Nagging questions about zombies

[somekindarobot]

Seeing as somebody made a thread questioning vampire lore, I decided to do the same for zombies. There are a few things that nag me about them.

1. How come zombies never attack each other? If the zombies are hungry/violent, why do they seek out smatterings of survivors and ignore the zombies right next to them? I know thematically zombies are all about the few against the coordinated will of the many, and zombies would be much less of a threat if they started killing themselves, but this is something I think is too often neglected. It kind of makes sense if they're undead (they only like fresh meat), but what about the not undead, infected with super-rabies or something zombies? What's they're excuse? They just lie down inactive until a non-infected comes along. I'm pretty sure two rabid animals would attack each other.

2. Zombies retain motor control and all of their senses EXCEPT touch and pain? Why is reanimation/infection that selective?

3. Fast undead zombies ala Dawn of the Dead remake. I believe George Romero himself said that all undead zombies should be slow and shambling because they're struggling with rigor mortis. Makes sense to me.

4. Whatever happened to the zombie MASTER? It'd only make sense that zombies would be artificial (except for super-rabies), so somebody would control a huge mass of people. I think it could make zombies scarier if they were directed by someone intelligent. It could even be thematic (demagogue brainwashing the masses and bending them to his will).

5. Am I reading to much into this?

 

[IshFish]

1) They only krave live meat (or humans with a 'life-course' if you want to get magical)
2) If you think of them being controled by a super virus (like i tend to do) the things that get in its way is pain so its an advantage to not have it.
3)agreed
4) Virus theory ftw

 

[IshFish]

You know, since zombies don't actually exist, then we really don't need to waste time debating about the characteristics of them, do we?

.... but its fun... its like discussing a game

 

[IshFish]

5) no

 

[Last of the Chinchillas]

1. Likely because they're shambling husks of rotting flesh and have no desire to eat anything but tastier meat. I agree with the fast zombie thing though. They really should attack each other.

2. Wasn't there something in the Zombie Survival Guide about that? I hate to just kind of randomly throw that out, but I always felt like it did a great job of looking at the whole zombie thing pretty rationally, and I could swear there was a bit in the beginning about that.

3. Yeah, no argument. The undead shamble, not run. But the running ones usually tend to have some kind super-rabies rather than actual undead...ness, so I'm willing to make that concession for them.

4. You know I had a freaky dream like that once. I was on a wrecked oil tanker, and there were all of these shuffling eyeless corpses chasing after me, and I could see these weird green slug things inside their heads. I got to the bottom of the boat and there was this huge monstrosity down there controlling them all. I blame reading H.P. Lovecraft before bedtime.

5. Of course not. You're a bored nerd. This is what bored nerds do.

 

[nekoali]

The main thing about arguing zombie characteristics is they are largely dependent on what creates a zombie. So any discussion is prefaced by 'well, this kind of zombie will do this...'

1. If zombies attacked each other, they wouldn't be that much a threat would they? The survivors would just pull back until they finished ripping each other apart, then kill the remaining ones. In most cases it can be presumed that a zombie will have no reason to attack what it detects as another zombie. Depending on how this works, this could give survivors a way to sneak through a crowd if they're careful. See Shaun of the Dead.

2. Depends on what creates the zombie. Generally they seem to have their senses, but they either don't notice or aren't bothered by pain. Or at least their drive to kill makes them to ignore pain. A zombie that goes 'ouchie' and stops attacking when shot isn't much of a threat or much of a zombie, really.

3. George Romero may have made the first popular Zombie movie, but that doesn't make him the ultimate zombie authority. A reanimated dead body will have to deal with rigor mortis, while they are affected by it. I'm no doctor, but I had heard that rigor mortis only affects a body for a while. Of course, you could equally argue that whatever re-animates the body eliminates the effects of rigor mortis. Virus zombies (infected humans) wouldn't be affected by it, so it removes them from the question entirely.

4. A zombie master is more of a fantasy trope than a horror movie trope. If you have a single Big Bad causing the problems, then logically eliminated said Big Bad ends the problem. A horror zombie movie is more about the terror of dealing with a large, terrifying human-like mob of people you can't just deal with by destroying a couple of them.

5. Yes, you probably are. Does that matter?

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Perhaps being dead, they have the ability to sense life and thus are drawn to living things.

 

[Stalk3rchief]

I could take a few hours of my life and use it to lecture you on this subject, but I could also just show you

Spoiler: this.

[http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w151/Orchliet/?action=view&current=Zombiesurvivalguide.jpg]

 

[sharks9]

You know, since zombies don't actually exist, we really don't need to waste time debating about the characteristics of them, do we?

so we shouldn't discus games, movies or fiction books or anything else not real?
we should also stab our eyes out

 

[Canadamus Prime]

1-5)Who gives a shit? It's freaky and entertaining, what more do you need to know?
5)YES!

 

[Ares Tyr]

I could take a few hours of my life and use it to lecture you on this subject, but I could also just show you

Spoiler: this.

[http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w151/Orchliet/?action=view&current=Zombiesurvivalguide.jpg]

Thank you, God.

 

[Explosm]

If i were you i would stop studying the zombies before they eat your guts and wipe their asses with your face

EDIT; wiping asses with your face, braught an idea to me.. do zombeis shit?

