Quote from: ZWEIHÄNDER;943942Check out Pontypool for a very unique spin on 'zombie' infection that doesn't involve biting, blood or elsewise: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontypool_(film)

Pontypool is a great little gem of a horror picture. The book is worth a read too.

Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (the novel, not the film or the other two film adaptations, although The Last Man On Earth starring Vincent Price is a damn fine film) is another good "zombie horror" film.  Oh, sure, they're "vampires" but they are (at least initially) very zombie-like.  Mindless killers with little to no problem solving skills.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;943962Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (the novel, not the film or the other two film adaptations, although The Last Man On Earth starring Vincent Price is a damn fine film) is another good "zombie horror" film.  Oh, sure, they're "vampires" but they are (at least initially) very zombie-like.  Mindless killers with little to no problem solving skills.

Yep, great book. Shame that the 3 films based on it have all failed to live up to it, or indeed actually adapt it properly.

Quote from: CRKrueger;942659...Get some on you, they dig for the brainstem.  Yummy.

Yeah. Rotgrubs, worms, slugs... they all creep me the hell out! Good stuff to terrify me. :-D

I created a setting/scenario where the zombie outbreak is the "zombie fungus" that mutates from insects to mankind combined with a highly virulent form of Malaria. Different behaviors are programmed into the host to facilitate infection and it was spread by mosquitos.

In 28 days/weeks the infected are very much alive. The infection spreads by any fluid contact and is near instantaneous. You see several times where an infected vomits blood on the victim's face and then simply moves on. They rage until someone is "prone". Also, at the end of 28 days, we see an infected on the side of the road, emaciated and obviously dying of thirst/hunger. So I categorize them differently.

The reason "Romero" zombies are often found more intact is the propensity of the living to escape the slow shambling undead. The living are still bitten, but then flee in horror, get sick, die and rise. In addition you have the human empathy factor. The scene in TWD episode 1 where Rick confronts the little girl. Her mouth was ripped nearly off. I imagine she tried to kiss her mommy or daddy goodnight and... people wouldn't believe a loved one was trying to eat them. Add to this your first responders, good samaritans and foolish opportunists and the field is ripe with victims.

TWD gives us a huge conundrum that I believe requires a more scientifically unsound theory. Everyone is infected with "the virus". This virus's sole purpose is to reanimate the dead. Now, why do bitten people die? My theory; a sympathetic viral infection that lives in the rotting mucous of the host. The virus is more virulent yet also more fragile. Where the airborne reanimation virus is akin to a flu, the "kill you fast" virus is more akin to Ebola. The sympathetic virus kills you in about 24 hours or less, then you reanimate, providing the perfect conditions for sympathetic infection. Hell, you could be infected with both but the "kill you fast" virus doesn't have enough concentration in a living host to do anything. Until they die.

The only 'logical' zombie apocalypse I've ever encountered was The Abandoned. Every person twenty-three or older simply died and became the Risen. No explanation. No lame justification. It just happened. Because as soon as you try to apply actual reason to a zombie apocalypse it all falls apart.

On the one hand, I think it's kind of silly to put too much thought into the "logic" of a Zombie Apocalypse.  That's not what it's supposed to be about.

On the other, I think it would make sense as a motivation for why they'd eat people that eating human flesh somehow keeps them functioning; that zombies who go too long without eating human flesh degrade more and get weaker/slower. Maybe even dumber.