Zombies – our brain-craving buddies

The failure to lay a deceased body to rest in sacred ground has always been one of humanity's greatest fears. This threat has permeated the mythological concepts of civilizations since the dawn of history. For instance, the Bible itself, in the Book of Revelation, describes the resurrection of two slain prophets as one of the signs of the Apocalypse. And Jesus, well, he rose from the dead too…

The voodoo cult pays specific attention to the undead, where summoning and controlling corpses is considered the highest form of necromancy. In European culture, however, myths and fairy tales featured vampires rather than traditional reanimated corpses, or zombies. Unlike reanimated corpses, vampires are endowed with their own will, which zombies lack; their survival is driven solely by primitive animal instinct. At least, that is how the founder of the zombie genre, director George A. Romero, portrayed these reanimated corpses. May he rest in peace.

It was Romero who laid the foundations for zombie horror with his films, establishing clear rules. Zombies can only be killed by destroying their brains, they react very sensitively to sound, and they move with a slow gait (this was later negated by the British series Dead Set, which turned the undead into very fast and rabid monsters). Most importantly, a bite or scratch from an undead creature automatically infects the victim, keeping the virus in circulation.

More than thirty years have passed since the turn of the 70s and 80s, when Romero's seminal films, Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, were released. During that time, many zombie films appeared, but they failed to gain mainstream attention.

These films were often of poor quality. A few examples worth noting: the [REC] series, 28 Days/Weeks Later, Grindhouse: Planet Terror, Deathwatch, Braindead, Dellamorte Dellamore, the Resident Evil series – although it doesn't hold a candle to the game source material – and others as you please… However, in 2010, the The Walking Dead comic book was adapted into a series, bringing the zombie theme into the wider public consciousness. And the floodgates opened, not just for films and series. The undead were suddenly everywhere. In games, board games, books, and comics.

Do you enjoy zombies? We've selected a few tips for you:

The Walking Dead (comic book)

Robert Kirkman was definitely not the first or the last to bring zombies to the pages of a comic book. But he succeeded in bringing them into the mainstream. The famous series of the same name was based on this very comic. Yet, the comic steals every cliché and doesn't come up with anything new. His world is cruel; death waits at every turn, and it is not lazy—it will come for you anywhere. Paradoxically, however, the walking dead are not the worst thing you can encounter in The Walking Dead. The The Walking Dead comic is an immortal classic today, which, unlike the series, maintained its quality until the very last issue.

World War Z (book)

Running into a zombie in a book isn't that much of a problem. But this novel by Max Brooks clearly belongs to the best the genre has produced. The book is a series of interviews with people from all over the world. From a world where something went really, horribly wrong. Each fragment creates an amazingly realistic mosaic of what could happen. World War Z is also unique in that humanity eventually wins. Even if at a huge cost. The film adaptation of the same name treats the subject very loosely and barely approaches the quality of the book.

Apocalypse Z (book)

The Spaniard Manel Loureiro wrote a trilogy that, while it gradually fell into established clichés where the world is in ruins but the biggest threat is ego-driven maniacs, deserves your attention just for its absolutely perfect and believable beginning of the catastrophe. If you are constantly annoyed by the nonsense people do in the face of zombies, the protagonist of Apocalypse Z shows that even in a post-apocalyptic world, people with logical thinking succeed.

Zombicide (board game)

The theme has, of course, not avoided board games. If you have the chance, get your hands on the now harder-to-find but absolutely amazing Dead of Winter. If you don't have that option, the popular Zombicide will offer a great dose of fun. In this accessible cooperative game, hordes of various undead will attack you, and your task is simple at first glance—survive. Don't expect any great strategy or depth, but it's still a lot of fun.

Zombies have undergone a turbulent evolution. From the original slow-shuffling Romero zombies, they have moved to the super-fast monsters from 28 Days Later or World War Z. Today, they have various shapes and abilities. Sometimes the infection is caused by rabies, a curse, or divine punishment. Often, foul play in research is involved. After all, fans of the Resident Evil series and the Umbrella Corporation know all about that. Among the most original ideas is definitely the game series The Last of Us, which will soon be adapted into a series produced by HBO. In it, a parasitic fungus mows down humanity, turning people into bloodthirsty monsters.

The time when pop culture fans stumbled over the undead everywhere they went is likely behind us. However, zombies have managed to take root irreversibly, and we can't imagine any proper post-apo without them. The moment an undead fist breaks through the soil piled above it as a sign of resistance against the exit, it doesn't matter anymore anyway. We fans will always have a big advantage—we are prepared, and nothing will surprise us. So, when your recently deceased grandmother starts clawing at you, don't forget the basic rule: aim for the head…

author: Ondřej Kovář