1. The word “zombie” is related to the African
word nzambi , which means “god.” The Grand
Serpent, the “Le Grand Zombi,” was the father of
all “laos,” or other gods, and appeared in the
shape of a python. b
2. October 8th is World Zombie Day. a
3. There are basically two theories on the origin
of zombies: 1) a cursed person dies and returns as
a zombie, and 2) a person contracts a virus or is
exposed to radiation.g
4. Mummies are not usually regarded as zombies
because while zombies are in a constant state of
decay, mummies are deliberately physically
preserved. a
5. According to zombie lore, the only way to kill a
zombie is to damage its brain or cut off its head. g
6. Because viruses are not independent living
organisms and need a living organism to
reproduce, a “zombie virus” could be considered a
misnomer because zombies are generally thought
to be dead. a
7. While the causes and depictions of zombies
throughout history have varied, one element links
them: they all have compromised brains. c
8. George A. Romero is often referred to as the
“Father of the Modern Zombie” and is widely
viewed as the creator of the modern zombie
cinema. He has written and directed more zombie
films that anyone in history. c
9. Modern
conceptions of
zombies originally
began with voodoo
religion in the West
African Yorubi tribe
and then traveled with
captured slaves to the
Caribbean island of
Haiti , a busy slave center in the 1700s. e
10. Prolific zombie filmmaker George A. Romero’s
first paid directing job was filming Mr. Rogers’
tonsillectomy for Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Romero said this project somehow inspired him to
pursue a career in horror films. a
11. Critics note that George Romero’s zombie
films are great because they use zombies as a
device for social commentary. In other words, they
are not movies about zombies, but rather about
groups of human beings and how they react in
crises. c
12. A parasitic fungus, a species of
Ophiocordycep s, effectively turns ants into
zombies. A recent study found that the fungus can
synchronize several ants to bite down
simultaneously on the underside of a leaf and then
die. The fungus then sprouts through the dead
ants’ bodies.a
13. According to Haitian folklore, feeding salt to a
zombie will restore the person to freedom. That
doesn’t mean the zombie will become a living
person again but, rather, that the body will return
to the grave. d
14. The most famous “real-
life” zombie is Haitian
Clairvius Narcisse. He claimed
he was turned into a zombie
by a combination of powerful
neurotoxins and
hallucinogens. b
15. There is a law in Haiti that
makes it a crime to turn
someone into a zombie.
Article 249 states that if
someone drugs another
person, buries him as though
he were dead, and then digs the person up and
brings him back to life, it is still considered
murder. a
16. A disease called Yaws can actually make
people look like zombies. The disease causes
painful, oozing sores on the face, legs, arms, and
feet. The painful wounds on the bottoms of the
feet sometimes cause a sufferer to walk in a slow,
zombie-like shuffle. b
17. Besides being able to move after they are
dead, zombies do not have superpowers. In fact,
zombies actually have fewer abilities than they did
when they were living human beings. a
18. The abbreviation RLF stand for “reanimated
life form,” which is another way of saying
“zombie.” a
19. In the case of a zombie outbreak, generic
weapons are always preferable to custom or rare
firearms with rarer forms of ammunition. a
20. In the case of a zombie outbreak, a person’s
physical fitness will have a significant influence
on a person’s odds of surviving. a
21. Zombies may have the
trademark zombie limp
because their bodies are
affected by the same
decomposition process as any
normal corpse. Additionally,
rigor mortis would cause
serious tissue and muscle
damage at the zombie’s each
step. Since zombies do not
regenerate or heal, any
damage is permanent.
