My Zombie Subspecies Classification Project
Here’s my next project. I’m attempting to classify the various subspecies of zombies (Both alive and undead) found in movies and literature. I plan on making a comic showing my cartoon version of each of these “Zombie Types” then compiling them into a poster I can take to cons and the like. I came up with fifteen broad categories of zombie subtypes.
Yes I could have broken these out to about a million but I just can’t draw that many zombie types, so I’m sticking with fifteen.
I wanted to throw this out to the zombie community and see what you guys thought. Feel free to debate what is or is not a zombie… but if Stephanie Myer can call a Glittery Heart Throb a vampire, we should be able to be pretty broad in classifying what a zombie is too.
Feel free to make your suggestions, add examples of movies/literature where different types of zombies exist, or just tell me I suck.
Zombie Subspecies Classification Project
Biological Zombies
- Pathogens (Viral, Bacterial, Alien. 28 Days, Resident Evil)
- Mutations
- Parasites/Symbiotes (Fungus, Plants, Alien Spores…. Ect…)
Metaphysical Zombies
- Magic (Black Magic, Curses, Necromancy, Pure willpower/rage “Creepshow“)
- Religious (Voodoo, God did it, The Devil did it, Hell’s full, ect…. Fulci’s “City of the Living Dead”, “White Zombie”)
- Hypnosis/Mind Control
- Supernatural Entities (Possession, Spirits, Demons, Vampiric, ect… “REC & REC 2“, The Evil Dead Series,)
Chemical Zombies
- Pharmaceutical (Drugs, the whacki weed, Loritab,)
- Toxic/Medical Waste (“Tokyo Zombie”, “Night of the living dead 3d”)
- Misc. Chemicals (Trioxin “Return of the Living Dead”, Herbert West’s Serum from “The Reanimator”)
Technological Zombies
- Cybernetics and Medical Experiments gone awry.
- Nanobots
- The Constructed (Frankenstien’s Monster… What? he’s built from Dead bodies, that’s gotta count?)
Energy Zombies
- Radiation/Electrical (Romero Zombies a.k.a. “Night of the Living Dead”)
- Alien Unknown Energy
This is totally a work in progress, but if you’d like to help with ideas and examples/movies and books where a zombie type is used I’d appreciate it.
Nazi Zombies? 😀
Nazi zombies rock! There is no doubt. But how were they animated. Nazi Super science or possibly supernatural?
In the movie “Shock Waves” staring the awesome Peter Cushing, the Nazi’s were animated with science. I wonder how they were animated in “Dead Snow”… I have that movie but haven’t gotten around to seeing it yet.
I feel shame over that.
I like this. However where would the zombies from Resident Evil series be? The T-Virus was created by a Pharmaceutical company (If you go by their ads for the product the T-Virus was going to be, an anti-aging cream type thing). Granted it is a Virus and would go under viral, but being created by a Pharma would it be Pharma related? Perhaps just Chemical Zombie then seeing how it’s other use was for Chemical Warfare?
I think you have to keep breaking it down till you come to the root of the cause of zombification.
Yes, the Umbrella corp made Pharmaceuticals, but the T-Virus is still a virus and not “Overly elaborate Mascara”
So in that case you’d have to categorize it as “Biological Viral Zombies”
I do think there’s going to be some gray areas in the list. What is somebody finds an example of a supernatural virus or some other weirdness? Where would you classify that? Who knows?
That’s why I like this type of debate.
Now that I think about it “Mutations” seams the weakest category. Something has to cause the mutation right?
You may have mutant zombies in your story, but it was originally caused by something else. (Virus, radiation) Can you really call it a mutation zombie then?
Could you make up a reason for mutations spreading that didn’t have some other cause? Hmmmmm….
I stand by the argument that 28 Days Later did not have zombies. The definition of a zombie traditionally is the living or at least walking dead. While many movies have the virus killing people who then rise up, 28 Days and the following movies had normal living humans who were infected and became enraged. Possibly harder to kill, but in the same way someone with adrenaline (sp?) or pcp in system would be.
For mutations, there could be a genetic link. Think of the whole Hills Have Eyes type of mutated family line and inbreeding. There have been a couple of movies out there, one really recent, where an infant has been born flesh eating. I haven’t seen it, but “Grace” released in 2009 is supposed to be on those lines.
And supernatural virus was used on the show Supernatural with the demonic disease “the Croatoan virus” http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=Croatoan although it’s like the 28 Days Later and is a virus that infects live humans with a murderous rage.
See 28 Day Zombies don’t follow your “Pop Culture” zombie archetype in that they are alive and they don’t eat flesh.
But the problem with that is that “Voodoo Zombies” especially if we’re talking real life voodoo zombies are alive and don’t devour their neighbors. You can’t NOT call those zombies, as that’s where the word comes from.
I think we need a broader more inclusive definition for zombies. That’s the point of this project. What makes a zombie? Is Jason Voorhees a Zombie? He’s back from the dead after all.
How about a mummy? If that bugger gets up and comes after you, that’s pretty similar to a zombie, just covered in bandages.
We need to define what a zombie is.
Voodoo zombies anthropologically were supposedly given drugs to mimic a death, sending the person into a deep coma to where the family would bury them. The “magic” person could then dig up the body and administer other drugs that would awaken the dead person but keep them in a foggy haze. If seen by a family member or someone from the village, the zombie was assumed brought back to life or the walking dead. Some claim now that this was more folklore then actually done, while others swear some poor souls were made slaves in this manner. So no flesh eating, and while technically alive, they were assumed dead and brought back.
The more modern flesh eating zombie didn’t really come about until Romero. He was also the first to get away from the idea of a mindless slave created by magic and instead move to mindless monster created by unavoidable circumstances.
If you look at classifying zombies by what caused the affliction, then you almost create a timeline of societies fears. At the time of Haitian zombie legend, people were scared of magic and being buried while still alive. Later as a society, we moved away from being afraid of magic and in the 60’s were now dealing with space travel. In the late 70’s and early 80’s Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl had the world terrified of nuclear attacks or accidents. These days biological warfare has become a scary reality, so zombies now manifest as bi-products of viruses often created by governments. We no longer fear vampires or mummies, but coming into contact with an infected person or a biological lab losing containment are very real concerns to many.
Hey Zombie Carter,
Check out this post on http://scienceblogs.com/primatediaries/2010/07/on_the_origin_of_zombie_specie.php. The author actually created latin names for various categories of zombies – pretty cool. I like your categories, though – easier to fit the various zombie types, but perhaps you could invent some latin names for them.
Bill.
Ladybelle, that was a great post.
I know a lady who lived in that area of the world. She told me that the people there still have a very real belief in magic, voodoo, and zombies. She herself was pretty nervous about it.
I can’t blame her… That’s scary stuff and that’s why I love it.
That’s why I would still classify the 28 day’s infected as zombies. They fulfill the same roll as zombies do in other movies… That being reflecting societies fears.
Or I could be full of it, who knows.
Bill, Nice! When I’ve got more intertubes time I’m going to check that whole article out. Nice find.
Gotta run and pack more stuff for my move.