Where Do All The Zombies Come From?

[MistWolf]

In stories like The Walking Dead, living humans are rapidly diminishing and the hordes of undead zombies are ever increasing. At first glance, it makes sense- as more of the living die, they add to the burgeoning population of the FSA- I mean zombies. With each person dying, that's the birth (or would that be "unbirth"?) of another undead brain eater until they take over the Earth. But let's take a second glance-

There are several billion living human beings on this planet and that number is increasing every day. But some Zompocalypse comes along and a virus, or other bizarre McGuffin, rapidly turns a large segment of the populace into undead creatures determined to eat your face and infect your neighbors with the same malady. It starts off innocuously enough, first it's the Joneses down the street, then the Smiths next door- just enough to start a panic buy of ARs, ammo, collapse the government, utterly dismantle the best trained and equipped military in the world (obviously punishment by kharma for siding with the arrogant and inept doctors of the CDC and the minions of the duplicitous FEMA- see? Zombie stories are actually morality tales disguised as Horror/Action!), turn the rest of the neighbors into baby eating barbarians and send the Plucky Survivors to running for the hills. With each episode, the number of zombies continues to grow, turning up the tension by becoming an overwhelming threat to the diminishing numbers of the living.

Yeah well, it doesn't work that way. The irony is, the war of attrition favors the living. As more and more of the living get turned into zombies, the smaller the pool of manpower the zombie army has to recruit from. The result? Fewer replacements and the Zombie Horde starts getting smaller. At the rate Rick and his crew kill zombies in each episode of The Walking Dead, I figure they should be tipping the balance in the next couple of seasons and then that will be that.

So, where do all the zombies come from? Is it possible that the birthrate of the living is enough on the rebound to continue supplying the zombie hordes with needed replacements? But that would mean the human population was growing in numbers as well. To survive, zombies would have to learn to adapt to our society. They would register as Democrats and start having "Zombie UnDeath Matters" rallies and that would make it just another reality show

[Firefly]

This was ALL covered in the Romero documentaries as well as some periphery documentaries (Walking Dead most certainly does NOT count as it is a Soap Opera)

SPOILERS



In Night of the Living Dead, humanity was actually winning. The military was responding most ricky tick. Police and Posses were forming. We only saw through the vantage point of people stuck in a rural house. Everybody else, according to the guy on the news, was mobilizing and arming.

At the end, what comes by? A search and destroy team of police and armed militia. Had everyone not gotten in a pissing contest and simply waited....they would've been saved.


Okay....Dawn of the Dead, what is holding people back is distrust of the authorities. People are breaking down, the military and police are tasked with zombie detail on top of law enforcement. People start deserting. Nobody is wanting to accept that their folks are turning. Usually the lower class, uneducated ghetto breeders. Then the gangs start rising and looting.

Like Katrina or Ferguson. The priest says "When the dead walk, we must stop the killing or lose the war"

Flash Forward to Day of the Dead. There are a few military enclaves. No communication. Extreme measures have been taken as alluded to in Return of the Living Dead and Highschool of the Dead(Nuclear Contingencies). The guys in the bunker may well be the last people alive and STILL can't get along.

Ultimately.....zombies exist because people can't get along. Anarchy would prevail. People would be settling scores. There would be no order.

And the people smart enough to hole up would get besieged by raiders.

Look at the ME, Christians running en masse to keep from getting beheaded. A factionalized collective of armed cultists. And....not 25 years ago these same people helped get Iraq out of Kuwait.

Zombies aren't the problem, never were. It's just people not willing to deal with it. Like Katrina, a mayor of a large city crying about not being able to deal with it. Looting. Refugees who then turned rogue. Them Louisiana SOBs came to GA and were committing fraud and burglary left and right.

Actually if you want to see Night of the Living Dead 1.5 AKA The Crazies (the ORIGINAL) it details that even though people are trying to contain the outbreak; people are still just losing their damn minds and being stupid.
It even addresses martial law and disarmament.

