Zombies..How Should They Act?

[PoorLogic]

What does everyone think about zombies in movies? What I mean is, should zombies move at a crawling pace in “Dawn of the Dead� or have cat-like reflexes as found in “Nightmare City�? While it would be impossible to compare the two movies (Dawn of the Dead is classic, Nightmare City is pure Italian crap) – I think the actions of the zombies makes the movie more enjoyable. I prefer to see slow moving zombies, maybe because it gives a sense of chance – the ability to escape or even overtake the zombies.

What’s your favorite zombie movie? Does the way the zombies act effect why you like the film? Just wondering.

[Chadzilla]

Day of the Dead is my favorite zombie movie of all time.  I have always preferred the slow moving, mentally challenged zombies myself.  That seems somewhat more realistic, what with body rot and all.

[Steve.]

Definitely slow moving - plenty of time to aim for their heads. Favourite would have to be a tie between Braindead (for sheer gore-appeal) and of Romero's trilogy I would agree with Day Of The Dead. There's also a nifty little Hammer flick - Plague Of The Zombies.

[peter johnson]

Plague -- or is it "PLAQUE of the Zombies?(Gawd, talk about an image . . .eww. . )-- IS a nifty Hammer film.
I think the leprosy episode of The Simpsons sort of summed it up for me:  Zombies should be slow and menacing, sort of inexorably creeping forward 'til there's no place to run/no place to hide, and, as Homer put it:  "Open the door with your brains -- your nice, tasty brains! . . "
See also Vincent Price in "The Last Man on Earth", which inspired  a lot of "Day of/Dawn of" Dead imagry.  The more "civilized" vampire/zombies of the future in that flick could move quickly, but the slow, barbarian ones were far more creepy.

[peter johnson]

Plague -- or is it "PLAQUE of the Zombies?(Gawd, talk about an image . . .eww. . )-- IS a nifty Hammer film.
I think the leprosy episode of The Simpsons sort of summed it up for me:  Zombies should be slow and menacing, sort of inexorably creeping forward 'til there's no place to run/no place to hide, and, as Homer put it:  "Open the door with your brains -- your nice, tasty brains! . . "
See also Vincent Price in "The Last Man on Earth", which inspired  a lot of "Day of/Dawn of" Dead imagry.  The more "civilized" vampire/zombies of the future in that flick could move quickly, but the slow, barbarian ones were far more creepy.

[Mofo Rising]

I'm pretty much with peter on this one.  Slow moving and inexorable.  I'd also like when they're killed by a shot to the head.  All those murder simulators have made me a sucker for a good head shot.  Oh, and a taste for brains.  You gotta have the brains.

For sheer carnage I would have to go with the zombies from RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD.  No head shots, no slow movement, no mental retardation.  Arms move of their own accord, and burning them to ashes only spreads the poison.  Genius!

[StatCat]

I'm a huge fan of zombie films and pretty much anything zombie related. I run a newsgroup about zombies (only works with webtv) and I think this would be a good topic to post there because I'm curious of what my posters there would say. I have seen many zombie films over a hundred about from around the world and most of the time zombies are potrayed as the classic slow moving, mentally challenged creatures. 75% of the time it is this way, it's exceptions like city of the walking dead, return of the living dead, video dead etc that change that idea. Personally I like the classic slow moving and really decayed, flesh eating zombie myself (day of the dead, zombie, children shouldn't play with dead things, junk etc). Plague of the zombies which was mentioned in this thread a few times is the first film to feature decayed zombies. As for favorite zombie film I would say return of the living dead followed by day of the dead, zombie, re-animator, junk and a few others.

[Ferox]

I agree, Zombies should be shuffling, partially decayed corpses, with black expressions on their faces, if the face has not rotted away.  Flesh-or better, brain-devouring is always a plus.

[Chris]

I personally Night of Living Dead ,Dawn of The Dead,and Day of The Dead. I also like Return of The Living Dead 2. Other ones like Dead Alive, Video Dead and etc really sucks.