Current Events > Am I the only one that finds Romero's original slow-moving zombies dumb AF?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I really thank 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead for introducing the concept of fast-moving zombies (even though the former are technically not called zombies... whatever).

It just never made sense to me whatsoever a bunch of slow-moving braindead zombies moving slower than your 90-year old granny on crutches are somehow able to take over the world. Like c'mon? Is it that hard to outrun and escape this kind of zombie? The speed the zombie moves at, it's more than sufficient time for a person to prepare to either escape or fight back safely in time.

Also what's up with zombies always devouring people? If they keep doing that, we should be having mostly zombies that end up missing limbs here and there. And again, adding to how disadvantageous and weak they'd be as a world threat

A zombie isn't that much of a threat (if you know what it is)

The endless unstoppable horde of walking dead who no matter how many you put down will never stop coming is the threat

Fast moving zombies miss the point, what's scary is how unhuman they are. They are dead

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I will just say you should research this topic more. Original zombies were slow for a reason. They aren't supposed to be the main threat.


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You're thinking too deep into it

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Turtlemayor333 posted...

They aren't supposed to be the main threat.

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I think the threat from those zombies is one of overwhelming force. Individual zombies are nbd, but a wave of zombies constantly moving, constantly increasing numbers, never relenting, would eventually consume everything.

I always thought what if every zombie in a zombie movie was like Jason, who technically did become a zombie after he died and came back

Wouldnt it make sense for brain dead zombies to be slow moving?

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UnfairRepresent posted...

A zombie isn't that much of a threat (if you know what it is)

The endless unstoppable horde of walking dead who no matter how many you put down will never stop coming is the threat

Fast moving zombies miss the point, what's scary is how unhuman they are. They are dead

yeah, except how do they even become a horde in the first place??

And even if they're a horde, in the initial phase of encounter, the military/police should easily be able to deal with this kind of threat with guns and explosives.

It only takes 1 human with a gun loaded with sufficient ammo or a single hand grenade to kill off maybe at least a dozen zombies all at once. Just gather them into a tight corridor or something.

Now do the statistics. At the initial phase of infection, humans clearly outnumber zombies and the threat being so prominent would rapidly invade the military/police to quickly quell the zombies in an instant. It should also be easy to invent full body armor that protects a human from zombie bites, like what the police/military already have to wear when training with dogs.

I know that saying zombie films are really about how "other people are the real monsters" is horribly cliched, but it's true.

The zombies are scenery.

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Mackorov posted...

It just never made sense to me whatsoever a bunch of slow-moving braindead zombies moving slower than your 90-year old granny on crutches are somehow able to take over the world

I think the idea is that because theyre kind of dead with their brains just being active from some infection they dont have complete control over their body and arent even really conscious.

And for the lols, replace COVID with a zombie virus and I think its easy to see how that could happen.

Though I agree 28 days infected were terrifying because they broke that trope

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MaxEffingBemis posted...

Wouldnt it make sense for brain dead zombies to be slow moving?

yeah, but it doesnt make sense how they can possibly take over the world.

You're saying these slow moving old hags that are also dumb as a rock, can somehow conquer and destroy entire militaries, armadas, armed forces?

its all about how human behavior dealing with the panic.

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SSJPurple posted...

I think the idea is that because theyre kind of dead with their brains just being active from some infection they dont have complete control over their body and arent even really conscious.

And for the lols, replace COVID with a zombie virus and I think its easy to see how that could happen.

Though I agree 28 days infected were terrifying because they broke that trope

No that's a misnomer.

If you want to take a pandemic at face value, look at one where the fatality rate is extremely high, not covid-19 where the fatality rate is near zero for most people that isn't above 60 y/o.

The previous SARS virus for example, was quelled rapidly because the mortality rate was so high. Because people died so fast, they didnt have time to walk around public places spreading the disease. Covid is highly infectious because many people are asymptomatic.

Anyway that's beside the point. Also the fact that they're zombies also makes them instant easy-to-kill targets.

UnfairRepresent posted...

A zombie isn't that much of a threat (if you know what it is)

The endless unstoppable horde of walking dead who no matter how many you put down will never stop coming is the threat

Fast moving zombies miss the point, what's scary is how unhuman they are. They are dead

Basically this. It's why I love them. They aren't super dangerous themselves but when there's 20 of them or you're cornered in an alley with 5 of them they will be.

Like the original Night of the Living Dead (top 3 film) they weren't in a lot of danger. But their stupid decisions and infighting is what got them killed. The zombies are there to capitalize on mistakes and when you're fighting and shooting at each other there's a lot of mistakes. And I'm not using "mistake" in the traditional sense like someone dropped a candy bar. I mean fighting, not listening to each other, not being able to put aside petty differences, guys wanting to be the "top dog", and other shit like that. We can't put aside bullshit to face a greater threat and that's what gets us killed. (notice similarities in our current US political climate?)

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This makes me think of an re movie where theyre body shotting zombies like " wha!?" when Leon shows up like *head shot* *head shot* *head shot*

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Mackorov posted...

No that's a misnomer.

