there are many different types of zombies, and since they arent real theres no ‘single source of truth’
in the 28 Days Later series they are not undead, they are hyper rabies infected people.
In some series it a magical or spiritual afflicition (hell ran out of room so the dead roam the earth)
In some series its a biological pathogen, so some kind of virus or fungus that takes over the body and is centrally controlling the brain.
It’s a fungus in The Girl with all the Gifts.
In “Cast A Deadly Spell” they’re animated by voodoo and are servants. “You can get’em in 6-packs, like bonbons!”
Shooting them in the head doesn’t kill them. Nothing can. Even chopping them into little pieces, the peaces start attacking you. You can burn them up, but that will just spread the curse to other corpses in the acid rain.
My source is the zombie documentary: Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Is that the, er, documentary where a guy crawls out of the grave, waves his arms around blindly, finds his glasses in his pocket, puts them on and says “aaah!”
Probably not, actually.
Ah, I’m glad you asked - I’m an expert* on this topic. While the mental faculties of zombies are long gone, the brain still plays a part in moving limbs. The neural pulses from the brain control the muscles, even if the consciousness died a long time ago. The brain sends instructuons to the limbs, even if what is causing the brain to send them is something entirely foreign (like the Knox Virus).
To put it simply, the cerebellum (a.k.a. the “Little Brain” is what is used to move the muscles. A human brain with only the cerebellum intact could in theory still move, provided something instructs the cerebellum.
As for sharp teeth: Any dullness can be compensated for through brute force.
*: 1100 hours in Project Zomboid
I always considered zombies as half undead. Their bodies got reanimated somehow and they still kinda work.
Skeletons on the other hand are full undead running on magic so headshot doesn’t guarantee the kill.
