Apparently zombies were around in 1873......

[Trevor]

I've been re-reading Alistair MacLean's Breakheart Pass and at one point, he says:

.....he was gloomily attempting the impossible task of polishing a sadly cracked and chipped glass, his ultra-slow movements those of an arthritic zombie......

Yikes......... 

[Joe the Destroyer]

Arthritic zombies, eh?  Do they forsake slow moving humans and converge on a bottle of aspirin?

[Trevor]

Arthritic zombies, eh?  Do they forsake slow moving humans and converge on a bottle of aspirin?

 

[The Gravekeeper]

Well, it's nice to know that I can escape some zombies by simply standing at the top of a flight of stairs.

[Flick James]

Zombies are part of folklore. In the old days, zombies were reanimiated corpses, at first by supernatural means, and then, as science became more prevalent, by the stereotypical "mad scientist." They were isolated monsters, not widespread epidemics taking over the world. But the mad scientist creating a zombie was the transition between the supernaturally created zombie of folklore and the armies of zombies created by some manmade toxic substance or disease, or even extraterrestrial. I saw a really bad zombie flick once where the zombie disease came from a meteor.

George Romero's Night of the Living Dead created the modern day zombie genre, where hoards of zomies create an apocolypse. That was also the film that set the notion of zombies not being supernatural but the result of something manmade. The modern zombie is a metaphor for humanity trying to play God with science. Essentially, today's zombie genre is just Frankenstein on a global scale.

[Jim H]

It's more weird that the term ZOMBIE was used than that an animated walking corpse was around.  I don't believe the term was widely used in English until a good while into the 20th century.

[Mr_Vindictive]

It's more weird that the term ZOMBIE was used than that an animated walking corpse was around.  I don't believe the term was widely used in English until a good while into the 20th century.

I was actually just reading about this recently.  The idea of the Zombie, didn't reach our shores in it's somewhat-current form until the 1920s.  Before that, the "zombie" was known as a apparition, a harbinger of things to come.  It was an omen, anything strange or unsettling was known to be "zombie".  As America's interest in Haiti grew in the early 1900s, people began to truly explore the island.  Thats when the voodoo zombie mythos started for America.

[Flick James]

It's more weird that the term ZOMBIE was used than that an animated walking corpse was around.  I don't believe the term was widely used in English until a good while into the 20th century.

I was actually just reading about this recently.  The idea of the Zombie, didn't reach our shores in it's somewhat-current form until the 1920s.  Before that, the "zombie" was known as a apparition, a harbinger of things to come.  It was an omen, anything strange or unsettling was known to be "zombie".  As America's interest in Haiti grew in the early 1900s, people began to truly explore the island.  Thats when the voodoo zombie mythos started for America.

You know, you're right. I felt certain that zombies were a part of European. I wonder what creature I'm thinking of that I'm confusing zombies with.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

George Romero's Night of the Living Dead created the modern day zombie genre, where hoards of zomies create an apocolypse. That was also the film that set the notion of zombies not being supernatural but the result of something manmade. The modern zombie is a metaphor for humanity trying to play God with science. Essentially, today's zombie genre is just Frankenstein on a global scale.

Great point, mate

The older, pre-NOTLD films had zombies as slaves of a mad doctor, like in Creature With The Atom Brain or Face of Marble  and such.  Also, the old voodoo movies of the 30's and 40's portrayed them as servants of those who practiced black magic.

Also, both types of films were tied together by the fact that the zombies were used for revenge, or personal gain of their masters, or both.

Romero totally shattered these notions with his portrayal:  

They were man made, like their predecessors, but on a vastly different set of circumstances.  Also, they were uncontrollabale,  refused to submit to verbal
command, and capable of their own free movement.  And they were also capable
of their own acts of violence.  This set them greatly apart from the previous visions.

[Rev. Powell]

You know, you're right. I felt certain that zombies were a part of European. I wonder what creature I'm thinking of that I'm confusing zombies with.

Accountants?

[Sleepyskull]

I just found this on StumbleUpon a few minutes ago.