The “Deadites” from Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films are a prime example of the first option, while the [REC] and Quarantine series zombies are examples of the second.
Note that with demonic zombies, sometimes most of the zombies aren’t very smart and act like regular virus zombies, while the ringleader zombie (often in the body of a defrocked priest or warlock) has telepathic command over them. Both Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead (1980) and The Beyond (1981) deal with demonic ringleader zombies opening the “gates of hell” that allow the demonic dead to rise.
In Messiah of Evil (1973), demonic zombies are created by a spiritual virus, curse, or other unseen supernatural force. In Stephen King’s Pet Sematary (1989), they are created by burying the dead in a cursed native burial ground; evil spirits (possibly related to the Wendigo) bring them back to life.
The last type of demonic zombie are the dried-out reanimated corpses of the devil-worshipping Knights Templar seen in Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972) and its three sequels. These undead knights are clad in robes and armor, wield swords, and rise from their graves to drink the blood of the living. Though they cannot speak, they can still think, and coordinate their attacks both on foot and horseback, riding skeletal war horses. They cannot see, hence their name (“The Blind Dead”), but rather rely on their keen sense of hearing to track victims.
The Blind Dead mix certain qualities of liches, mummies, revenants, skeletons, and vampires, so they are a bit hard to classify. I’ve included them here because they owe their unlife to a pact with the Devil.
SAMPLE DEMONIC ZOMBIES
Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)
Messiah of Evil (1973)
Return of the Blind Dead (1973)
The Ghost Galleon (1974, aka Horror of the Zombies)
Night of the Seagulls (1975, aka Night of the Death Cult)
The Beyond (1981)
The Evil Dead (1981 and 2013 remake)
City of the Living Dead (1983, aka The Gates of Hell)
Demons (1985)
Demons 2 (1986)
Evil Dead 2 (1987)
Flesheater (1988)
Night of the Demons (1988 and 2009 remake)
Pet Sematary (1989)
Army of Darkness (1992)
Pet Sematary 2 (1992)
Night of the Demons 2 (1994)
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Night of the Demons 3 (1997)
Versus (2000)
[REC] (2007)
Quarantine (2008)
[REC] 2 (2009)
Quarantine 2 (2011)
JeruZalem (2015)
Ash vs. Evil Dead (TV, 2015-2018)
PSYCHIC ZOMBIES
Psychic zombies are powered by a combination of telepathy and psychokinesis (aka telekinesis). A living psychic, a ghost, a demon, or some other energy being brings a corpse or severed body part back to “life” and uses it to gain revenge or complete some other objective. These parts can remain unattached or may have been transplanted onto another human. They often belonged to “mad stranglers” in life.
Variants may be powered by science or radiation, but regardless of origin, no psychic zombie is truly undead.
Films featuring psychic zombies are:
Mad Love (1933)
The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)
Hands of a Stranger (1962)
Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965)
And Now the Screaming Starts (1973)
The Severed Arm (1973)
Demonoid (1981)
The Hand (1981)
One Dark Night (1983)
Evil Dead 2 (1987)
Body Parts (1991)
Idle Hands (1999)
SCIENCE ZOMBIES
Science zombies can be the mindless kind or those that retain their intelligence (if not their souls). Some are true undead, others only appear that way. Those killed by science zombies stay dead.
In the science fiction films, Invisible Invaders and Plan 9 from Outer Space (both 1959), aliens use the bodies of the dead to attack humanity. The aliens in Invisible Invaders are energy beings that physically merge with corpses, wearing them like “meat suits” in order to interact with the physical world. Plan 9's aliens operate the zombies by remote control “radio waves” from their spaceship. Experimental sonic technology also bring the dead back to life in The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (1974, aka Let Sleeping Corpses Lie).
The 1973 TV movie, The Night Strangler, features a Civil War-era mad scientist creating an “elixir of life” from the spinal fluid of beautiful women. The elixir must be injected every 21 years, and has the effect of sustaining the scientist’s physical body (as well as giving it super-strength). If he does not receive another dose after 21 years, he begins to age and rot until he crumbles to dust.
Similar to The Night Strangler, undead mad scientist Dr. Freudstein sustains his nightmarish existence through alchemy and murder in Lucio Fulci’s House by the Cemetery (1981). The main difference between these two scientists is The Night Strangler appears human, while Dr. Freudstein is slimy, rotting, and full of maggots.
Depending on when they are revived by mad scientist Herbert West’s serum, the zombies in Re-Animator (1985) can be anything from violent morons to every bit as smart as they were when alive.
Another example of an intelligent zombie created (at least in part) by science is in David Wellington’s novel, Monster Island. A medical student in a viral zombie outbreak commits suicide, but takes every possible precaution to preserve his brain function. The experiment works! Although still a flesh-eating zombie, he has retained his personality, emotions, and memories, as well as a high degree of self-control around those tasty humans. He also gains the ability to command other zombies.
