Romero's Zombies (for vixta)

[Morning Glory]

According to the Romero rules of Zombieism
a zombie is created in the following ways:

-The people that are already dead at the time of the first inception of zombie creation will return as zombies- presumably because they are exposed to whatever creates zombies. This may be caused by something created by scientists that escaped or was intentionally released, such as a virus, or something like nuclear waste contaminating the soil. It is not clear whether only a group of corpses were effected, or whether every single dead body world wide becomes a zombie at this point.

- A living person that gets bitten by a zombie, upon death will return as a zombie. It is not clear whether the bite itself causes death. Presumably any other unrelated cause of death of a bitten person will still result in them returning as a zombie; also, since a disabling of the brain will kill a zombie, it's not clear whether disabling the brain of a bitten person while they are living will effect whether or not they come back as a zombie, but logically it would make sense that they then would not return as a zombie.

- When the original wave of zombies are burnt whatever caused the creation of zombies will be transferred back into the soil by water. It is unclear whether this is caused by the water mixing with the ashes of the zombies, or whether the burning process causes contamination from the rain itself. At this point any corpses that were not effected by the first zombie inception and/or people that died since that time that were not bitten by zombies, will then return as zombies. Presumably exposure to the contaminated water alone will not cause living people to turn into zombies.

- A scientist using whatever created the zombies initially, or recreating it through experimentation on the zombies can then create a zombie from a living or dead body.
* This is an assumption based on the events in the films and isn't actually depicted.

Note: It is not suggested by the films that a person who dies and hasn't been bitten by a zombie will return as a zombie, simply from having died. Only corpses that became zombies simultaniously during the first zombie creations, and living people subsequently bitten afterwards will become zombies.

[Morning Glory]

this is based on the following films:
The four George Romero films:
-Night of the living dead
-Dawn of the dead
-Day of the dead
-Land of the dead

Dawn of the dead remake, since it was produced or something by romero. any way he had something to do with it, or at least approved it as part of the offical "Dead" series.

Return of the living dead, since it was made by one of the creative team of the original "Dead" series.

I don't consider Return of the living dead part II to be part of the series because it wasn't made by anyone who worked on the first three movies. I don't consider any of the other numerous "such and such of the dead" knockoffs, for the same reason.

I'm neutral about the remake of the Night of the living dead. I'm pretty sure george romero didn't have anything to do with it, but either way, it's pretty much exactly the same as the first one, only the girl lives at the end and it may go into more detail about how they killed the zombies.

[Morning Glory]

oh yeah, and apparently a woman that is pregnant before she gets bitten by a zombie will have a baby that's a zombie. presumibly a woman that is not pregnant and becomes a zombie, cannot become pregnant afterwards. that would be necrophelia, and gross and I don't want to think about that.

it also seems that animals cannot become zombies.

[vixta]

i would have thought that anyone who died during a zombie outbreak (whether bitten or not) would have become a member of the walking dead. i'm going by the zombie at the start of night of the living dead - he's initially a normal corpse (i think it was death by electric chair, but i'm kinda fuzzy on that), then becomes a zombie, but you know that there are already other zombies knocking around as they kill the inhabitants of the house. that's why i considered all corpses to be potential zombies, and it also explained to me why there are so many in such a short period of time.

i kneel to your superior understanding of zombie genesis. thankyou for my lovely thread

[Rockwulf]

You have NO IDEA what you might be unleashing here....

http://www.blows.com/chat/index.php?showtopic=23455

[RobLongshot]

ok, as far as actua Romero canon i would say ROTLD does not count as it goes against the rules Romero set forth... Talking zombies(early in the infection), running zombies, and zombies goming out of the grave. In the romero series it IS stated it is only the UNBURIED dead that return and yes, it does not need a bite. ANYONE who dies becomes a zombie. LOTD originally was going to ram this back into the viewers brain with a scene of a man hanging himself and returning to life, but it was cut from the final film. but is still mentioned in the intro news reports and in DayOTD specifically.
The only films that should count toward Romero Zombism is:
NOTLD
DotD (original only)
DayOTD
LOTD
and oddly enough Romero has mentioned that Shaun of the Dead is an "unoffical" side story of Dawn.