Eventually, a zombies’ top
speed would be reduced to a
crawl and perhaps even slow to the point where it
could not move. b
22. Some critics theorize that zombies prefer the
taste of human flesh (if they can taste anything)
because warm human flesh may have to do with a
zombie virus needing fresh DNA or some parasitic
microorganism receiving some form of
nourishment from live blood cells. a
23. While vampires are fast, strong, difficult to
kill, relatively intelligent, and able to regenerate,
zombies are slow, rather weak, easy to kill, and
dumb. Any wound or damage they receive is
permanent. So, in a fight between a zombie and
vampire, the vampire would most likely win. b
24. Zombie fans debate whether how long it
would take a person who died from a zombie virus
to reanimate. Theories put the moment of
reanimation between a few minutes to several
hours. b
25. Experts note that in order to survive a zombie
attack, it is imperative to follow a few guidelines:
1) do not take shelter in a vehicle in which you do
not have the keys, 2) do not leave weapons out for
zombies to find, 3) do not give your only weapon
to a hysterical person, 4) do not retreat to your
basement without supplies, 5) do not get
surrounded by zombies, especially in an elevator,
and 6) do not let personal emotions and anger
impede survival.a
26. Some scientists claim that a zombie
apocalypse is not necessarily an impossibility
because humans are susceptible to neurotoxins,
brain parasites, real rage virus (such as mad cow
disease), neurogenesis, and nanobots (which can
operate in a host even after the host has died). f
27. In computer science, a zombie is a computer
that has been taken over by a virus, a Trojan
horse, or a hacker. Most owners of zombie
computers are unaware their computers have been
compromised. a
28. The top 10 safest countries during a zombie
outbreak according to geographic location,
topography, armed populace, population density,
and military preparedness are the following: 1)
Australia, 2) Canada, 3) United States, 4) Russia,
5) Kazakhstan, 6) Bolivia, 7) Norway, Finland, 9)
Argentina, and 10) Sweden. g
29. Stories of the dead being brought back to life
are thousands of years old. For example, 5,000
years ago in the Middle Eastern tale the Epic of
Gilgamesh , an angry goddess threatens to bring
the dead back to eat the living.b
30. Zombies in Chinese myth are called the Kuang
Shi (the “hopping corpse”). While they have
human bodies, they do not have independent
thought or free will. In some Chinese myths,
zombies are dead people who die far from home
and must walk back to their home villages before
they can rest in peace. b
31. In Scandinavian stories, zombies are called
draugr . According to legend, draugr were fierce
warriors, but after they died, they were not
content to lie in their grave. Instead, they came
back to attack the living. To kill a draugr one had
to cut off its head, burn its body, and scatter its
ashes out to sea.b
32. It is generally
believed that in the
hours before rigor
mortis sets in,
zombies would be at
their most dangerous.
They would, briefly,
have the strength and
speed of living
humans before their bodies would be ravaged by
decomposition.b
33. A revenant—from the French term revenir ,
meaning “one who returns”—is a popular zombie-
like creature. Like zombies, they begin to suffer
decomposition and smell like a rotting body once
they come back to life. However, unlike modern
zombies, their teeth begin to grow into terribly
crooked and jagged protrusions. Also unlike
zombies, they do not eat people or drink blood. b
34. Zombie stories have been found all over the
world, including Europe, Asia, North America,
Africa, and the Middle East—though Haiti has been
the source of modern zombie stories. d
35. Voodoo zombies, or zombies based in Haitian
lore, are created by evil priests called bokors for
several reasons: cheap labor, revenge, and
power. c
36. According to the Voodoo religion, once a
zombie has been created, the bokor, or the evil
priest who created the zombie, must keep the
zombie obedient by feeding it a paste made from a
plant called the “zombie’s cucumber.” Legend
states that chemicals in the cucumber keep
zombies weak so they are easy to order around. In
the United States, the zombie’s cucumber is
called jimsonweed. b
37. According to Haitian voodoo, there are
several precautions people can take so that their
deceased loved one can avoid being turned into a
zombie: 1) bury the body under heavy stones so
they are harder to dig up, 2) watch over the grave
for 36 hours (after 36 hours, death is final and a
bokor can no longer turn a dead body into a
zombie), and 3) cut the head off the body.b
38. George A. Romero’s 1968 movie Night of the
Living Dead is universally credited as being the
film from which all zombie movies today have
their roots. In the movie, radiation from a fallen
satellite brings dead people back to life—and they
have an appetite for human flesh. c
39. Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 “rom zom com” or
romantic zombie comedy. The film was written as
a spoof honoring George Romero’s Night of the
Living Dead. It stars Simon Pegg as the couch-
potato-turned-zombie-hunter Shaun. It has also
been called a “zomedy.” b
40. The popular Dead World series is different
from other zombie genres because it depicts a
ruling class of zombies that are organized and
intelligent. a
41. The most popular zombie-based manga
(Japanese comics) storyline is called High School
of the Dead. The story is about a group of high
school students who have been caught in the
middle of a zombie apocalypse. Additionally, they
must face the threat of the societal collapse and
the decay of their own moral framework. a
42. The Internet has opened up new venues for
the zombie genre to grow, particularly zombie-
themed Internet comics, such as the Zombie
Hunters , Last Blood, Everyday Deca y, and
Slaughter, Inc .a
43. In the case of a
zombie outbreak,
there are certain “hot
spots” for zombie
infection, including
hospitals, police
stations, churches,
malls, and department
stores. a
44. Early zombie movies were often associated
with Voodoo-style zombies rather than viral or
radiation zombies For example, White Zombie
(1932) tells the story of a woman’s transformation
into a zombie at the hands of a Voodoo master.