What made these documentaries great was that it really wasn't the zombies. That's not a problem. It was ignorant people in large groups

[BBossman]

The "Zombie Apocalypse", when it comes, will be caused by the damn near pathological use of hand sanitizer, spray disinfectants and antibiotics...

[ColtSeavers]

Years ago, I realized that zombie apocolypses are real. Masses of humans that were once people but are now a horde of mindless 'zombies' due to something happening have been happening throughout human history and now the reason(s) for their uprising are actually pretty much the same surprisingly. Percieved slight. Unfortunately, unlike the movie zombies, the real ones are alive and breeding, supplying their own human resupply.

On topic, fictional zombies always seem to work too fast for my taste. Not in actual physical speed (though there is some fiction out there giving them superhuman speed/reflexes for some reason) but pathogan/chemical transformation. Also, the coming back to 'life' part always requires an extra suspension of disbelief from me.

However, I do actually like the rabies angle played by some of the fiction out there, as it does fit very well into both my personal fictional constraints as well as actual (mostly?) valid medical explananations.

[Averageman]

Years ago, I realized that zombie apocolypses are real. Masses of humans that were once people but are now a horde of mindless 'zombies' due to something happening have been happening throughout human history and now the reason(s) for their uprising are actually pretty much the same surprisingly. Percieved slight. Unfortunately, unlike the movie zombies, the real ones are alive and breeding, supplying their own human resupply.

On topic, fictional zombies always seem to work too fast for my taste. Not in actual physical speed (though there is some fiction out there giving them superhuman speed/reflexes for some reason) but pathogan/chemical transformation. Also, the coming back to 'life' part always requires an extra suspension of disbelief from me.

However, I do actually like the rabies angle played by some of the fiction out there, as it does fit very well into both my personal fictional constraints as well as actual (mostly?) valid medical explananations.

I like this post.
As far as fictional Zombies go, I always thought the transformation should perhaps have a longer incubation period. Something more like Ebola which goes from 2 to 21 days, this would make the story line a little more believable and explain how the Zombies move in to the General Population.
I think if you look at the physical capabilities of a Zombies you could and perhaps should tweak the virus's effects a bit. Not perhaps undead, but more highly infected subhuman and animal like. More "I am legend" like.
"28 Days later" and "28 Weeks" had a better brand of physical capabilities. No brain no pain, would be the effect, not a super running or super jumping type thing as in "I am legend." Think about how fast you could run if you had no pain centers left to limit you? That's what I'm looking for.
I would guess you could sum this up as much less body rot and much more of a slow frontal lobe rot in to animal behavior.
If you consider the response to Ebola in Dallas as an example then turn up the volume as the un timeline predictable virus and its effects take place and add in that this would be more easily transmittable and doesn't require a bite, but an exchange of contaminated body fluids.
So you have a slow to degrade, highly infectious former human that still requires food, sleep and clothing /shelter vs the rest of us. So although they have lost their mental faculties they have slightly superior physical capabilities and a desire for live flesh. They don't rot fast, they can bleed out from a body shot and they can be killed by the elements.
The idea of a bio hazard, infectious disease and the ongoing response to such an event would be a great story unto itself.
Somewhat more fun than your average Zombie.

As for the Zombies among us today, it is simply the removal of risk vs reward and the nanny state pushing forward what Darwin's theory should have removed. Thanks you Socialist Progressives.

[ColtSeavers]

I like this post.
As far as fictional Zombies go, I always thought the transformation should perhaps have a longer incubation period. Something more like Ebola which goes from 2 to 21 days, this would make the story line a little more believable and explain how the Zombies move in to the General Population.
I think if you look at the physical capabilities of a Zombies you could and perhaps should tweak the virus's effects a bit. Not perhaps undead, but more highly infected subhuman and animal like. More "I am legend" like.
"28 Days later" and "28 Weeks" had a better brand of physical capabilities. No brain no pain, would be the effect, not a super running or super jumping type thing as in "I am legend." Think about how fast you could run if you had no pain centers left to limit you? That's what I'm looking for.
I would guess you could sum this up as much less body rot and much more of a slow frontal lobe rot in to animal behavior.
If you consider the response to Ebola in Dallas as an example then turn up the volume as the un timeline predictable virus and its effects take place and add in that this would be more easily transmittable and doesn't require a bite, but an exchange of contaminated body fluids.
So you have a slow to degrade, highly infectious former human that still requires food, sleep and clothing /shelter vs the rest of us. So although they have lost their mental faculties they have slightly superior physical capabilities and a desire for live flesh. They don't rot fast, they can bleed out from a body shot and they can be killed by the elements.
The idea of a bio hazard, infectious disease and the ongoing response to such an event would be a great story unto itself.
Somewhat more fun than your average Zombie.