[Morning Glory]

ok ok, you don't have to count ROTLD, but I still think my reasoning holds up. Romero didn't do all of the work on the films so he isn't the sole intellectual creator of the zombie mythos. I just used his name because he directed most of the films and it's easiest to identify them with him, instead of writing out "Night of The Living Dead zombies" for this topic title.

and I don't see how you can justify dawn of the dead remake as not counting. just because you thought it sucked isn't a good enough reason.

[RobLongshot]

i didnt say DOTD remake sucked, in fact... on its own and with a different name it would be a great movie. But... it does suffer from the lack of the psychology of the originals in two different lights.

As a part of the NOTLD mythos:
It includes a sort of Zombies gain super strength, speed and agility thing. The point of Romero's zombies was that this lumbering shambling horde were on their own mildly frightening but avoidable, however en masse they were terrifying and unstoppable. The zombies from the original movies didnt need super strenth and speed and really i think it was just a response to 28 days later... which is NOT a zombie movie. I find the DOTD remake to be more along the lines of a serious ROTLD without the brains meets 28 days later.

As a film on the whole:
DOTD made sense... Why did they end up at the mall... they needed a place to lad the helicopter and it was high up away from zombie hands. Why did they leave the mall, raiders came and broke the place open and zombies and humans went a killin in side.
DOTD2004 did not make as much sense, Why did they go to the mall... "hel look, a mall!" (that just happened to be over the hill from where they meet up. why did they leave... They got cabin fever after a few weeks... in 1978 they were there for like a year or so.. did people in 2004 get less paitent, or stupider. there was also no sense of family amongst the characters... in the original you came to know the group well, it was a small group, but you felt their plight. in 2004 you dont feel that closeness.... too frentic and too many people in the cast.

many more reasons but i still thought it was an ok movie, but not Dawn of the Dead. it didnt have the heart or the social commentary.

[keiko]

Also, Return of the Living Dead zombies did not stop if you destroyed the brain. Immolation/cryo-isolation was the only way to stop them. Also RotLD zombies would wake up and not know they were zombies walk, talk, climb ladders, and use walkie talkies to order more paramedic brains. Romero Zombies don't crave brains, the don't even utter the word. (nor do they fist fight sharks while walking under water.)

Dawn '04 was a decent movie. It did have the Romero "screw job" ending but it did not have the psychology of the original. In '78 the "epidemic" was already weeks old. People were just refusing to accept the fact that they were the bodies of the dead reanimating. The dead were not imbued with super human strength with reanimation, nor speed and kung fu.
In the '04 version it happened in hrs. They went to the mall cause it was there and they left in a few weeks cause they were running out of non dairy creamer. Of the dozen or so people in the mall not one was really likable, you didn't really care for the living in this one, Unless you count Andy, the shop owner across the way that didn't say one word. The asshat with the boat you were kind of hoping would get eaten. They were softer, pushier and ruder. It wasn't Dawn of the Dead in comparison.

I hate zombies. I love zombie movies. A student of Rob's for five years as of the 25th I've learned alot about defending my self against the masses of the all consuming, assimilating hordes. Head shots to stop them, high ground ot avoid them and don't get bit.
K

[Rockwulf]

I always had issue with the original Romero series zombies.


For instance, you're holed up in a mall with a sporting goods store.

You've got nothing but time.

What would stop you from strapping on a rock-climbing harness, grabbing a bat, rappelling just far enough off the roof that you can reach them but they can't reach you and busting heads like it's your job???


That'd become my new favorite hobby. It'd be like a goddamn Gallagher show in the mall parking lot!

[Morning Glory]

well yes that was always my criticism of the remade dawn, that it lacked the undertones of the original series. but it's also a different time, the horror movies of the cold war played on peoples fears of that vast ominous enemy lurking in the shadows. while we may be a little bit more sophisticated from slasher movies, the focus of today is the enemy in your backyard. from a practical standpoint, a NOTLD zombie may be a match for a confused victorian-sensibilty woman on the run, but that kind of goon that you can simply push over and walk away from has to be taken up a notch to pose a threat to a group of armed people that are over the intial shock of crisis.