45. The very first zombie movie ever made is the
1932 American film White Zombie. It was also the
first horror movie that was not a silent film, as
well as the first independent horror film to star
Bela Lugosi, an icon of horror cinema. c
46. In the very first zombie movie ever, White
Zombie, lead actor Bela Lugosi was paid just $800
for his performance, making him the highest paid
actor in the movie. Even in 1932, that wasn’t a lot
of money. The movie grossed less than $25,000 at
the box office, though the film’s budget was
around $50,000. White Zombie is public domain,
which means no one owns the rights to the film
anymore. a
47. The movies Zombie Strippers (2008) and
Zombies, Zombies, Zombies (2008) are ranked as
some the very worst zombie movies of all time. a
48. Ethnobotanist Wade Davis traveled to Haiti in
1982 after hearing reports of zombification. He
found that the “zombies” were most likely exposed
to a dangerous mix of potent neurotoxins and
hallucinogens. He wrote his discoveries in the
book The Serpent in the Rainbow, which was
adapted into a movie of the same name by horror
director Wes Craven in 1988. Some critics have
dismissed his work as unscientific or fraudulent. b
49. The term “Zombophiles” is a term used to
describe fans of the zombie genera. a
50. According to Haitian lore, a Vodun (Voodoo)
zombie’s soul is returned to the victim upon the
creator’s death. Consequently, if someone used a
zombie as a servant after the creator’s death, they
would risk retribution for violating Vodun law.b
51. In Haiti, “zombie powder” is most likely given
to the victim through the skin on the left inner
arm due to its proximity to the heart. After
becoming exposed, the victim becomes violently
ill and paralyzed. Though the person cannot
move, he or she can still see, hear, and feel
everything. Then the person is buried alive in a
Haitian Vodun zombification ceremony and then
later “reanimated.” b
52. Many times
victims of Vodun
(Voodoo)
zombification are
reported to walk
clumsily, speak with
slurred speech, and
act “spacy” or
“inattentive.” Experts
note this is probably a
result of permanent brain damage caused by a
combination of prolonged oxygen deprivation from
being buried alive and exposure to “zombie
powder,” which is a mix of the neurotoxin TTX and
the hallucinogenic dautra and Calabar beans. b
53. Recent research shows that most likely only
about 1 in 100 attempts at Voodoo zombification
in Haiti would be successful. The other 99 times
would result in death.a
54. Critics note that the profound influence the
atomic age had on the public consciousness
helped usher in the age of the modern zombie.
Radiation became a staple of horror entertainment
and was the cause for mutant animals, giant
insects—and zombies.b
55. George A. Romero’s 1968 The Night of the
Living Dead was the first zombie movie to show a
physical cause of zombification. Previously,
zombies were created through Voodoo or other
type of black magic. c
56. The movie Dead Snow is a 2009 Norwegian
zombie comedy about a group of students under
attack from Nazi zombies in the mountains of
Norway. It was nominated for the “Most
Memorable Mutilation” scene.