As for the Zombies among us today, it is simply the removal of risk vs reward and the nanny state pushing forward what Darwin's theory should have removed. Thanks you Socialist Progressives.

I like your post as well.

Something more mutagenic and/or more 'robust' (like that brain eating amoeba in Texas, rabies and as you mentioned, ebola) and transmittable (exchange of fluids, even sneezing). Can't 'kill it' conventionally (boil water and such), modern medicine is at a loss. Something that degrades one to the midbrain/primal cortex/brain stem functions, but also not within 15 seconds or a couple of hours.

[Averageman]

I like your post as well.

Something more mutagenic and/or more 'robust' (like that brain eating amoeba in Texas, rabies and as you mentioned, ebola) and transmittable (exchange of fluids, even sneezing). Can't 'kill it' conventionally (boil water and such), modern medicine is at a loss. Something that degrades one to the midbrain/primal cortex/brain stem functions, but also not within 15 seconds or a couple of hours.

With a slow development there would be some sort of self realization that you were infected. The circuit breakers cut on and off until a complete shut down to an animal like state.
I think it has a lot more potential to be a better story, more facets and issues to deal with on all levels.
A slow fade to the reptilian brain, The body fighting it, the brain fading then becoming clear again.
Sounds like a much better story line and lots of potential.

[ColtSeavers]

With a slow development there would be some sort of self realization that you were infected. The circuit breakers cut on and off until a complete shut down to an animal like state.
I think it has a lot more potential to be a better story, more facets and issues to deal with on all levels.
A slow fade to the reptilian brain, The body fighting it, the brain fading then becoming clear again.
Sounds like a much better story line and lots of potential.

I agree.

I am also actually OK with 'zombies' feeling pain. As they degrade in mental capability, they revert to a more primal approach to it, which is to lash out violently, as even we still do today. Like the Hulk, Frankenstein or even Mongo, instead of recoiling away from pain and trying to protect/think things through and only sometimes (or often depending on upbringing and behavioral psychology) lashing out in anger (I still choose to teach inanimate objects who's Boss sometimes), the 'zombies' always lash out violently. This also helps spread the pathogen/chemical/whatever and ties into the 'feel no pain', 'superhuman' as well as 'CNS hit necessary' as they get extremely violent and begin to attack whatever/whoever causes pain like a juiced up druggy.

[MountainRaven]

Zombie movies used to always be about mass hysteria, about society drowning the rugged individual, &c.

What I want to see is a zombie movie where we never see the zombies. You hear about them and you watch society collapse as it tears itself apart. And then, in the end, it's revealed that there are no zombies and there never were. It was simply mass hysteria built on the biggest hoax in history.

And let's be frank, the most frightening thing about a zombie apocalypse aren't the zombies: It's the collapse of civilization, the regression of non-zombie human beings into a more base creature as the surviving human beings turn into monsters. Presenting our civilization in such a light where it is so weak that there is no pandemic, no monster storm, no nuclear holocaust, no EMP or solar storm knocking out electronics, but simply human imagination run amok to bring it down? That, to me, would be a more frightening possibility.

[ColtSeavers]

Zombie movies used to always be about mass hysteria, about society drowning the rugged individual, &c.

What I want to see is a zombie movie where we never see the zombies. You hear about them and you watch society collapse as it tears itself apart. And then, in the end, it's revealed that there are no zombies and there never were. It was simply mass hysteria built on the biggest hoax in history.

