19 replies to this topic

[leurz]

What combination of characteristics are the best for a group of zombies?
Do you prefer zombies that sprint at their victims, or stumble slowly?
Should they be independent, or controlled by some kind of hive mind?
Destroy the brain? Or should other methods work too?
What else?

Let's not include voodoo zombies, conformists, television viewers, or any other humans which are sometimes called zombies.
28 Days Later or I am Legend type zombies are okay.
Please be specific: whether you are saying it's better for the zombies, the people, or whoever is watching/reading the story.

[Keil]

I hated I am Legend. That movie creeped me out. I'd rather face real zombies than those things anyday.

Alright... on the first night of Humans Vs. Zombies at my university, I had this sick dream about zombies. They felt like the perfect zombie army because to me, they were unstoppable. This is how I remember them:

1. They were all controlled to act the same under the same virus.
2. The never left the huge mob of zombies, in other words, they were always in a pack. Even if they left the pack, they wouldn't be separated by more than 10m.
3. The zombies idly walked human walking speed, but once they find a victim, they sprint as fast as a cheetah.
4. They were all essentially blind, but their mechano, chemo, and electronegative receptors were off the charts. They can feel running footsteps on the ground, smell sweat, and can feel flickering lights from flashlights from far away.
5. They were decently well-built for rotting corpses. I found it hard to rip off their arm even though the more intuitive belief is that rotting flesh is easily torn.
6. They all had white vans and candy, has Jason hockey masks, and were telemarketers (again, this was a dream =__=).

[Foe]

Best Zombies are the Left 4 Dead kind.

[SatansCamaro]

The speed of the zombies is based on their type usually. Usually an un-dead zombie (one that came back from the dead) is slow. Usually a viral zombie is fast (virus = zombie).

And I can't stress the word usually enough.

But in the end, its up to you.

[Maloo]

I think I'll pick..


Singing/dancing zombie

[nymh]

It depends on my mood. If I'm looking for zombie comedy, I want them to be slow. If I want to be scared, they should be fast.

I want semi-intelligent zombies who think independently.

[frostz]

leurz, on 01 October 2011 - 09:34 AM, said:

What combination of characteristics are the best for a group of zombies?
Do you prefer zombies that sprint at their victims, or stumble slowly?
Should they be independent, or controlled by some kind of hive mind?
Destroy the brain? Or should other methods work too?
What else?

Let's not include voodoo zombies, conformists, television viewers, or any other humans which are sometimes called zombies.
28 Days Later or I am Legend type zombies are okay.
Please be specific: whether you are saying it's better for the zombies, the people, or whoever is watching/reading the story.

Realistically speaking fast zombies are "totally hax" and if they existed there would be no survivors for obvious reasons.

The best kind of zombie is the slow kind where you have to destroy the brain because it gives anyone who is careful a chance to survive for some length of time.

Fast zombies turns it into a bullet spam, reflex fest that is only good "cool" in video games but will get you killed within about 2 hours in the real world. Not to mention that in all their depictions fast zombies not only have super strength due to the removal of natural strength inhibitors in place before infection, run faster than the most athletic human, but they are able to climb as well giving them an edge that no realistic human can hope to overcome.

A note about fast zombies. Fast zombies are not "dead" they are infected humans. As such they can move fast indefinitely since their bodies are not actively decaying and will still repair the natural wear and tear of muscle tissue. However since they are technically living they are vulnerable to the destruction of not only their brain but any other vital organ as well such as the heart. However they do not feel pain and wounds anywhere else will not stop them. Depending on the depiction of the fast zombie, they may or may not bleed out and die from greater injuries depending on how many of their systems are shut down by the virus.

A slow zombie is only slow because the wearing out/ decay of their bodies and rigor mortis prevents them from moving past a certain speed, though freshly turned zombies can lunge (burst of speed) for a short period of time. The virus type zombie is vulnerable to the destruction of the brain, however this vulnerability does not apply to zombies raised through magic which can only be destroyed or at least stopped through complete dismemberment.

Anyone who believes that they can survive in a world that is being taken over by fast zombies are probably over exaggerating their own abilities and will be devoured as soon as they step outside and fail to look up and check to see if there is a fast zombie hiding in a tree, or hanging out on their roof. You can't even hope to out run them because as noted, they will either run faster than you, or you will tire and they will not. A single fast zombie will take you out unless you have training in marksmanship, or have a weapon with a reach of greater than 6 feet. Anything else and the chances of injury and thus infection grows exponentially. Engaging a fast zombie in melee is something that you would not really want to do anyway, because fast zombies maintain their physical integrity and are not mindless. They have a certain bestial instinct that may allow them to fight in a more intelligent manner the longer the fight drags on. The chances of you destroying their brain or heart in one blow is most likely not going to happen.

