Non-Humans R Us Newsletters

Zombies

Since October 1, 1968, zombies have crawled out of the grave, and into our imaginations. These creatures come back to life, with a hunger for human flesh. Only way to stop them, destroy the brain.

Now, while these creatures have been popular for the last 45+ years, with most zombie films and books having been made since September 2001, every culture has a story about zombie-like creatures. We all know that eventually we will die- but collectively, our greatest fear is the dead coming back to life. Many of our funerary practices show this- putting people in coffins, which are then put into vaults, and put six feet under the earth, or burning the body to ashes. In either case, it makes it difficult for the body to rise up, and attack the living.

Now, depending of the story, the initial cause is the result of one of several things; a curse of some sort- such as the dead being improperly buried, or the use of magic, Devine Punishment- either Satan or God unleashes their wrath, Genetic Science gone wrong- you can take your pick there, though the terrorist/criminal angle is a common one, or the reason is Unknown. For the most part though, that doesn’t matter- though it can make things interesting. What is common though, and is highly important, is that the condition is mainly spread through bites from the infected, though scratches, bodily fluids, and a few other ways are possible methods of transmission. In some cases, death resulting from causes other than brain damage- that is, anything other than being shot between the eyes, or smashing the skull in, can result in the corpse coming back to attack the living.

As to destroying them, the golden rule is to destroy the brain- a bullet between the eyes tends to do the job. Failing that, you can use a blunt weapon, such as a crowbar, to smash the skull, or a bladed weapon, such as a machete, to cut it off. Of course, not all weapons are equally effective. A cop’s nightstick might last a hundred encounters, but, due to its design, it’s unable to kill many zombies. A 20lb sledgehammer is more than capable of killing plenty of zombies, but your average person is unable to use it for long. A crowbar, on the other hand, is lightweight, strong, more than capable of smashing a zombie’s skull in, and can be used for other things.

For obvious reasons, a story with zombies in it will be a horror-type. However, a zombie story can cross over into other genres. In Ghosts of Mars, a sci-fi movie, Human colonists become possessed by Martian spirits, and attack unpossessed humans- in it, a cop is forced to team up with her prisoner, a convicted thief, and suspected murderer, in order for the pair to survive. In Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, a Western-type game, an ex-bounty hunter searches for a cure when his wife and son become infected, all because of one man’s greed for immortality. In Warcraft 3, and its expansion, a set of fantasy games, one of the factions is the Undead Scourge- it and the groups that splinter off of it are comprised of zombie-type creatures and possessive spirits. However, in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, the zombies are actually the good guys, who are trying to protect the gang from evil werecats. Also, in Dearly, Departed, a steampunk/romance novel written by an author who lives fairly close to my own self, an undead soldier protects a young lady of the living gentry class, and the pair slowly fall in love.

As it is, there are pseudo-zombie type movies. In Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, a small group of soldiers have to fend off comrades who have been infested by a new type of Bug, in order to prevent a plan to infest Federation Command. Then there’s Stake Land where a virus that turns people into vampire-like creatures has taken over the world, and isolated survivors have to make a living- It’s about a nameless Hunter who has taken a young boy under his wing, and trains him to fight the vamps. Along the way, they meet up with a nun, an ex-marine, and a pregnant woman and all of them run afoul of this cult that thinks the vamps are a means to Salvation.

For this most part, zombies are depicted as mindless creatures, which will eat any living thing that comes within reach. They have no thoughts about self-preservation, and will destroy themselves in an attempt to get a meal. In some ways they can be described as the perfect warrior. One could shot them, stab them, set them on fire, and still they won’t stop. Their only weakness is their brains- destroy, or severely damage them, and the zombie will die permanently- though a beheading will stop the body from moving, though the head will continue biting.

However, zombies can occasionally be the good guys. In Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, the gang heads out to a place that is rumored to be haunted by ghost pirates. They find out several things, in that the stories are true, but more importantly, that the zombies were victims trying to stop the plans of those who had killed them, a group of werecats who lured people to the island to drain their lives. Other stories have zombies that risk their undead lives in order to protect ones they had once loved, such as in the remake of Day of the Dead, where zombified Bub gives his undead life to protect the lives of those he cared for from other zombies.

As you can see, zombies can be interesting characters- providing that one knows their strengths and weaknesses. I hope this helps you on your quest as you learn more about creatures from the realms of Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Horror/Scary.