And let's be frank, the most frightening thing about a zombie apocalypse aren't the zombies: It's the collapse of civilization, the regression of non-zombie human beings into a more base creature as the surviving human beings turn into monsters. Presenting our civilization in such a light where it is so weak that there is no pandemic, no monster storm, no nuclear holocaust, no EMP or solar storm knocking out electronics, but simply human imagination run amok to bring it down? That, to me, would be a more frightening possibility.

I was under the impression that this is what Fear the Walking Dead was supposed to be, before actually watching it and they completely glossed over the the slow decay of civilization and it turned into Fear the West Coast Walking Dead.

[lowprone]

So far it looks like Syria.

[Moose-Knuckle]

As far as fictional Zombies go, I always thought the transformation should perhaps have a longer incubation period. Something more like Ebola which goes from 2 to 21 days, this would make the story line a little more believable and explain how the Zombies move in to the General Population.

Have you seen . . .


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ5Vz8qE8R8

[Averageman]

Well that looks like a good movie.

[ColtSeavers]

Damn, that does look good. Need to start getting babysitters to be able to go to the movies more often, still crap we've not seen from 2014...

[Clint]

So, where do all the zombies come from? Is it possible that the birthrate of the living is enough on the rebound to continue supplying the zombie hordes with needed replacements? But that would mean the human population was growing in numbers as well. To survive, zombies would have to learn to adapt to our society.

The answer is simple enough.

Like Oil Field production rates, Zombie production follows a bell shaped curve where production rises to a peak and then declines.

See Peak Oil (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil)

In the show examples given, they just haven't reached "peak zombie" yet.

[Moose-Knuckle]

Damn, that does look good. Need to start getting babysitters to be able to go to the movies more often, still crap we've not seen from 2014...

Pro tip, I go see movies at the theater on week nights and catch the last showing, typically 10:00-11:00pm, that way my kiddo is asleep and I have the theater to myself! My wife is cool with it as she goes to bed right after our baby.

I've used this method to go see; Mad Max: Fury Road, Spectre, Star Wars: TWA, and The Renevant. Certain movies I just have to watch on the big screen.

[jpmuscle]

Damn, that does look good. Need to start getting babysitters to be able to go to the movies more often, still crap we've not seen from 2014...
Amazon firestick with the Kodi hack. No need for theaters. You'll thank me later.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

[Spiffums]

In stories like The Walking Dead, living humans are rapidly diminishing and the hordes of undead zombies are ever increasing. At first glance, it makes sense- as more of the living die, they add to the burgeoning population of the FSA- I mean zombies. With each person dying, that's the birth (or would that be "unbirth"?) of another undead brain eater until they take over the Earth. But let's take a second glance-

There are several billion living human beings on this planet and that number is increasing every day. But some Zompocalypse comes along and a virus, or other bizarre McGuffin, rapidly turns a large segment of the populace into undead creatures determined to eat your face and infect your neighbors with the same malady. It starts off innocuously enough, first it's the Joneses down the street, then the Smiths next door- just enough to start a panic buy of ARs, ammo, collapse the government, utterly dismantle the best trained and equipped military in the world (obviously punishment by kharma for siding with the arrogant and inept doctors of the CDC and the minions of the duplicitous FEMA- see? Zombie stories are actually morality tales disguised as Horror/Action!), turn the rest of the neighbors into baby eating barbarians and send the Plucky Survivors to running for the hills. With each episode, the number of zombies continues to grow, turning up the tension by becoming an overwhelming threat to the diminishing numbers of the living.

Yeah well, it doesn't work that way. The irony is, the war of attrition favors the living. As more and more of the living get turned into zombies, the smaller the pool of manpower the zombie army has to recruit from. The result? Fewer replacements and the Zombie Horde starts getting smaller. At the rate Rick and his crew kill zombies in each episode of The Walking Dead, I figure they should be tipping the balance in the next couple of seasons and then that will be that.

So, where do all the zombies come from? Is it possible that the birthrate of the living is enough on the rebound to continue supplying the zombie hordes with needed replacements? But that would mean the human population was growing in numbers as well. To survive, zombies would have to learn to adapt to our society. They would register as Democrats and start having "Zombie UnDeath Matters" rallies and that would make it just another reality show

Max Brooks offers an explanation in his books but generally its the whole "We don't know" and adds to the horror. How do you cure something that you don't know anything about?