Besides in the end "fast zombies" arn't even real zombies anyway. They are more like people with super rabies who are unstoppable unless you shoot something vital or destroy their legs because they do not feel pain. If anything "fast zombies" should be re-categorized and renamed to ghouls/ghasts because they are certainly not "zombies" which is a category of undead that is used to describe the slower, mindless variety.


A zombie- a typical slow zombie of the slow variety, these cannot be fast for obvious reasons.



A ghoul - the term ghoul should be used to categorize anything that is a "fast zombies, rage zombies, etc". Calling a "fast zombie" a zombie is misleading. (notice the quotation marks)

nymh, on 01 October 2011 - 04:22 PM, said:

It depends on my mood. If I'm looking for zombie comedy, I want them to be slow. If I want to be scared, they should be fast.

I want semi-intelligent zombies who think independently.

I can assure you that if there were slow zombies en-mass around your house you would be plenty scared. However if those zombies were fast and semi-intelligent, not only would you be scared but you would be dead because they would have busted through your window and devoured you the moment they figured out that you are inside your house.

In terms of movies on the other hand and this is probably what you were referring to, the psychological atmosphere is what determines if the movie is scary. You don't need to use fast zombies to make a scary movie and likewise you can make a movie with fast zombies into a comedy just as easily.

The phenomenon that is affecting zombie movies where recent movies involving slow zombies have being turned into comedies (zombie land, shaun of the dead, etc.) and fast zombie horror movies (mutants, i am legend) is the same one that is afflicting the vampire genre imo, where the lugosi type vampire is now always depicted in romance movies (twilight cough), and the nosferatu type is only ever depicted in the horror genre (these movies arnt even being made anymore). Thus this phenomenon is giving people the idea that a horror zombie movie must involve fast zombies, and a comedy must involve slow zombies.

Edited by frostz, 01 October 2011 - 06:21 PM.

[xSlasher]

I prefer vampire

[Scot]

Come at me bro

[chini]

Neither. I never understood the hype for zombies. Decaying mass of body and tissue would render a "zombie" from moving an inch. How does a thing with barely any muscle that has a vertebrae move with just ligaments? Physiology it's impossible with what form zombies have.

I prefer the take over the host type of zombie.

[frostz]

chini, on 02 October 2011 - 12:49 PM, said:

Neither. I never understood the hype for zombies. Decaying mass of body and tissue would render a "zombie" from moving an inch. How does a thing with barely any muscle that has a vertebrae move with just ligaments? Physiology it's impossible with what form zombies have.

I prefer the take over the host type of zombie.

Once the zombie reaches that stage of decay then yea, they wouldn't be able to move an inch. Zombie physics is justified by the fact that they decay very slowly due to the toxicity of zombie flesh thus making it so that bacteria and scavengers would not speed up the degradation of their flesh. A zombie can last for years in mild weather (think dead person in space, theoretically their flesh will remain intact forever). They eventually collapse from the wearing out of their muscle tissue since they no longer possess the natural ability to heal themselves over time. The only organ on a zombie that is still functioning is their brain that has been mutated by the virus, the rest of their body eventually wears itself out.

[Ziz]

frostz, on 02 October 2011 - 02:29 PM, said:

Once the zombie reaches that stage of decay then yea, they wouldn't be able to move an inch. Zombie physics is justified by the fact that they decay very slowly due to the toxicity of zombie flesh thus making it so that bacteria and scavengers would not speed up the degradation of their flesh. A zombie can last for years in mild weather (think dead person in space, theoretically their flesh will remain intact forever). They eventually collapse from the wearing out of their muscle tissue since they no longer possess the natural ability to heal themselves over time. The only organ on a zombie that is still functioning is their brain that has been mutated by the virus, the rest of their body eventually wears itself out.

Toxic or not, I don't think that their bodies are inmune to weather.
Come on, with their body cells dead (and not reproducing), they would end up useless after some months (or less in drier/sunnier conditions).

And if you talk about a zombie that can regenerate by itself (wich wouldn't be zombie at all as you stated before), fast as hell and with hunger for human flesh, they would end up dying from an illnes for consuming raw flesh; our digestive/inmune system isn't used to that since (most uf us) have never ate raw flesh. And if they were non-intelligent beings that iddle walk here and there, they would end up with a lot of diseases since they are not toxic nor "undead" (at all).

[jaredennisclark]

chini, on 02 October 2011 - 12:49 PM, said:

Neither. I never understood the hype for zombies. Decaying mass of body and tissue would render a "zombie" from moving an inch. How does a thing with barely any muscle that has a vertebrae move with just ligaments? Physiology it's impossible with what form zombies have.

