Zombie technicality

[Dr. Whom]

As zombies are dead, do the usual decomposition processes continue? If so, how long would it take before they fall apart?

[odinn7]

I have often wondered this myself. What really got me to thinking this was Land of the Dead...the zombies were beginning to think for themselves which to me means that they've been around long enough to start learning things. Exactly what kind of "life span" would dead, rotting flesh have? I can't picture it being all that long.

[Flangepart]

Thats why i have conceptual problims with the Zombie genre.
Werewolf ( Therewolf, there castle), Vampire, alien...those i can, kinda get behind for the sake of the story, and flow with it...unless the filmmakers bone the doggie, then its riffing time!

Realy.
A rotting corpse. a MOBILE rotting corpse...an EATING LIVE FLESH rotting corpse....
Anyone notice a pattern of illogic here?
See....a Vampire, to me is not UN-dead...he's ALIVE, but realy screwed up! An alien, well, what kinda biology does it have? What ever the story wants, i take it...
But a Zombie? By definition, it is either ( A ) A creature that only LOOKs like a rotting corpse, but is realy just a messed up new style of life form...or, (B), an oxymoron!

Ya know...i'd realy like to see a biology major try to explain a zombie form "life"form, like Richard Mathason rationalised the Vampire for "I am Legion."

[Neville]

I think the issue is studied in Romero's "Day of the dead". If memory doesn't betray me, the scientist of the group mentions that zombies don't have much of a life span, and that if mankind is able to hide during just a few years the problem will solve itself.

[plan9superfan]

The thing is, the zombies can't die, BECAUSE THEY ARE ALREADY DEAD!

Sure they will rot, but that won't kill them , it will just give them a funky smell and attract rats and cockroaches.

[Fearless Freep]

I remember reading a kid's book about monsters and such years ago and for zombies I think the explanation was that since it was magic (voodoo) that kept them animated the same magic kept them relatively cohesive

[Shadowphile]

In the Anita Blake books by Laurel K Hamilton, zombies can maintain their cohesion by eating raw meat.  Raw lamb yielded the best results.  Other than human flesh of course.  That was ideal.

[plan9superfan]

Do you think the zombies really care wether they eat sheep or people?

Come on! Unless we are talking about the "Land of the Dead" zombies, their brains are too rotten to distinguish between human and lamb flesh.

[Amanda]

I read something similar to what FF said, that once they become zombified, their bodies enter a state something like suspended animation.  They remain as they were when it happened.  

Land of the Dead - They have been dead for what, like 3 years by that time?  Most of them don't really appear to be decomposed, per se.  Damaged for sure, but not decomposing.

[Shadowphile]

The zombies of the Anita blake universe are intelligent and (for the most part) self-willed.  And not generally cannibalistic.  They are animated through a form of magic, however....

[LilCerberus]

In Night Of The Living Dead, it was established that zombies are flamable. Science has established that unembalmed corpses emit methane, and has speculated that this explains stories & legends of people seeing foo fighters around older cemetaries.

Now, it's my understanding that this doesn't occur with a corpse that's been embalmed with formaldahyde.

So, what I'm wandering now is, how would the emalming process, and this lack of methane effect a dead guy coming back? And I understand that part of the embalming process involves sewing their eyes shut and wiring their jaws shut, which I'd assume would make this whole people eating thing a little inconvenient.

Then again, I heard somewhere once that embalming is forbidden in Jewish funerals, and I think the legend of the Golem involves reanimating a corpse. So I suppose... HEY! DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!

Anyway, another item to ponder, is that if zombies are the living dead, and vampires are the undead, then what would happen if a zombie tried to eat a vampire, or vice versa?

Also, if  the Incredible Hulk was created by gamma radiation, and sunlight, which is lethal to vampires, also contains gamma rays, then what would happen if a vampire bit the Incredinle Hulk? Would the gamma radiation in the Hulk's blood kill it, or would it turn into a super vampire?

And another thing; Why did I have to turn my brain on for something so banal?

[AndyC]

The whole 'undead' idea always seemed rather sophisticated for legends started by peasants so many years ago. The idea that something is not dead, but not alive either -- that they get their 'life' through some other process. Of course, the processes in those legends were supernatural, rather than the kind of alternative biological processes a writer might think up today.

I suppose there is no way to say that the processes that keep a zombie 'alive' are any different than those that keep a vampire going, just that one is a bit more sophisticated creature with more abilities. Both are reanimated dead people, both generally sustain themselves through a form of cannibalism. In some stories, zombism (is that a word? I just made it up) is spread through bites. Perhaps zombies are just as immortal and resistant to further decay as vampires. Maybe they still have an immune system, or their alternative biology simply renders them inedible to the organisms of decay. It's an interesting question.

The thing that interests me about the movies in which zombies learn is that this implies not only a lack of decay, but that growth is taking place -- the brain is making new connections. These zombies might not rot. In fact, they might heal.

Personally, I prefer the zombies whose brains are more or less frozen in time, with only fragments of past memories that draw them to certain places and compel them to do certain things without any real understanding -- like the original Dawn of the Dead zombies that were a grotesque parody of modern life as they mindlessly wandered the mall or engaged in other activities.

[Fearless Freep]

what would happen if a zombie tried to eat a vampire, or vice versa?

You could always watch "Vampires Vs Zombies" to try to find out, but I suspect you will be disappointed

[The Conqueroo]

When I Was A Kid,They Taught Us In Sunday School That People Who Drank Beer;Smoked Cigarettes and Played Dominoes Would Not Enter The Kingdom of Heaven.If That's True,Then I've Been Hell Bound Since I Was Eight Years Old."-Willie Hugh Nelson,Country Singer.

[The Conqueroo]

Proof That Zombies Are Alive and Well:Former Vice President Al Gore;Senator/Former Presedential Candidate John Forbes Kerry;Vice President Dick Cheney.