SAMPLE SCIENCE ZOMBIES
Invisible Invaders (1959)
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
The Night Strangler (TV, 1973)
The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (1974, aka Let Sleeping Corpses Lie)
Shock Waves (1977)
House by the Cemetery (1981)
VIRUS ZOMBIES
This zombie is the modern, flesh-eating kind. They are the means by which the zombie virus spreads itself, serving as mobile disease platforms. They infect others through biting, clawing, or transmission of bodily fluids. Once infected, a person develops a high fever, sickening and dying within a few days at most. Those who die as a result are reanimated by the virus. They get up (as best as they can, depending on their injuries), and begin wandering aimlessly until they locate food. That food is uninfected humans.
Zombie vision is poor, so they rely on their sense of hearing and smell to track prey. They never tire, so it’s impossible to outrun them. You can lose them (so long as you don’t run away in a straight line), or trick them into following something noisier or easier to catch. If you are trapped, zombies will try to break in to eat you. If they fail, they'll wait around for you to come out or easier prey to come along.
Zombies have a blank expression, an empty gaze, and show various signs of injury and decomposition depending on how they died and how long they have been dead. They walk with an awkward, shuffling gait that can sometimes (if they are fresh enough) become a short, clumsy run when food is nearby.
Some may use simple tools like rocks or sticks as bludgeoning weapons, or sharp objects like knives, especially if they died with them still clutched in their hands. A rare few who were trained in firearms may remember how to shoot, but not reload, nor will their aim be accurate. For an example, watch Day of the Dead (1985).
Generally, the zombie will retain one or two quirks of its former human self. Some may even attempt to do things they did in life, performing skills like drive a car or actions like go shopping at their favorite store. These may give the zombie character, but they don’t give it humanity, or true intelligence. They are “ghost behaviors,” leftover patterns and impulses that the zombie virus has not yet overwritten. On some level, the virus may eve
n encourage these behaviors if they help it find food.
In the initial stages of a zombie apocalypse, zombies will be fresh, and may not appear to be obviously dead. This, combined with no one knowing what a zombie is yet, makes it easy for the virus to spread.
A reanimated zombie initially appears confused, almost as if they are trapped in a dream, but this confusion quickly vanishes, replaced by hunger and aggression. New zombies may also experience flashes of recognition of the people they knew when they were alive; this can result in the zombie hesitating to attack those people (if they loved them). Presented with a choice between someone they loved and someone they didn’t, a “fresh” zombie will almost always choose to attack the person they did not know or love. Of course, various factors may prevent the zombie from selecting that person; these could be distance, difficulty, or the interference of the person they know.
Zombies are driven by hunger. They live to kill and kill to eat, infecting as many as they can along the way. Zombies can only be killed by destroying the brain, which is where the virus is centered. A zombie with its head cut off can still bite, a zombie with its legs blown off can still crawl. They keep coming. And they want to make you just like them. That’s what makes them scary.
The zombie virus may be man-made, or a natural or supernatural mutation, even a magical curse, but it’s origin isn’t important. In fact, it’s a terrible idea to explain why the dead are rising; no one has ever gotten it right and only looked stupid for trying. That’s not to say you can’t have characters in your story try to explain it, but only as conjecture. No definitive explanation should be given. Trust me, you can’t get clever here.
Whatever reason you have for why flesh-eating zombies exist, keep it to yourself. Your readers don’t care, and more than that, they don’t want to know. I’m telling you this as horror fan who has watched virtually every zombie movie ever made. The ones that try to explain it always suck. Instead, just let the zombie apocalypse happen. That’s the fun, that’s the fear: Not knowing why.
INTELLIGENT ZOMBIES
Intelligent fast zombies can be found in Return of the Living Dead (1985); they are created by a military nerve gas. They can talk and reason to a degree, but are in incredible pain, a pain that is only temporarily lessened by eating live human brains (or inflicting pain on themselves, as seen in Return of the Living Dead 3). Anyone killed by these zombies or exposed to the gas that created them becomes a zombie.
Another intelligent zombie, if not as fast or smart, is “Bub” from George Romero’s Day of the Dead (1985). Bub is a standard flesh-eating shambler, but one who has been “domesticated” by a mad scientist and taught to remember pieces of his old human life. As long as he is fed and treated kindly, Bub remains tame and loyal.
A third type of intelligent zombie exists: former zombies “cured” by science (or magic) and restored to life of one kind of another. This concept is explored in the BBC TV series, In the Flesh (2013-14), and the films The Returned (2004), Warm Bodies (2013), and The Cured (2017). What rights do formerly dead people have? Can they relapse into their former savage state?
Some newly risen zombies start off intelligent, but as the rot sets in, so does the savagery. Eventually, they become mindless killing machines. This is explored in My Boyfriend’s Back (1993), Boy Eats Girl (2005), and Life After Beth (2014).
Infected people losing their minds as they turn into zombies can be seen in Colin (2008), Contracted (2013) and its sequel, Contracted: Phase 2 (2015) and in the “New Year’s Day” episode of Fear Itself (TV, 2008). A comedy version of intelligent zombies can be seen in Deadheads (2011).
FAST VS. SLOW ZOMBIES
Personally, I favor classic, slow-moving zombies. When you try to make zombies “more extreme,” you’re just making it harder to suspend disbelief. How does a regular human die and come back to life as an undead track star?