57. Toxic zombies are zombies who have come
back to life through radiation, exposure to a virus,
or poisonous chemical leaks. These zombies are
usually rotting, smell bad, can’t feel pain, and
prefer to feed on human flesh. They typically can’t
move fast, but they can smell fresh blood and can
hear very well. Voodoo zombies are zombies
under another person’s control and they retain a
limited capacity for human attributes, such as
pain and emotion. They appear in stories in the
Caribbean, Central and South America, and the
southern United States.b,c
58. Zombie powder allegedly used in Haitian
zombification is made from poisons taken from
animals, such as the spiky puffer fish, the hyla
tree frog, and the cane toad. In addition, the
powders contain human remains as well as some
hallucinogens. b
59. Critics note that zombies—created either from
superstition, radiation, or viral mutation—
represent what is frightening in the human psyche
and they serve to explore many profound
assumptions about life and death.d
60. The Germans have a version of the zombie
called the Nachtzehrer, which has two common
translations: “night waster” or “night eater/
chewer/gnawer.” The Nachtzeher has traits of
both the zombie and vampire. When a Nachtzeher
is first reanimated, it gnaws on parts of its own
body and then seeks other victims to feed upon.a
61. Long ago, people
were sometimes
buried alive because
they were in a coma,
which doctors
mistook for death.
When thieves dug up
their graves to steal
jewelry, the corpses
seemed to come back
to life. This has played a role in developing the
zombie myth.e
62. There are three general schools of thought
about how a zombie virus would behave. First,
dormant infection, where the virus would spread
around the world and remain unnoticed until the
recently dead begin to reanimate. In this case,
everyone, bitten or not, would become a zombie.
Next is active infection only, which means that
only those who are bitten by a zombie would be
infected and ultimately die as a result, only to
reanimate after their deaths. Finally, dormant and
active infection, which is the worst out of the
three: all persons who die would reanimate, but
those who are bitten would die much faster. a
63. Critics note that zombies are an extreme
representation of conformity and represent the
inner struggle many humans have regarding the
conflict of individuality versus conformity. b
64. The term “philosophical zombies” represents a
philosophical concept of a living human organism
that has no conscious experience. a
65. Zombie fans hotly debate whether Dr.
Frankenstein’s creation can be considered a
“zombie.” One side of the debate claims that a
zombie should be defined as a reanimated corpse,
regardless of how that reanimation occurs. The
other side says that the corpse must be
reanimated by either a virus or radiation and eat
human flesh. a
66. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was the first
novel to approach the idea of human reanimation
from a nonsuperstitious point of view. Whether
Frankenstein’s monster is a zombie or not, Shelley
was the first to depict a reanimated body caused
by science. b
67. A Canadian-based team of statisticians
created a zombie virus outbreak scenario and
found that the only hope for any human
civilization faced with such an outbreak would be
a fast, aggressive extermination response. Taking
a defensive stance would not work. For example,
in a stereotypical urban city with a population of
500,000 people, it would require an aggressive
military response within 3-8 days. After 8 days, it
would be nearly guaranteed that civilization would
not bounce back. a
68. Zombies represent all that is dark and base
about the human condition. The fear of zombies
often stems from real human fears regarding
unfamiliar or chaotic forces in the world.b
69. Most zombie survivalists adhere to the
following survival list: 1) 14-90 days worth of
nonperishable food, 2) a personal water source
and/or 14 to 90 days worth of drinkable water, 3)
at least one firearm with 1,000 to 10,000 rounds of
ammunition, 5) a gasoline electricity generator
with 2 to 4 weeks worth of fuel, and 6) a sturdy
melee/close combat weapon and some form of
martial arts/close combat training.a
70. One of the most well organized zombie
survivalist sites is ZCORE, which stands for
Zombie Coalition Offensive Response Elite. It
costs $4 to join. a
71. The people in the popular horror film 28 Days
are not technically zombies because they do not
die before they take on a zombie-like appearance
and become fixated on