If you want to take a pandemic at face value, look at one where the fatality rate is extremely high, not covid-19 where the fatality rate is near zero for most people that isn't above 60 y/o.

The previous SARS virus for example, was quelled rapidly because the mortality rate was so high. Because people died so fast, they didnt have time to walk around public places spreading the disease. Covid is highly infectious because many people are asymptomatic.

Anyway that's beside the point. Also the fact that they're zombies also makes them instant easy-to-kill targets.

Death rate wasnt my point, just infection spread and how many got infected so fast in a year.

That doesnt even take into the variable that are us humans and what kind of chaos we ourselves would cause. People would not agree on what to do especially if we get into the territory of vaporizing cities, capturing infected for study or to find a cure etc.

It would be a huge shit show

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LordMarshal posted...

This makes me think of an re movie where theyre body shotting zombies like " wha!?" when Leon shows up like *head shot* *head shot* *head shot*

THINK about it. If you have a gun and have the time and luxury to headshot these slow-moving comedic puppets that take forever to reach you as just one single person, what's stopping a whole military might of soldiers carrying guns from killing every single possible zombie before they become a threat?

Also think about it... there's never really been a movie set during a zombie apocalypse and taking place from the perspective of the military

Sounds like you'd like Shawn of the Dead. Has slow moving zombies that are a threat for about 1 day and then wiped out by the miltary.

Mackorov posted...

Also think about it... there's never really been a movie set during a zombie apocalypse and taking place from the perspective of the military

Romero's Day of the Dead was, most of the cast were soldiers and military scientist.

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SSJPurple posted...

Death rate wasnt my point, just infection spread and how many got infected so fast in a year.

That doesnt even take into the variable that are us humans and what kind of chaos we ourselves would cause. People would not agree on what to do especially if we get into the territory of vaporizing cities, capturing infected for study or to find a cure etc.

It would be a huge shit show

that's because covid doesnt turn you into an ugly ass ghoul that people will run away from the moment they take one look at you.

Covid was highly infectious because as I said, many people are asymptomic, the fatality rate is super low and this meant people were mingling about without knowing who carried the virus and who didnt' .

Put this into perspective, imagine a covid-infected person has a huge glowing arrow over his head saying 'I'M INFECTED WITH COVID'.
That's exactly what it's like for a zombie infection.

Original zombies are magical in nature and thus menacing even moving slowly.
This is because they were literally immortal and blowing a hole in their head would not kill them.
So it was either immobilization, destorying their teeth and claws or anti-magic.

And they ate people cause the spell gave a desire for brains.
Technically reanimated skeletons are zombies.

The original Night of the Living Dead takes the time to point this out itself. Romero was already aware. The characters even have a discussion about their real power which is just simply numbers since they don't know how many and are alone anyway. Easily overpowered. They even wanted the car specifically because they knew they could be outrun. *eye roll*

The threat is even mostly over by dawn thanks to all the gun toting red necks.

So the complaint is kinda missing the point altogether on display in the movie.

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Also I notice people arent answering my second problem raised

Also what's up with zombies always devouring people? If they keep doing that, we should be having mostly zombies that end up missing limbs here and there. And again, adding to how disadvantageous and weak they'd be as a world threat

A THIRD problem I'd like to raise is...
how are zombies not starving when they eventually do dominate the world, somehow...? It's like a predator-prey relationship. The moment you remove the prey population, the predators starve and the population balances itself out.

This doesnt happen in zombie movies for some reason. It's like the zombies somehow defied the law of thermodynamics and physics and can have the energy to move around like they're gathering an infinite energy force from the multidimension or something

Mackorov posted...

Also I notice people arent answering my second problem raised

A THIRD problem I'd like to raise is...
how are zombies not starving when they eventually do dominate the world, somehow...? It's like a predator-prey relationship. The moment you remove the prey population, the predators starve and the population balances itself out.

This doesnt happen in zombie movies for some reason. It's like the zombies somehow defied the law of thermodynamics and physics and can have the energy to move around like they're gathering an infinite energy force from the multidimension or something

Science zombies never have a good explanation but it is a hold over from magical zombies that are literally animated corpses that don't need sustenance.

It's not about the zombies, man

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Mackorov posted...

I really thank 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead for introducing the concept of fast-moving zombies (even though the former are technically not called zombies... whatever).

It just never made sense to me whatsoever a bunch of slow-moving braindead zombies moving slower than your 90-year old granny on crutches are somehow able to take over the world. Like c'mon? Is it that hard to outrun and escape this kind of zombie? The speed the zombie moves at, it's more than sufficient time for a person to prepare to either escape or fight back safely in time. Maybe even lie on your bed eating popcorn for a good 5 minutes before the zombie reaches your bedroom.

Speed takes muscle and these zombies are moving like Granny's because their muscle and the tissue and their ligaments have all been degraded after being dead essentially making them Grammys or older. They move how they're supposed to move they arent supposed to be Usain Bolt

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ekie posted...

Speed takes muscle and these zombies are moving like Granny's because their muscle and the tissue and their ligaments have all been degraded after being dead essentially making them Grammys or older. They move how they're supposed to move they arent supposed to be Usain Bolt

Except if they are science zombies this is not true, only actual undead.