As to why .Mil and LEO doesn't come out on top is they are trained to fight humans not the walking dead. Just look at how long it takes most movies to get to the part about only head shots work.

[uffdaphil]

The most interesting question to me is why now the upsurge in zombie and post-apocalyptic themes in movies, books and games. I believe it is our collective unconscious recognizing the logical result of wealth redistribution via the quickly expanding social-welfare state. The takers in the near future exceeding the carrying capacity of the of the makers. Hordes of those unable to care for themselves swarming about trying in a most inefficient manner to take what was previously given. No science fiction virus required.

On the plus side their easiest prey will be the anti-gun, progs who originated and enabled the remora class. Survivors will do a rapid 180 in worldview.

[nova3930]

The biggest problem with all zombies, whether it's in books, movies or TV, is that there's no learning curve with zombies.

With live human beings, they react and adapt to what you're doing so it's constant cat and mouse game.

Zombies are dumb, once you find a way to kill them en masse they're done. That's why I always think our .mil would nip zombies in the bud long before it became an apocalypse. Our guys doing the work of breaking shit and killing things are damn good at adapting on the fly.

Honestly I'd like to think it would only take them a few minutes to realize that zombies can't chew through DU armor and an Abrams makes a mighty fine zombie mashing machine..... ;)

[MountainRaven]

Max Brooks offers an explanation in his books but generally its the whole "We don't know" and adds to the horror. How do you cure something that you don't know anything about?

As to why .Mil and LEO doesn't come out on top is they are trained to fight humans not the walking dead. Just look at how long it takes most movies to get to the part about only head shots work.

.mil and LEO don't come out on top because it wouldn't serve the purposes of the story if they did.

And when they are, they're usually cruel, ruthless, heartless authoritarian bastards - because it serves the purposes of the story. (See: The Last of Us, 28 Days Later.)


The most interesting question to me is why now the upsurge in zombie and post-apocalyptic themes in movies, books and games. I believe it is our collective unconscious recognizing the logical result of wealth redistribution via the quickly expanding social-welfare state. The takers in the near future exceeding the carrying capacity of the of the makers. Hordes of those unable to care for themselves swarming about trying in a most inefficient manner to take what was previously given. No science fiction virus required.

On the plus side their easiest prey will be the anti-gun, progs who originated and enabled the remora class. Survivors will do a rapid 180 in worldview.

The anti-gun progressives who originated and enabled the remora class, as you put it, will be safely ensconced in their fortified compounds far from where any of this is happening and will use such events to drive further disarmament efforts. And the police and military will back them up because they'll be sick of dealing with armed "zombies" - and if you're not a cop or a soldier and you have a gun, you'll be just another "zombie" as far as they're concerned.


The biggest problem with all zombies, whether it's in books, movies or TV, is that there's no learning curve with zombies.

With live human beings, they react and adapt to what you're doing so it's constant cat and mouse game.

Zombies are dumb, once you find a way to kill them en masse they're done. That's why I always think our .mil would nip zombies in the bud long before it became an apocalypse. Our guys doing the work of breaking shit and killing things are damn good at adapting on the fly.

Honestly I'd like to think it would only take them a few minutes to realize that zombies can't chew through DU armor and an Abrams makes a mighty fine zombie mashing machine..... ;)

Generally speaking, small well-organized, heavily armed groups have historically done very well against much larger groups that are not very well organized and poorly armed - and zombies would be completely unorganized and unarmed (well, they have teeth and nails, but they don't have an equivalent to, say, basic small arms).

But, again, nobody seems to want to remake Zulu but with modern day pipe hitters (or an isolated infantry company) instead of 19th Century Redcoats and unarmed, undisciplined, unorganized zombies instead of the lightly armed but well-organized and disciplined titular Zulus. (And while that would be exciting as hell in real life, it would likely make for a very boring movie.)

ETA: The set-up for such a movie might be interesting.

