of the Zombies.
- One of the few interesting points in the ZZ-grade sci-fi classic The Crawling Eye was the invading aliens' ability to create Type V-ish spies/fifth columnists from the bodies of their victims (well, those they didn't decapitate outright, of course).
Literature
- The Zombie Master in Piers Anthony's Xanth series creates zombies of Type V. Neither the zombies nor their creator are threatening. Xanth zombies are mostly benign, although when called on to fight they make fearsome opponents. They are not contagious, although they deteriorate, and many suffer from brain-damage as their grey matter decomposes. They result either from the occasional person with unfinished business or from a corpse reanimated by the Zombie Master. Or, in one rather depressing case, the Zombie Master himself after he suicides.
- Jim Butcher's Dead Beat pretty much skewers the idea of the Hollywood horror movie zombie, with Harry Dresden himself asking why someone would go to the trouble of working intricate dark magics just to get something that shuffles like an arthritic grandmother and thinks of nothing but brains. The zombies of the Dresdenverse are pumped full of dark magic to the point that they're stronger and faster than the average human, as well as completely pliant to the will of the necromancer that raised them... provided they maintain the spell, of course.
- Not to mention that a zombie dinosaur may well be a much better choice for the discerning wizard.
- In the Anita Blake series zombies have to be animated by someone with the power to do so. They are obedient to the person who raised them, and have a varied amount of memory and personality depending on time passed since death, power level of the animator, and quality of blood sacrifice that raised them. Eating flesh will prevent them from decaying as rapidly, but an ordinary competently raised zombie is unlikely to go on a rampage unless they are a murder victim or used to be an animator themselves. The titular character's day job (well, night job) is as a zombie reanimator.
- The haunts in P.C. Hodgell's Chronicles Of The Kencyrath are a combination of multiple of these. They meet type V in that they are created by the malignant, evil/chaotic influence of Perimal Darkling. Unburned corpses of humans or animals left in areas where Darkling influence is bleeding into the normal world—the Haunted Lands—become haunts. It is, however, also type P in that an untreated haunt bite can turn a bitten human into a haunt. While haunts bite people, they don't seem to do it out of hunger; it's an attack. Haunts are normally stupid, shambling creatures, although they do retain some memory of their former lives, sometimes calling out to the still-living. One character who is bitten and turns into a haunt, though, remains themselves through force of will, and proves capable of continuing to be a productive member of society despite their status.
- Walking dead were sent by the Fore to attack the heroes/gamers in the South Seas Treasure game in Dream Park (by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes). Not voodoo, but same idea.
- Also a gloriously-gruesome inversion of the get-bitten-by-brain-hungry-zombie trope. See, some of the walking dead horde were portrayed as twitching and jerking. These are symptoms of kuru, a fatal disease which the cannibalistic Fore contracted by dining on infected human brain tissue. Yes, folks, they'd died, and become eligible for reanimation as zombies, because they'd been chowing down on the brains of dead people while they were still alive!
- In A Song Of Ice And Fire, when the malevolant Others kill someone, it reanimates as a "wight," a freezing cold zombie with glowing blue eyes. They are resistant to normal weapons but highly susceptible to fire. Hacked-off limbs continue to move for many days afterwards, but will eventually crumble apart.
- Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels don't follow any of the above rules. as this is completely unrelated to the trope and there are other pages for zombies this probably doesn't belong but... their zombies are completely sentient, and generally maintain their old personalities to every extent. They are basically powered by their will to live; a person who becomes a zombie is generally much stronger than they used to be, being unburdened by all the creakiness of their old body. (Although, if it's not properly preserved, it'll fall to bits, and many zombies are covered in stitches.)
- It should be noted that zombies do not exist in great numbers on Discworld and they're not considered a problem by the living population, although there are prejudices. The novels have featured three zombies as main or recurring characters:
- Reginald Shoe, a former romantic revolutionary, who after his death in the Ankh-Morpork civil war (or rather, the last substantial one, in Night Watch, not the civil war) thirty years prior to the present time became a mortuary worker and fervent Death Rights activist and (after the events of Feet of Clay) the first (and so far only) zombie recruit of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. He is a highly valued policeman, known for his calm and laconic humour. To quote Watch Commander Vimes, Reg Shoe was a man born to be dead.
- The wizard Windle Poons, who, after his death aged 130 years old (in Reaper Man) became a zombie due to the fact that Death was temporarily not available to take away Poons' soul. The undead Poons had more fun during the couple of days spent as a zombie than during the 100 years prior.
- Mr. Slant, a lawyer and president of the Guild of Lawyers. Has no discernible sense of humour. In fact, it is said that the only effect death had on Mr. Slant was that he started working through his lunch break. His will to live originates from the fact that his descendants still refuse to pay him for the case where he defended himself, lost, and was beheaded.
