Badmovies.org Forum

Hey all,
I'm in the early stages of making a zombie movie, but I have to admit my big zombie binge was a couple of years back and I've forgotten one important detail.
Brains. What do you all think is the canonical position of zombie flicks regarding this matter?
In some (most?), zombies eat brains, thats kinda their whole raison d'etre, it seems to me
In others (most?), zombies are killed only by destroying the brain, therefore they can't have originally been victims of brain consumption
In yet others (again, most?), zombies eat brains, people become zombies by having their brains eaten, but zombies are also killed by destroying the brain, either because the director didn't realise the inconsistency, or hoped the audience wouldn't. I know ive seen more than one movie where a guy who got his head nicely mauled in during one scene, came back in the next as a zombie suffering only from secretion of an excess of greasepaint and red food dye
Is there any scenario (excuse) for allowing all of this simultaneously without the huge logic hole, that someones seen in another film?
Or do i have to bite the bullet and take my pick?
And which does everyone prefer?
Thanks in advance

The only zombie movie I can think of where they are exclusively after the brain is Return of the Living Dead.  It's been awhile since I've seen the sequel, but I don't think the zombies were after brains in it.

In most zombie films, the zombie is just out to eat a person, period.  People become zombies either from infection, or just because when you die, you come back as a zombie.

One of my favorite explanations is from Day of the Dead
check it out and refresh your memory a bit
(it's a great flick anyway!)

here's a thought: you could even come up with your own explaination of the zombie phenoma, i'd always like to see new twists on things...

what ever you decide GOOD LUCK!!
and have fun!!

I'm of the old school--the only way the brain figures into things is that you have to destroy the brain to destroy the zombie.  Also, zombies should be really slow ones of the Romero type, and should eat all parts of the body.  I like the Return of the LIving Dead movies [except the second one] but they kind of got rid of everything that makes zombies cool in the first place--the idea that one by itself isn't a really big deal, but eventually, the living end up being outnumbered by the mindless dead.  One of the "new wave" zombies in the newer movies could take out an entire group of people because they were too fast and too hard to kill!  It's sort of like making a vampire movie where the vampires can walk around in the sun and can't be harmed by stakes or holy water.

Of course, if "old school" is only thirty-something years old, then we're not really dealing with a set-in-stone mythology like European vampires (which, admittedly, aren't that set in stone anyway).

I'd say, make your zombies whatever the plot requires.  Want them destroyed by a headshot?  Go for it.  Want them only destroyed by fire?  Okey-dokey.  Want them to eat flesh?  To eat brains?  To worship brains (that's from The Dead Pit, but it's hard to notice in the domestically-released R-rated cut)?  To just be p**sed off at the living (The Dead Hate the Living)?  Zombies are pretty flexible, despite being stiffs.  (Ha!  Ha!)

Nathan

Actually, it sounds like you have the various zombie myths mixed up.

 In Romero's Dead movies (Night of/Dawn of/Day of), the zombies would eat any part of a person they could get their teeth into, not just brains and they could only be killed by destroying the brain. People could be turned into zombies by being bitten by them, making it sort of a disease. In Day of the Dead, it was also shown that amputating the limb that was bitten could save the person if it was done before the infection had a chance to reach the rest of the body.

 In the Return of the Living Dead films (3 so far with a fourth one being made), the zombies only ate brains, and couldn't be killed by hitting them in the head. The only way to kill them was to cremate them (but then the smoke could create more zombies) or by electricity (this was introduced in the second one, but apparently ignored in the third). Live people were only made into zombies by being exposed to the gas that created the original  zombies. Smoke from burning ones might have had the same effect, but it was only ever shown bringing bodies that were already dead back to life.

 I'm not sure that there have been anough other zombie movies to really establish a set of rules like the two series above. Most movies are just isolated, stand alone movies.

 Of course since zombies are much lesser known than vampires or werewolves, you're pretty much free to make up your own rules.

Generally speaking most zombie films if they involve gore use flesheating zombies that attack pretty much any living person and move slow. Return of the living dead is the only film I can think of where zombies are after brains and I've seen my share of zombie films from all around the world. Just don't make movies like Todd Sheet's is my only suggestion. He makes zero budget shot on video productions and I think the only film of his I ever partially liked was zombie bloodbath 2 and that is even severly flawed.

Oh yeah, I'm certainly not saying that zombie movies should only be one certain way, I'm just talking about what I would prefer to see.  It's just a guess, but I think the "traditional" Romero style probably lends itself a little more to low-budget filmmaking.  

I'll give almost any zombie movie a chance.....

How about a movie about a planet full of zombies....shuffeling,slow,crude looking. But, they have a civilisation. Then from out of the night, a creature appears. Fast moveing, aggressive, and it smashes in zombie heads. Some zombies are trapped in an abandoned house, surrounded by this fast growing heard of smooth skinned "freaks". And the zombies find out the only way to defeat these frightening newcomers, is to bite them. Which turns the zombie killing menace into pink fuzzy bunnys. Zombie planet is saved! Till the fuzzy pink bunny people learn how to opperate an uzi. Okey, okey.....at least it has the benifit of never haveing been done!

Maybe not with bunny-people, but how about an entire film just about zombies? I mean, in most movies the zombies only show up to attack people, why not show what they do when they're NOT attacking people?

Romero already covered some of that [they stumble around shopping malls and other places they went to in life], but no reason not to do it again!

Well, that's one take on it, but there's always room for a different version. Maybe zombie families, zombies out hunting for food, zombie town meetings etc.

 I have two anthology books (Book of the Dead, Book of the Dead II, Still Dead) devoted to just zombie stories, and the stories vary greatly in how they treat them. Some are of the Romero type, while others talk and act like living people, except for the craving for human flesh. One is written entirely from the point of view of an extermination squad, except that in the end, you find out that they're all dead and their job is to kill the living.

Yeah, I have those books too.  Of course, in fiction you're not limited by budget constraints, and you don't have to worry so much about whether people will be interested in your subject matter.  I don't think most people would want to watch a feature-length movie of zombies just hanging out.  It would be like watching a movie with porn stars sitting around eating breakfast or watching TV.