The setting: Chiefly, an isolated camp in Africa, where US and allied forces train local security forces.

Amidst rumors of mass hysteria in the host nation, the camp receives orders to mobilize - but the orders are cut off mid-transmission by a solar storm. They dig in. Later that day, a battered band of local security forces pass through wide-eyed, some of them babbling incoherently about the walking dead, zombies, and they're headed this way....

Some of the local security forces desert the base to return home, worried about their families, but some stay.

As darkness falls, the shambling van of the zombie horde approaches the base. Confusion and disquiet sets in as the slow-moving group of disheveled zombies approach the base. They're unarmed... they ignore orders in English and the native language to stop and turn around. Some among the base's defenders think the people to be refugees. No one opens fire, until one of the zombies gets close enough to lunge into an attack. A close-range firefight breaks out as the base's defenders open fire on the zombies at point blank range and the few zombies are quickly defeated.

All night, machine guns and snipers open up intermittently as small bands of zombies come close enough to be seen through NODs.

The sun rises the next morning, revealing the killing fields of dead zombies. Snipers and marksmen snap off a few rounds at solitary zombies as the base's commanders survey the carnage. As they do, some breath a sigh of relief... but a cloud of dust rises in the distance... binoculars and spotting scopes reveal an oncoming horde of thousands of zombies headed their way. The commanders realize they need to find a way to re-establish communications and dig-in to weather the coming storm.

(At some point during the fighting, their communications equipment is damaged. They effect repairs, the solar storm breaks, and they're able to establish communications with the Charles de Gaulle because why not? Perhaps on station to support French forces in Mali. But they also learn that the carrier is unwilling - or unable - send CAS at that time. Rapidly depleting ammunition stocks mean that they have no choice but to hold their fire and take careful aim until the zombies are closer and closer. The next morning, they're down to the Alamo and firing at zombies point blank in the face, bayonets fixed for those few who have lugs and bayonets for them (mostly the local security forces) when suddenly the hordes stop coming and the sound of the rotors of helicopters can be heard overhead. Clambering over the piles of zombie corpses formed on their last defensive wall (made of Hesco barriers, of course), the base defenders see a pair of French-flagged Tiger helicopters lighting up the few, scattered zombies remaining, and a pair of Caracal transport helicopters laden with Foreign Legionnaires, food, and ammunition.

(As the Legionnaires debark, an American NCO remarks that it's a miracle, to which his haggard CO turns and says, "If it is a miracle, Staff Sergeant, it's a 5-point-5-6 millimeter Ball, Carbine, Barrier miracle."

("And a bayonet, sir. With some guts behind it.")

[nova3930]

Generally speaking, small well-organized, heavily armed groups have historically done very well against much larger groups that are not very well organized and poorly armed - and zombies would be completely unorganized and unarmed (well, they have teeth and nails, but they don't have an equivalent to, say, basic small arms).

But, again, nobody seems to want to remake Zulu but with modern day pipe hitters (or an isolated infantry company) instead of 19th Century Redcoats and unarmed, undisciplined, unorganized zombies instead of the lightly armed but well-organized and disciplined titular Zulus. (And while that would be exciting as hell in real life, it would likely make for a very boring movie.)

And not just unorganized and unarmed but essentially stupid ie completely predictable. Once you have their behavior down, you should be able to clear them out with basically zero risk.

[Averageman]

The whole idea of the base camp being over run would work even better with the time delay on the virus.
Locals and Militia let in to the camp break bad and Zombie from inside the wire too.
It would explain commo issues as they have to fight to regain access.

[MistWolf]

Max Brooks offers an explanation in his books but generally its the whole "We don't know" and adds to the horror. How do you cure something that you don't know anything about?

I'm an answer guy. I want answers and when something doesn't make sense, I'll mull something over until it does. The whole "Growing Horde of Zombies" thing makes no sense to me. I outlined why in my first post. What some see as a way to create an atmosphere of horror, I see as a plot hole. Going off alone to get the cat in Alien? That character might as well put on a red tee shirt that reads "Purina Monster Chow. Please Eat Me". Death by Darwin.