- Though not a recurring character, Witches Abroad features Baron Saturday who was revived as a zombie by a local witch. Other than the method of revival, he doesn't differ from any of the other zombies in Discworld, not going about eating brains or Human flesh or what have you.
- He just happens to become the embodiment of Voodoo magic, a consciously created god, Expy of our world's Baron Samedi.
- Though in Monstrous Regiment there are the standard shuffling zombie kind in the form of former soldiers in the castle catacombs, being kept alive by the Duchess who in turn is being kept alive by all the prayers sent in her direction as opposed to the Gods. Reginald Shoe actually observes them and says that they could be rehabilitated with some effort.
- Mike Carey's Felix Castor series has zombies as ghosts who return in (mostly) their own bodies: one of them, tech whiz kid, Conspiracy Theorist and Deadpan Snarker Nicky Heath, plays a crucial and recurring role, as does his voodoo physical therapist Imelda.
- The Inferi of Harry Potter
- The Lifeless of Warbreaker are pretty much treated like robots that happen to be made from reanimated corpses instead of metal. Once created they are perfectly obedient (though most have passwords built into them so that only certain people can command them) and will follow any instruction to the letter, though like real-world computers this often needs to be very specific to avoid Literal Genie moments. They absolutely will not rampage or eat brains unless someone is stupid enough to tell them to. In the nation of Hallandren they are a widely accepted part of society, though in other parts of the world they are regarded as abominations.
Live Action TV
- The zombie of the eponymous Kolchak The Night Stalker episode. It takes orders from its voodoo priestess mother, kills mainly by snapping the spine, moves rather fast, and is finally put down by having rock salt poured into its mouth when dormant followed by sewing the mouth shut.
- Smallville (infected with a Kryptonian virus).
Tabletop Games
- Common low-level monsters, D&D zombies (and skeletons) are nearly always mindless mooks animated by necromancy.
- Unless you've run into a juju zombie from early editions, which are smarter.
- Or one of the variant zombies from 4th Edition, which can have un-mooklike powers.
- Or your DM owns Van Richten's Guide To The Walking Dead, in which case all bets are off.
- In Exalted, Abyssals and Deathlords make frequent use of reanimated corpses, though they also often cross over into Type C via Necrotech, which is basically Magitek crossed with this.
Video Games
- Warcraft and World Of Warcraft. Which also have aspects of type F (as they can feed on humanoids) and P (as they were created by a plague).
- The undead really fit into all these categories. The trolls have voodoo zombies, which seem to have free will. Abominations and Flesh Golems are constructs, ghouls eat flesh, and there's a plague going around... though its not infectious in the traditional manner. WMG seems to point to a fungal agent that has to be eaten, or straight necromancy (voodoo go!) which can have some strange results.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- Found in an episode of Angry Beavers, in which the titular beavers were almost kidnapped by a voodoo witch to be made into some type of elixir. The zombies from the horrible Show Within A Show B-movies the beavers watch will invariably be type F.
- The Simpsons.
Type C
- Arguably, Frankenstein's Monster
- All of the zombies in the Narbonic Verse, most notably Unity.
- The Ur Example of the zombie story, Herbert West - Reanimator, uses this type.
- Flesh golems, cadaver golems, and especially blasphemes in Dungeons And Dragons.
- Abominations
from Warcraft and World Of Warcraft differ from the rest of the plague in that they are pieced together from different corpses, much like Frankenstein's Monster himself.
- The zombies from the House of the Dead 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, undead 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, the recent House of the Dead: Overkill does feature Type P zombies (or '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.
- In Blaylock's Homunculus, the titular creature can re-animate the dead, including animal carcasses or body parts, by will alone. So can Narbando, though his creations must be fed regular meals of blood pudding to stay animate. Blaylock's zombies are sluggish and mute, but not animalistic, being capable of menial labor in factories or (if undecayed) of begging and handing out flyers in the street.
- The Sims 2: University, as a result of a cheap resurrection. The good news is, teen zombies get an Undead Scholarship for university.
- Most Elder Scrolls oblivion Zombies are created by dark ritual as guards for old tomes they are not contagious, although some of them have other non zombiefing diseases.
Type F
- The "Living Dead" series, including Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, Day Of The Dead, and Land Of The Dead. Though never called "zombies" in the series (Romero originally referred to them as "ghouls"), the living dead in this series became the starting point for Hollywood zombies. They walk and move slowly, have very rudimentary instincts, and are driven most by the instinct to feed. They can only be stopped by destroying their brains. Over the series, their attributes are gradually expanded upon. In Dawn of the Dead it's discovered that they are drawn to places they knew in life, such as malls. In Day of the Dead it's discovered that zombies can be trained to use tools and can be coaxed to remember aspects of their past life. Land of the Dead takes it all much further, showing that the dead can communicate with each other, empathize with each other, cooperate, and solve problems, suggesting that they are replacing humanity. Anyone who dies in the living dead world will become reanimated. Zombie bites are fatal, thus causing victims to reanimate after they die.
