Fast Zombies or Slow Zombies?
Fast zombies or slow zombies? While Romero has created the modern zombie (though the word zombie is never used in Night of the Living Dead) there has obviously been some deviation from the archetype in the last several years. 28 Days Later helped to introduce the world to the fast-moving zombie. There is just one problem with that—there were no zombies in 28 Days Later. They were humans infected with a Rage Virus. They were able to move fast because not only weren’t they dead, but they were filled with uncontrollable anger. Zombies by definition do not emote. Nonetheless, from that point on, however, zombies became very quick and agile.
Zack Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead—which is heresy in and of itself, though the film is enjoyable—took the agility and the quickness from 28 Days Later and created zombies with these traits. Logically (I know that any discussion of a zombie invasion should never include the word “logically”) zombies need to be slow. They are decomposing or decomposed. Their muscle and sinew have either withered away or is in the process of doing so. It only makes sense that the living would have more physical prowess than our dead counterparts. I do not consider fast zombies zombies at all. My question to Zack Snyder and all the other creators of fast zombies is why make them zombies? If you want to have fleet-of-foot creatures terrorize your protagonists, zombies should be the last things you should choose. To have to resort to speed to make one’s zombies scary, I believe, shows a lack of creativity on the part of the director, or maybe a lack of understanding of the modern zombie.
If Jason, Freddy, Michael Myers, Leatherface, Pinhead, Candyman, the supernatural, etc., are chasing you it is the persistence and the distance between you and your pursuer that builds tension. Zombies are meant to swarm, slowly. Unlike most other horror subgenres, zombies’ scariness comes from the sheer number of them. They drift through towns and countrysides like a swarm of locusts or a virus. They have no real direct intent. One is never being chased by a particular zombie. A zombie is a zombie; they are all the same. They have no personality; they are slow and have no drive other than to feed on the flesh of the living. They have no business being fast. Of course, this is just my own take. Please comment and let me know your thoughts.
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November 13th, 2009 at 14:00
I agree with you, zombies should have some difficulty moving because their bodies are dead. In the zombie walks I’ve been in we are all fairly slow moving like in Night of the Living Dead(except for when crossing the street in Orlando traffic then we are more like 28 Days later). There is a lot of ambiguity in the word zombie. I agree with your definition of zombie, but I have read people refer to films like Re-animator as a zombie film. I don’t understand that at all !?!
November 13th, 2009 at 19:01
Let’s keep the zombies slow. The best part about watching zombie movies is that you always think the people in the story have a chance to get away. Quick zombies will completely ruin this. In fact I think the slowness is why the zombies are so terrifying. I love the traditional zombies, slow, dead, not too bright and traveling in herds. I’m with the old adage if it’s not broke don’t fix it.
November 13th, 2009 at 21:46
I kind of enjoyed Zombieland and I believe the Zombies were moving a little quickly
November 13th, 2009 at 21:57
There is another good reason why zombies should move slowly and with difficulty, that doesn’t really have to do with how physically messed-up they might be.
“Zombies” are creatures risen from the dead (at least, in all the best movies, like Romero’s). In that way they’re essentially newborn creatures that haven’t had a chance to learn to control their own bodies, so, like the big dead rotting mewling babies they are, they don’t have much in the way of physical coordination and motor skills. What they do have, so that they’re not just flailing around on the ground and moaning uselessly but actually up and actively pursuing their meals, could be explained away as surviving traces of their former lives, imperfectly preserved in whatever’s still functioning in their brains, just like their apparent urge to congregate in shopping malls.
November 16th, 2009 at 07:30
Zombies have always freaked me out and the fact that they move slow means I have a really good chance of out running them. Let’s not make them speed demons!
November 16th, 2009 at 14:54
i liked zombieland too and they were kinda fast, some zombie movies they move tooooo slow, seems silly like it is just too easy to get away , some speed is good
November 17th, 2009 at 10:37
In response to The Faceless Thing – I’ve never thought of zombies being slow because they are like “rotting mewling babies”. LOL! Very interesting point.
I was also thinking that zombies don’t seem to feel pain, and the only reason I ever move slowly is when I’m stiff or sore, so zombies probably would move pretty fast because a backache or sore knee wouldn’t slow them down. Even when important appendages are missing zombies are very determined to get where they are going.
November 19th, 2009 at 19:53
I like slow zombies, although I also think if they are too slow then the suspense builds and collapses on itself. There has to be a moderate speed.
Rage virus and super fast zombies should be a different type of creature. I wish studios weren’t so caught up with having to be so mainstream they have to call it by a classic name even if they go beyond the accepted story norms. If it’s a good story, the new monster name will catch on.