I prefer the take over the host type of zombie.

Are you seriously going to get into this with these people? It is tantamount to arguing logic with a group of fundamentalist christians. Prepare yourself for some serious ad-hoc.

[frostz]

Ziz, on 02 October 2011 - 04:13 PM, said:

Toxic or not, I don't think that their bodies are inmune to weather.
Come on, with their body cells dead (and not reproducing), they would end up useless after some months (or less in drier/sunnier conditions).

And if you talk about a zombie that can regenerate by itself (wich wouldn't be zombie at all as you stated before), fast as hell and with hunger for human flesh, they would end up dying from an illnes for consuming raw flesh; our digestive/inmune system isn't used to that since (most uf us) have never ate raw flesh. And if they were non-intelligent beings that iddle walk here and there, they would end up with a lot of diseases since they are not toxic nor "undead" (at all).

well yea that's why i said mild weather. A zombie in a tropical climate would probably turn into a pile of goop within a few weeks or so. A zombie in a snowy locale will end up being frozen and wouldn't be a threat to anybody. In mild weather they will most likely be able to last for a good deal of time, depending on how active they are.

As far as the "fast zombies go" it doesn't matter if a normal person's digestive/immune system is not used to eating raw flesh because it is assumed that the virus changes their biological makeup in some fundamental way. Similar to how the virus in a slow zombie mutates the brain allowing it to survive when the other body functions have already ceased

Besides even if the "fast zombies" were not granted immunity to disease/altered digestive system, they would still be able to rampage for a good week or two before succumbing. In that time a huge number of people would become infected and go on to infect more people. So in the end how long a "fast zombie" lives when it comes to rate of infection isn't really that much of an issue. The outbreak would still result in an end of the world scenario, but it would allow certain individuals to "weather it out" in bunkers and what not.

And honestly how long a "fast zombie" lasts has never really being the point because unlike slow zombies, "fast zombies" still needs to eat not only because of the instinct to spread the virus to others but because they are technically living and still need food to survive. And therefore they wouldn't last for too much longer than a normal human anyway once their food supply runs out. However to balance out this lack of longevity they are far more dangerous because of their near super human stamina, strength, and agility.

Therefore the slow zombie apocalypse theme has always been about planning for a long drawn out survival scenario, whereas the "fast zombie" version focuses more on the survival of the moment.

Edited by frostz, 02 October 2011 - 05:39 PM.

[chicityballa]

when I think of a zombie i think of the traditional zombie that you see in most movies (not all) of the slow ones that have their arms out slowly waddling to you lol

[chini]

jaredennisclark, on 02 October 2011 - 04:39 PM, said:

Are you seriously going to get into this with these people? It is tantamount to arguing logic with a group of fundamentalist christians. Prepare yourself for some serious ad-hoc.

lol someone is getting jumpy.

Not really, it's more of the preference of just not really being into zombies. If you like zombies, I don't care if you do. I am not even sure why you view my statement as an equivalent to the arguments that christian fundamentalists have, since they are actively out to attempt to change people's beliefs, whereas I can care less if you like zombies and I am not actively out to pursue you to not like zombies. I could say the same thing about magical creatures or whatever. "Durr how does that neopet dragon fly it weighs too much"



As a med student I just find it amusing, and my statement was based on that.

[Makinami]

I honestly prefer the host type of zombie. I guess the perfect example would be the head-crab zombies from the Half-Life series.

If I found myself facing a bunch of those...I'd probably start crying, start running, and hope to hell none of the fast moving ones are near me.

And hope to HELL that Gordon Freeman is around the corner D:

[Epidote]

I love the passionate discussion about zombies. obviously the media trend has made zombies so main stream that we have all "fantasized" how we would survive a zombie apocalypse. I know I have and I hope my honing of video game skills pays off in the real world. I would have to agree with the general discussion though, the world would not survive fast zombies. But slow zombies almost seem more torturous, where you think you can survive but slowly they gain ground on you by pure masses and eventually take you out.

[Thepeopleschampion]

lol id like slow zombies in the apocalypse so i can be all like COME AT ME BRO XD

[jioge]

I personally prefer my zombies to have the following characteristics:

• Fast
• Large
• Wearing Clothes
• Travels in Packs
• Utters Cheesy Catch Phrases
• Extremely Dirty Looking Whether or Not They Actually Ever Got Into Something Which Could Cause That Look
• Don't Care About Brains, but ARE Very Hungry

These characteristics would allow the zombies to attack humans with zest while still remaining somewhat humorous. Clothe-less zombies are not funny, just gross. Also, if they don't feed on brains they would be better suited to survival as a human brain is many times smaller than a human body.