- Shaun Of The Dead zombies are generally of the Romero type.
- The Return of the Living Dead series riffs off the Romero series, but changes the zombies to make them much more dangerous. Decapitating the zombies will not stop them, and this change is lampshaded by one character, who cries, "You mean the movie lied?" Zombies maintain a roughly human-level intelligence. They can run and speak as well, provided they still have the right parts. They are driven to feed on human brains because it temporarily eases the pain of being dead.
- Final Fantasy XI has the Qutrub, which are actually people who have fallen to the Lamia who willingly turn themselves into zombies, and they eat flesh to stay in one piece. They are noted for being extra-weak to all damage, yet also have far more HP than most other enemies.
- I Am Not Infected has the classic Flesh Eating/Plague Bearing combo. That can drive cars (poorly).
- The Max Brooks books The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z attributes the zombie outbreaks to the fictional virus "Solanum", described as being highly contagious and 100% fatal. Victims attempt to attack and consume living prey, even though this is not required as the virus warps the brain into a new organ that does not require food, water or even air to survive. Zombies can only be killed by destroying the brain - decapitation merely results in a head that can still bite and feed, and freezing them solid only works until they thaw out again.
- Resident Evil's T-Virus turned the brain to mush, stripping them down to basic instincts and an insatiable hunger, on top of killing them.
- The Middleman has perhaps a unique example of the Flesh Eating variety, selecting a very unusual type of flesh to eat. Nowhere else will the zombies cry not "Braiiiiins", but instead "troooooout".
- In The Goon zombies are usually flesh eating and may be created by either mad science or voodoo depending on the story. They also may or may not be sentient. Also may or may not be evil. In fact zombies are really inconsistent in the series.
- Dead Rising: Aspects of F and PS. Though... how exactly does trying to mass-produce cattle end up making a wasp that turns people into zombies?
- In the movie Demons, the titular creatures are basically type F and P zombies, with a bit of demon in them.
- Cemetery Man: Type F, for the most part. Would also be Type P, except the dead in the town are coming back regardless of how they die.
Type P
- 28 Days Later.
- Left 4 Dead
- Warhammer 40000, with elements of Type V-the zombies themselves aren't created by magic, but the virus itself is (they're the work of Nurgle, God of Decay).
- Super Energy Apocolypse
features P type eyeball monsters that are apparently called "Zombies".
- The zombies in The Zombie Hunters. There is also at least one partially cured half-zombie (Type PC)
- Corprus walkers in The Elder Scrolls are humans (or elves) who are infected with the corprus disease, in incurable virus that increases the victims strength but destroys their mind. For extra squick, corprus walkers do feed on each other (unlike zombies in other media) when they don't have any other food - their massively accelerated cell growth means they don't mind having bits chopped off as they only grow back stronger. In some cases they even defy physics, surviving by eating their own flesh.
- REC and its American Remake Quarantine appear to be this but may be Type PS due to implicit Demonic Posession.
- The Gotha parallels from GURPS: Infinite Worlds are 19 alternate Earths that have been destroyed by the exact same zombie virus. These Gotha zombies retain some of their intelligence and are as willing to eat each other as normal humans.
Type PS
- Headcrab zombies in Half Life follow this route.
- Infected in Infected (the book) are infected by plants, which embed themselves in the skin and dig their roots into the bone (and eventually, to the brain), causing massive mental shifts (such as insanity and uncontrollable rage).
- Resident Evil 4 by plague-bearing individuals with creepy crawlies in their heads who are certainly not zombies, despite having loads of zombie tendencies.
- Compounded in Resident Evil 5, with improved Las Plagas, making them even more aggressive, and with a boost in strength and speed, to boot.
- ''Halo's Flood, while Not Using The Z Word, is an alien parasite with a Hive Mind, whose small 'infection forms' can infect dead or living bodies (including intact Flood corpses) and basically make a zombie with funny red antennae sticking out of its upper body. There's also enemies - and much of an entire level - that are pure Flood biomass.
- Dead Space: Necromorphs.
- Slither
Type Other
- Zombies in Doom 3 seem to have aspects of several types, they are flesh eating (dead bodies and immobile zombies) but do not attempt to bite the player, they are not contagious, having being changed by spirits from hell and the go straight from alive to undead in most cases. Most civilian zombies are slow moving and have low intelligence but military zombies are faster, more agile and smarter. They also have a vulnerability to wounds to the body,head shots are not required, neither it seems are heads, as several zombies wander around without them.
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