The other problem with fast zombies is it ruins the fantasy. Many zombie fans want to at least pretend they have a chance to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. As soon as the zombies run faster then they can, their chances of survival go from slim to none. That may be “extreme,” but it’s not realistic.
One way around the believability issue of fast zombies is to substitute living maniacs created by a virus instead (see the chapter on Human Monsters for more on “Virus Maniacs” like those found in The Crazies and 28 Days Later).
SAMPLE VIRUS ZOMBIES
Night of the Living Dead (1968 and 1990 remake)
Dawn of the Dead (1978 and 2004 remake)
Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror (1981)
Hell of the Living Dead (1981, aka Night of the Zombies)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Night of the Creeps (1986)
Dead Heat (1988)
Return of the Living Dead 2 (1988)
Braindead (1992, aka Dead Alive)
My Boyfriend’s Back (1993)
Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)
Cemetery Man (1994, aka Dellamorte Dellamore)
Bio Zombie (1998)
Resident Evil series (2002-16)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Boy Eats Girl (2005)
Land of the Dead (2005)
Severed: Forest of the Dead (2005)
Fido (2006)
Diary of the Dead (2007)
Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane (2007)
Colin (2008)
Dead Set (TV miniseries, 2008)
Deadgirl (2008)
Fear Itself (TV, 2008, “New Year’s Day” episode)
Dead Air (2009)
Dead Snow (2009)
The Horde (2009)
Survival of the Dead (2009)
Zombieland (2009)
The Dead (2010)
Highschool of the Dead (Anime, 2010)
Juan of the Dead (2010)
Rammbock (2010, aka Berlin Undead)
Contracted (2013)
The Dead 2: India (2013)
The Walking Dead (TV, 2011-present)
The Battery (2012)
Warm Bodies (2013)
World War Z (2013)
Contracted: Phase 2 (2013)
In the Flesh (TV, 2013-14)
Life After Beth (2014)
Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014)
Extinction (2015)
Fear the Walking Dead (TV, 2015-present)
Maggie (2015)
The Rezort (2015)
Seoul Station (Anime, 2016)
Train to Busan (2016)
Cargo (2017)
The Night Eats the World (2018)
VOODOO ZOMBIES
Depending on if magic is real in your story, these can be true undead or else the result of being given a dose of tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin derived from puffer fish venom that causes the victim to appear dead. Before death can occur, however, the victim is given an antidote along with a dose of datura stramonium, a plant-based drug with strong hallucinogenic and alleged mind control properties. The victim is then convinced by the Voodoo bokor (wizard) that he is now not only dead, but a zombie, and his soul has been stolen by the bokor and will not be returned unless the zombie obeys his commands.
Voodoo zombies are used as slaves in Haiti, frequently on plantations either around the clock or as the “night crew,” so as not to upset those who work the fields by day. Zombies are created from those the priest hates or desires to control, or from those who won’t be missed so the bokor can profit by turning them into zombies.
Voodoo zombies are incredibly hard to kill; they don’t feel pain and will attempt to follow whatever the last order they were given until destroyed. Undead zombies are not immortal and will break down over time until they become useless. However, the bokor will get many years (often decades) of work out of them before this happens. If fed salt, Voodoo zombies must return to their graves peacefully and lay down to die; they cannot be reanimated again after this, as it also frees their souls from the
bokor’s bondage.
Zombies created by drugs are not undead and can be killed normally (though due to their drug-induced state, they ignore pain and keep coming until suffering crippling injury). They may be incapable of coherent speech or precise motion, and may or may not recognize the people they knew in life. They are emotionally flat, speaking slowly if at all. Their brains are hopelessly broken, their will shattered. They exhibit various symptoms of severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia or catatonia. They may not be able to do much of anything for themselves unless ordered to, and are prone to wandering away if left unsupervised.
SAMPLE VOODOO ZOMBIES
White Zombie (1932)
Black Moon (1936)
Ouanga (1936)
Revolt of the Zombies (1936)
King of the Zombies (1941)
I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Revenge of the Zombies (1943)
Voodoo Man (1944)
Zombies on Broadway (1945)
Voodoo Island (1957)
Voodoo Woman (1957)
Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)
Plague of the Zombies (1966)
I Eat Your Skin (1971)
Isle of the Snake People (1971)
Asylum (1972)
Sugar Hill (1974)
Zombie (1979, aka Zombi 2)
Dead and Buried (1981)
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
Voodoo (1995)
Ritual (2002)
VIRUS MANIACS
Similar to virus zombies, virus maniacs are living maniacs created by a virus, bioweapon, radiation, fungus, or other mind-altering property or substance, such as the modified strain of LSD ingested by drug test patients in Blue Sunshine (1977) or the linguistic “word virus” of Pontypool (2008).
Virus maniacs may or may not be able to spread their madness through bites and bodily fluids similar to zombies. Depending on the nature and stage of infection, virus maniacs may look perfectly healthy to obviously ill, all the way to horribly diseased and deformed. The effects of the virus may be permanent or may wear off over time or when certain conditions are met (injected with a vaccine, etc.).
Writing Apocalypse and Survival Page 7
