Just some things bothering me as a true horror fan!

**E.F. Benson** · 10-15-2009,12:50 PM

Very interesting Spats. I always thought Night of the Living Dead defined zombie movies, and made them flesh eating, not to mention every film seems to copy the idea the way to kill a zombie is to severely damage it's head.

Wasn't one of the motives of turning people into zombies in Haiti, to have slaves to help with hard labor?

**the dogman** · 10-15-2009,01:42 PM

Zombies as far as I am aware are all creatures of reanimated flesh, the living dead if you will. Therefore, the zombies category includes pretty much every vampire, Frankenstein's Monster, and might I go so far as to say Jesus (in jest mind you). If it's undead it's a zombie, just of different classification.

Anyhow, I agree that films are relying far too much on sex and gore to get tickets. And the point about the costumes called "sexy this" and "sexy that", yeah that needs to stop. Skullboy, be careful about giving beer to half naked bloody chicks, you never know who's underage these days. Check their ID before you offer them a drink.

**skullboy** · 10-15-2009,05:09 PM

Originally Posted by the dogman

Zombies as far as I am aware are all creatures of reanimated flesh, the living dead if you will. Therefore, the zombies category includes pretty much every vampire, Frankenstein's Monster, and might I go so far as to say Jesus (in jest mind you). If it's undead it's a zombie, just of different classification.

Anyhow, I agree that films are relying far too much on sex and gore to get tickets. And the point about the costumes called "sexy this" and "sexy that", yeah that needs to stop. Skullboy, be careful about giving beer to half naked bloody chicks, you never know who's underage these days. Check their ID before you offer them a drink.

OH I am aware of that but thanks.I dont take chances and even have a camera monitor my keg when my daughters buds are here.

**Spats** · 10-15-2009,06:09 PM

Originally Posted by E.F. Benson

Very interesting Spats. I always thought Night of the Living Dead defined zombie movies, and made them flesh eating, not to mention every film seems to copy the idea the way to kill a zombie is to severely damage it's head.

Wasn't one of the motives of turning people into zombies in Haiti, to have slaves to help with hard labor?

Yeah, like I said earlier, Romero may have been the first to film them, but the idea is very old. Lots of folkloric undead were rotted flesh-eaters, including some we describe as vampires. The Norse draugr sometimes was accused of it, as was the Scandinavian Myling and the German Nachzehrer.

As for the motives of Haitian zombie-making, it looks to me like the motives ranged from slaves to soldiers to body-guards, but the primary stories deal with plantation owners needing muscle for the sugar cane fields. Most of the older Vodoun stuff can be traced to West Africa, where the idea of religious control over ones life is a common theme in their stories and fables.

**Mr. Scratch** · 10-15-2009,09:21 PM

Originally Posted by Spats

Oh, and I come out swingin'! I'm gonna have to disagree, and I can back up my statements.

Before I get started, I'll grant you that zombie (zumbi or nzambi) is a West African word that is used in Vodoun practice and applies to a corpse controlled by a bokor (magician or shaman). Shambling flesh-eaters back from the grave have little in common with these, and we misuse the word all the time in modern society.

To say that zombies are virtually unheard of in Haitian Vodou is not accurate. Papa Doc Duvallier (haitian dictator, 1957-1971) was rumored to have an army of them at his disposal.
There is even a law in Haiti concerning zombies...

"Haitian Penal Code:

Article 249. It shall also be qualified as attempted murder the employment which may be made against any person of substances which, without causing actual death, produce a lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the person had been buried, the act shall be considered murder no matter what result follows."

That said, where did the flesh-eating corpses come from?
Old folklore, which inspired modern authors and film makers.
When Romero made "Night of the Living Dead", the father film of the genre, he was directly inspired by Matheson's novel "I am Legend."
"I am Legend" used the old school vampire, hordes of them, stinking, rotting, shambling about, thirsty for blood and wanting for warmth, the way vampires used to be.
These old vampire legends often state that the dead want for life and the things of life, fresh blood and warm flesh among them, as well as a night with their widowed wives, time at the family dinner table, a sit before the fire and even a good swig of hard liquor, depending on the tale.
Vampires, revenants, ghouls and draugr all sort of blur together the further one goes back in folkloric history.
Older vampires were accused of flesh-eating all the time, and even ate their own grave clothes and chewed on their own arms.

So when Matheson wrote "I am Legend" he set aside the cunning, noble-born vampire of the victorian age and went back to the roots of the legend, and it was so effective, Romero had to make it his own.

So while a lone film maker may have given us the final version of the flesh-eating revenant, the shambling stinkies had forefathers, some almost indistinguishable from themselves.

And the careful observer will note that the word 'zombie' is never uttered in "Night of the Living Dead". In fact, the word 'ghoul' is used, which is also incorrect - a ghoul was never a human being, but a desert demon of Arabic folklore.

"Ghoul" - another word like zombie misused in our time.
Or maybe, as with all words, the meaning is changing, and we purists are more sensitive to it.

I think Romero owes a lot not only to I Am Legend but also to it's visual counterpart The Last Man On Earth.