 

[badgersprite]

I totally concur that zombies should attack each other when no other uninfected/living humans are around. But since zombies are generally used to represent some kind of massive scale mob mentality, I suppose that would undo the us-against-them thing.

 

[zombflux]

They attack each other in Left 4 Dead.

Instead of going down your list and proving everything you said wrong, I'd like to point out that zombies are the work of fiction and if they ever did come to reality that they likely would not follow the loose set of "rules" movies and games have set for them.

Everyone who makes a zombie movie/game puts their own twist on it and makes them what they want them to be.

 

[Echo_419]

This is just the way i think Zombies work.
I think Zombies should be fast or have full control over their body at the start but gradually decompose and slow down.
The reason why the don't attack each other is probably due to a digression in their upper brain function which makes them like Neanderthals which would probably make them 'hunt' by smell. Zombies would probably secrete an oder that other zombies pay no attention to.
an intolerance to touch and pain can be explained by the loss of higher brain functions or a degradation in the nervous system.

 

[Deleric]

1. Zombies want hot-blood, I believe. They can sense it from a mile away, and don't really notice anything else, such as their competition.

2. I think the zombie is only active on the lowest levels, maintaining only the functions needed to get what it's simpleminded brain wants.

3. The explanation for this could probably be explained if the cause of infection was explained, but most zombie flicks never really do explain it. Things like 28 days later (rage virus, RAGEEEE) and Zombieland (Mad human, mad zombie) work.

4. Good idea. Wish people would do that.

5. Nah.

42. And btw, each story featuring zombies has their own definition of the abilities and limits canon of zombies. They contradict eachother so much, but thing like the Zombie Survival Guide try to piece it together.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

1 and 4 I always thought of Zombies as just a slave to a hive mind. No simple thought for themselves but only host body for the zombie hive mind to control his pawns to feed his unending hunger.

Something like that

 

[Skullpanda]

wiping asses with your face, braught an idea to me.. do zombeis shit?

Conceptually, all they seem to do is consume and infect others. Digestion has ceased in the classic zombie. More than likely they'd just eat and swell up until they burst. The super-virus version? I dunno, maybe. It's pretty unlikely that they, you know, hold it. It probably just happens when and where it happens.

Oh god...that would be horrible. Not only are you being eaten alive, but the thing eating you is taking a dump on you while it does it. New worst way to die found.

 

[KnytFyre]

1) In the game Left 4 Dead, I have come across a couple of zombies attacking each other. In most other media examples, I would state that whatever is animating them excludes other zombies from being chosen as acceptable targets. If it's a Rage type virus as in 28 Days later, they are raging against those without the virus. If it's a night of the living dead type zombie, where they are eating their victims, then a desire for living, or freshly killed flesh would explain it. In the Xombie series (www.linkremovedbymod.com) the theory is put forward that zombies are mother natures way of resetting the planet. They destroy all life, then rot away. If that were the case, then they would be programed not to attack each other, as it would be anti-productive. Finally, if it's a "hell runneth over" situation, IE the new Dawn of the Dead, then it would make sense that those that were re-animated may harbor some resentment against those still living, this also works good for the comedy zombie flicks, Shawn of the Dead, and Zombieland.

2)Except in some very specific examples, I tend to see zombie "senses" as other worldly. In most zombie media, the zombies are not hindered by a lack of eyes or ears when it comes to tracking the living. So in those cases, the zombie sense would cover the necessary functions, such as sight and hearing, possibly at the expense of a potentially damaging sense such as pain. In George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead however, the zombies can be seen recoiling from fire, which would suggest they do feel pain. And again in Left 4 Dead, as you shoot members of the horde, they will slow and sometimes stumble, suggesting that they indeed feel pain. In fact, this observation made me believe the "zombies" in Left 4 Dead were not undead, but just infected. I know the game refers to them as infected, but it was ambiguous as to whether the infection had been lethal to it's recipients prior to the onset of zombiedom. However, the intro movie to Left 4 Dead 2 clearly has undead zombies in, who also seem unaffected by their lack of eyes or limbs.

3) I have to agree with another poster on this. George may be responsible for the bringing of the zombie into pop-culture, but that does not qualify him as the zombie omnibus. The zombie, like the vampire and werewolf and all folk / pop legends is subject to the creativity of the teller of the tale. Certain things seem be be universally accepted, while other issues are flexible. The concept of the slow moving, dumb, easily killed or tricked zombie worked fine in the 60s to terrify and audience. But we've had too much time to think about it. This is even broached in Tom Savini's remake of Night of the Living Dead, when Brenda realizes the house was the worst place to be, and the group would be able to easily walk out among the zombies and not even have to run. Once that realization is made, the only thing a slow moving dumb zombie can do, is gross us out. This being the situation, it is necessary for the zombie to become more threatening. As for the issue of rigor mortis, it is a temporary condition, and one the is fairly quickly passed. If a zombie were slow initially by rigor, it would eventually pass and the zombie would be able to move more quickly.

4) The zombie master met his unfortunate end much the same way the vampire lord did. It became way to simple of a conclussion to find the master, kill him, and restore the world to it's previous balance. When you look at zombies as a horde, only fixed on the extermination of all life, they become much more frightening and unstoppable.

5) Given the length of this reply, if you have, then where does that leave me.