The only thing zombies have going for them is overwhelming numbers and it's hard to believe that the living, particularly our military and law enforcement agencies, would have such a hard time learning to deal with them. In general, I hate the whole zombie thing because the them is usually stupid people dying stupid deaths with gallons of blood & gore slopped about in a poor attempt to create horror. The lone exception has been The Walking Dead. The protagonists grow and learn from their experiences and I also like that the story arc is more about the survivors trying to cope with their new world than simply shooting and hacking their way through the undead hordes, or dying painfully stupid deaths. Another reason I hate zombies is, for a long time, to create an original story, people thought all they had to do was add zombies. I hate other horror stories that have people dying stupid deaths because they are stupid, like the Halloween series.

My son once asked me what my weapon system of choice would be if I ever had to fight zombies. I told him a platoon of Marines with an M1 Abrams.

Interesting that zombies are seen as an allegory for the FSA

[nova3930]

I'm an answer guy. I want answers and when something doesn't make sense, I'll mull something over until it does. The whole "Growing Horde of Zombies" thing makes no sense to me. I outlined why in my first post. What some see as a way to create an atmosphere of horror, I see as a plot hole. Going off alone to get the cat in Alien? That character might as well put on a red tee shirt that reads "Purina Monster Chow. Please Eat Me". Death by Darwin.

The only thing zombies have going for them is overwhelming numbers and it's hard to believe that the living, particularly our military and law enforcement agencies, would have such a hard time learning to deal with them. In general, I hate the whole zombie thing because the them is usually stupid people dying stupid deaths with gallons of blood & gore slopped about in a poor attempt to create horror. The lone exception has been The Walking Dead. The protagonists grow and learn from their experiences and I also like that the story arc is more about the survivors trying to cope with their new world than simply shooting and hacking their way through the undead hordes, or dying painfully stupid deaths. Another reason I hate zombies is, for a long time, to create an original story, people thought all they had to do was add zombies. I hate other horror stories that have people dying stupid deaths because they are stupid, like the Halloween series.

My son once asked me what my weapon system of choice would be if I ever had to fight zombies. I told him a platoon of Marines with an M1 Abrams.

Interesting that zombies are seen as an allegory for the FSA

When people ask me what I'm preparing for I can say zombies and they think I'm joking, not understanding that it's code for the fsa when the gravy train stops

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[Turnkey11]

The "Zombie Apocalypse", when it comes, will be caused by the damn near pathological use of hand sanitizer, spray disinfectants and antibiotics...

I agree, it will be a mutation of C-Diff that initially infects people in the ER, and spreads by explosive IBS.

[AnthonyCumia]

In stories like The Walking Dead, living humans are rapidly diminishing and the hordes of undead zombies are ever increasing. At first glance, it makes sense- as more of the living die, they add to the burgeoning population of the FSA- I mean zombies. With each person dying, that's the birth (or would that be "unbirth"?) of another undead brain eater until they take over the Earth. But let's take a second glance-

There are several billion living human beings on this planet and that number is increasing every day. But some Zompocalypse comes along and a virus, or other bizarre McGuffin, rapidly turns a large segment of the populace into undead creatures determined to eat your face and infect your neighbors with the same malady. It starts off innocuously enough, first it's the Joneses down the street, then the Smiths next door- just enough to start a panic buy of ARs, ammo, collapse the government, utterly dismantle the best trained and equipped military in the world (obviously punishment by kharma for siding with the arrogant and inept doctors of the CDC and the minions of the duplicitous FEMA- see? Zombie stories are actually morality tales disguised as Horror/Action!), turn the rest of the neighbors into baby eating barbarians and send the Plucky Survivors to running for the hills. With each episode, the number of zombies continues to grow, turning up the tension by becoming an overwhelming threat to the diminishing numbers of the living.

Yeah well, it doesn't work that way. The irony is, the war of attrition favors the living. As more and more of the living get turned into zombies, the smaller the pool of manpower the zombie army has to recruit from. The result? Fewer replacements and the Zombie Horde starts getting smaller. At the rate Rick and his crew kill zombies in each episode of The Walking Dead, I figure they should be tipping the balance in the next couple of seasons and then that will be that.

