Zombies (Night of the Living Dead)

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Hostile Species
Full Name	Zombies
Alias	None
Origin	Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Homeworld	Earth
Abilities	Typical zombie physiology: Immune to pain Very tight grip that are practically impossible to dislodge Enhanced physical strength and resilience Semi-immortality Persistence Unlimited stamina Infection through biting Remake versions: Retain all said abilities Evolution Superhuman strength and agility Wall / ceiling crawl Powerful jumping Tool manipulation
Members	See Known Zombies
Hobby	Chasing and hunting the living Eating the living
Goals	Eat living beings and make more of their kind. Flood the world with more and more of themselves. Destroy humanity by turning every livings into zombies.
Crimes	Mass murder Cannibalism
Type of Hostile Species	Undead Cannibals

Zombies act as the main antagonists of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead and its various sequels and remakes, unlike the zombies found in movies such as 28 Days Later or videogames such as Resident Evil, the zombies of Night of the Living Dead are traditionally slow-moving monsters known as the "walking dead". Later remakes and reboots feature zombies moving fast and even evolving in terms of intelligence.

Characteristics

Contrary to early beliefs about zombies such as voodoo zombies that result of brainwash to unfortunate individuals that made them lost their free will and looked more like a corpse in appearance,  these zombies are more like mindless living corpse that only thought about attack any and all living humans in their immediate vicinity, regardless of past ties to said individual. They do not feed to satisfy hunger, and even specimens who have been completely disemboweled will still desire to feed, as long as brain function is present.

Reanimation and Infection

In Romero's series, anyone who died during zombie apocalypse, no matter whether bitten/exposed by other zombies or not, would turn into zombie. The one and only thing that would prevent a human to turned into zombie upon death/dying are either massive brain trauma (such as a gunshot wound to the head) or had their brain incapacitated post-mortem. No Romero film has definitively revealed the cause of reanimation, but several have featured characters speculating on possible causes, including radiation from a NASA probe, divine intervention, and viral infection. The length of time between death and reanimation seems to vary, but in most instance it is only a few minutes.

If a character is bitten by a zombie, they will become violently ill and die within three days. The interim till death seems to be dependent on the location and degree of the bite (meaning that bites on or near major arteries or veins will spread the infection much faster than small bites or scratches). Multiple bite wounds will cause the infection to spread all the faster. Also, massive blood loss caused by one of these bites will speed the death of the victim.

Behavior

All zombies, upon reanimation, would immediately devoid of both thought and memory that they had in life as these instantly replaced with instinct to feed and nothing else. This explained how they become hazardous to the living, as their urge to feed was not to satisfy hunger.

Although, later films showed them to seemingly recalling memories of their past lives and performing familiar tasks. They even started to developed problem solving skill: Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead show zombies using firearms in a limited capacity, while blunt objects as weapons have been used by zombies since Night of the Living Dead. The full extent of the creature's learning abilities is unknown, but the process of discovery for them is not unlike that of a toddler. Nevertheless, this revealed the chance to make them regained their lost emotions which only come after much training, with ample "food" being provided to keep the zombie occupied.

In Land of the Dead, zombies are transfixed by fireworks looking up so people can get close and shoot them, although eventually the zombies stop being transfixed and resume attacking Fiddlers Green.

Known Zombies

All members from classics and remakes:

• Johnny
• Karen Cooper
• Harry Cooper
• Helen Cooper
• Roger DeMarco
• Ben (1990 version)
• Stephen Andrews
• Bub
• Cholo DeMora
• Big Daddy
• Vivian
• Luis
• Luda
• Frank
• Andy
• Steve
• Kyle
• Paul
• Dr. Engel
• Bud
• Mrs. Leitner
• Jane O'Flynn
• Elliott
• Ridley
• Patrick O'Flynn
• Seamus Muldoon
• Captain Rhodes
• Mrs. Muldoon
• Debra's Family
• Infected Leadville residents

In Popular Culture

In Literature

• Night of the Living Dead, a 1974 novelization of the 1968 film written by John A. Russo.
• Night of the Living Dead, a 2009 new novelization of the 1968 film written by Christopher Andrews.
• Night of the Living Dead series, a comic book series.

In Music

• Night of the Living Dead (album), a 1996 live album by American hard rock band Jackyl.
• "Night of the Living Dead" (song), a 1979 single by horror punk band the Misfits.

External Links

• Night of the Living Dead — Download and watch both HD (Blu-ray) and standard version available for free. (Copyright is public domain).
• Night of the Living Dead — at Youtube.