Fast zombies are lame. They just act like any other monster threat. Shambling, slow pursuit is what makes them unique.

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Mackorov posted...

Also I notice people arent answering my second problem raised.

The Devouring thing? It's how diseases work. They only exist to reproduce and spread. Look at Cordyceps (although it's a fungus but it's similair) where it invades the animal/insect and causes them to basically commit suicide just so it can spread more. In the case of Zombies it's a disease that wants to spread as much as it can.

A THIRD problem I'd like to raise is...
how are zombies not starving when they eventually do dominate the world, somehow...? It's like a predator-prey relationship. The moment you remove the prey population, the predators starve and the population balances itself out.

This doesnt happen in zombie movies for some reason. It's like the zombies somehow defied the law of thermodynamics and physics and can have the energy to move around like they're gathering an infinite energy force from the multidimension or something

This is where you kind of have to start suspending your disbelief a bit. And it also depends a lot on the movie you're watching.
Night of the Living Dead - Heavily implied to be radiation from space
Dawn of the Dead - "no more room in hell" line.
Day of the Dead - I don't think they talked about it.
28 Days Later (zombie movie or not) it's a virus.

But some of the movies/comics/books hint or mention that zombies don't actually digest their food. So they don't actually NEED to eat, it's just instinctual passing of a virus or whatever.

Think of Romero Zombies as Zerg. They specifically just overwhelm you with numbers. A single zergling isn't scary, but 50 of them can sure as fuck be.

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ekie posted...

Speed takes muscle and these zombies are moving like Granny's because their muscle and the tissue and their ligaments have all been degraded after being dead essentially making them Grammys or older. They move how they're supposed to move they arent supposed to be Usain Bolt

dude I KNOW. You're repeating what the other posters said, completely irrelevant to my post.

I'm pointing out how it makes no sense that if these zombies move so slow, they can take over the world and destroy entire national defenses

>28 Days Later (zombie movie or not) it's a virus.

I like 28 Days Later precisely because of this. The zombies actually do die of starvation

But some of the movies/comics/books hint or mention that zombies don't actually digest their food. So they don't actually NEED to eat, it's just instinctual passing of a virus or whatever.

All things need energy and energy needs come somewhere. This is a fact and the basic law of physics.
If zombies can move forever without any food or source of energy, that makes em no different from magical lalaland creatures

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Gobstoppers12 posted...

Fast zombies are lame. They just act like any other monster threat. Shambling, slow pursuit is what makes them unique.

It's funny how this ridiculously plot-hole riddled concept of zombies have somehow made it to become this popular as to become even a genre itself.

But y'know what's even funnier??
The zombie genre only became popular thanks to the the reinvention of fast-moving zombies, mainly Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later and Left 4 Dead.

Edit: I admit Walking Dead further popularised the genre but TWD already capitalised on the popularity due to the fast-moving zombies in the first place

Mackorov posted...

that makes em no different from magical lalaland creatures

Yes. The necromancer or lich provides the energy via demonic pact or using the life of sacrificed living, etc.

SSJPurple posted...

And for the lols, replace COVID with a zombie virus and I think its easy to see how that could happen.

COVID has taught us that if there were a zombie apocalypse there would be people arguing to leave the barricaded shopping mall, because the zombies dont look *that* hungry and theyve barely eaten any of us today.

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Oh look an insufferable getting upset over movie logic

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Mackorov posted...

that's because covid doesnt turn you into an ugly ass ghoul that people will run away from the moment they take one look at you.

Covid was highly infectious because as I said, many people are asymptomic, the fatality rate is super low and this meant people were mingling about without knowing who carried the virus and who didnt' .

Put this into perspective, imagine a covid-infected person has a huge glowing arrow over his head saying 'I'M INFECTED WITH COVID'.
That's exactly what it's like for a zombie infection.

Kinda sounds like you're limiting yourself to a specific idea of how a zombie infection works. What if the zombie infection also worked like covid, at least in the sense of that it could spread before the carrier became symptomatic (with or without also "some people never show symptoms but still spread it")?

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Trumble posted...

Kinda sounds like you're limiting yourself to a specific idea of how a zombie infection works. What if the zombie infection also worked like covid, at least in the sense of that it could spread before the carrier became symptomatic (with or without also "some people never show symptoms but still spread it")?

then it wouldn't even spread in the first place if it takes that long for a person to turn to a zombie.

I prefer zombies that look human. Like you're not sure if they are infected or not unless they try to eat your brains or have obvious fatal damage.

Scarier that way when people think their loved ones are still alive in there somehow.

Mackorov posted...

If zombies can move forever without any food or source of energy, that makes em no different from magical lalaland creatures

I mean you're right. But most movies are like this. There aren't humans with superpowers yet the MCU is HUGE and it doesn't stop peoples enjoyment of it.

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UnfairRepresent posted...

A zombie isn't that much of a threat (if you know what it is)

The endless unstoppable horde of walking dead who no matter how many you put down will never stop coming is the threat

Fast moving zombies miss the point, what's scary is how unhuman they are. They are dead

Thank you. Couldn't have said it better

Fast zombies work for games. But I prefer slow for movies