So, where do all the zombies come from? Is it possible that the birthrate of the living is enough on the rebound to continue supplying the zombie hordes with needed replacements? But that would mean the human population was growing in numbers as well. To survive, zombies would have to learn to adapt to our society. They would register as Democrats and start having "Zombie UnDeath Matters" rallies and that would make it just another reality show

Deaths from lack of food/water mostly. Assuming they come back just by dying.

[Firefly]

Zombies were always thinly veiled counter-culture references to a decaying society.

Same with the Ape movies.

But Aliens was a documentary.

And pretty much Dawn of the Dead 78 is the best zombie movie ever.

[Moose-Knuckle]

Zombies were always thinly veiled counter-culture references to a decaying society.

Same with the Ape movies.

But Aliens was a documentary.

And pretty much Dawn of the Dead 78 is the best zombie movie ever.

Agree with all the above.

"Wooley's gone ape$hit man."

When Peter and Flyboy appropriate the firearms in the Monroeville Mall's gun shop a small part of me dies when I see that Colt Python price marked at $376.50 . . .

One thing about Romero is that he "get's it".


Director George A. Romero grew up on classic movie monsters — and he says he never dreamed he'd be responsible for creating the modern zombie that now lurks alongside those monsters. "I never expected it. I really didn't," he tells NPR's Arun Rath. "... All I did was I took them out of 'exotica' and I made them the neighbors ... I thought there's nothing scarier than the neighbors!"
http://www.npr.org/2014/07/20/332644099/the-secret-behind-romeros-scary-zombies-i-made-them-the-neighbors

[Firefly]

There's one line in NOTLD people always miss. When Ben gets Barbara settled down in an unknown house he says "There must be a gun around here some place."

[Moose-Knuckle]

There's one line in NOTLD people always miss. When Ben gets Barbara settled down in an unknown house he says "There must be a gun around here some place."

What farmhouse in middle America wouldn't? I don't know the man's politics but his films sure are proponent of firearms.

[Firefly]

What farmhouse in middle America wouldn't? I don't know the man's politics but his films sure are proponent of firearms.

Go watch the Original The Crazies. It feels like a Prototype Dawn of the Dead. This Black colonel gets called in and wears a Hi Power in a tanker rig. Trixie was accidentally airburst over small-town PA. The Army actually trying to contain it but people panic. Martial Law is declared and the Mayor tells the soldiers that "You can't take people's guns. It's a constitutional right!"

The Soldiers wear white chem suits, Vietnam era gas masks and M1 Carbines and grease guns. It was better than the remake. It had this grim sense of dread.

[nova3930]

When I watched the remake I had no idea that's what it was. When I found out I meant to go watch the original but never got around to it. Gotta add that to the Netflix list....

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[SteyrAUG]

Years ago, I realized that zombie apocolypses are real. Masses of humans that were once people but are now a horde of mindless 'zombies' due to something happening have been happening throughout human history and now the reason(s) for their uprising are actually pretty much the same surprisingly. Percieved slight. Unfortunately, unlike the movie zombies, the real ones are alive and breeding, supplying their own human resupply.


Pretty much, and when the FSA actually mobilizes with the realization that they can dictate their own terms, those who think they are safe in their "gated communities" are just another Alexandria waiting their turn.

[titsonritz]

From smoking bath salts.

[Moose-Knuckle]

Go watch the Original The Crazies. It feels like a Prototype Dawn of the Dead. This Black colonel gets called in and wears a Hi Power in a tanker rig. Trixie was accidentally airburst over small-town PA. The Army actually trying to contain it but people panic. Martial Law is declared and the Mayor tells the soldiers that "You can't take people's guns. It's a constitutional right!"

The Soldiers wear white chem suits, Vietnam era gas masks and M1 Carbines and grease guns. It was better than the remake. It had this grim sense of dread.

Admittedly I've never seen the original, own the re-make on BluRay. Romero wrote and produced it and Zack Snyder directed.

I got the original on my list of Blu Rays to acquire.