Watch out! Undead Ahead!
"You know, it's an interesting thing when you consider: the Earth people, who can think, are so frightened by those who cannot: the dead."
Eros, Plan 9 from Outer Space
Zombies fall precisely into the Uncanny Valley. That's why they're so scary and so fun to kill. This is an index of tropes about them.
Braaaaains...
Compare Vampire Tropes.
Ironically, The Living Dead is not an example.
Tropes:
- Attractive Zombie: A zombie who is beautiful and attractive in spite of being undead.
- Beware the Living: When there are zombies running amok, humans are more a danger to themselves than the zombies are.
- Cavalry of the Dead
- Clown-Car Grave
- The Dead Have Eyes: The undead either still have functioning eyes or are able to see without eyes.
- Deadly Lunge
- Dead Weight: Obese zombies.
- Devoured by the Horde
- Elite Zombie
- Episode of the Dead
- Everything's Deader with Zombies
- Fearless Undead
- Friendly Zombie
- Glowing Eyelights of Undeath
- Hemo Erotic
- Horror Hunger
- Incongruously Dressed Zombie: A zombie wears clothes that makes them stand out more than the other undead corpses seen.
- Marionette Motion
- Mistaken for Undead
- Nazi Zombies: Undead Nazis.
- Night of the Living Mooks: The villain uses the undead as their foot soldiers.
- No FEMA Response
- Not a Zombie: It takes a while for someone to realize a zombie is a zombie in spite of the obvious clues.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: A zombie isn't directly called a zombie.
- No Zombie Cannibals
- Picky People Eater: Zombies only eat specific parts of people.
- Brain Food: Zombies eat brains.
- Your Brain Won't Be Much of a Meal: Zombies aren't interested in eating the brains of stupid people.
- Brain Food: Zombies eat brains.
- Possessing a Dead Body
- Pretend We're Dead
- Raising the Steaks: Zombie animals.
- Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain
- Revenant Zombie: A zombie that is more intelligent and aware of how they were in life than most depictions of the walking dead.
- Room Full of Zombies
- Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration
- SoYouWantTo.Write A Zombie Apocalypse
- Stages of Monster Grief
- Technically Living Zombie: A monster that has everything in common with the typical depiction of a zombie except for the fact that they are not undead.
- Title of the Dead
- Undead Barefooter: Zombies that don't wear shoes.
- Undeath Is Cheap: Zombification or vampirism that is easily cured.
- Undeathly Pallor
- Voodoo Zombie
- You Can't Kill What's Already Dead
- Zombie Apocalypse: The world gets overrun by zombies.
- Zombie Gait: Zombies move slowly.
- Zombie Infectee: Someone gets infected by a zombie and turns into a zombie themselves.
- Patient Zero: The first person who got infected by the zombie plague.
- Zombie Puke Attack
