Now for something altogether unrelated…

There is a long standing debate between zombie enthusiasts as to which kind – fast or slow – is the more appropriate and terrifying representation of the undead apocalypse.

I view the whole zombie phenomenon as a modern fantasy popularized through cinema. Some notable representations come from MJ’s Thriller, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, and the parody Shaun of the Dead. I should also note that my introduction into zombie-culture came rather late and via video games such as Left 4 Dead.

Mmmm….Brains!

I was watching an interview on Late Night with one of the actresses from Zombieland (a film I consider much funnier than Shaun of the Dead) and the controvertial topic of fast vs slow zombies came up. She argued that the zombies in Zombieland aren’t technically zombies… and this is may be true in the sense that they are infected people rather than reanimated corpses. However, when you look at what all infected or zombies try to do – that is eat people – and that there are hordes of them, you tend to lump them all together.

Now while I shy away from a “right” way to represent zombies, I can see clear differences in approach (and not just in the speed of the zombie’s approach). Slow zombies are part of horror films and fast zombies are part of action-thrillers. The emphasis is on a slow, dreadful anticipation in the former and a reactionary adrenaline rush in the latter. Slow zombies are a lot less sophisticated – and as far as I understand – they simply overwhelm you after a certain point. Fast zombies are trickier in the short run – since they pop up unexpectedly and you’ll be running a lot more to stay away from them – but eventually they overwhelm you as well. Slow zombies come from magic and fast zombies are scientifically explained. The most important distinction between the two is the relevancy of fast zombies in today’s horror culture and their evolution from slow zombies.

Stronger, Faster, Rabid-er

Much credit goes to Zach Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later… for introducing the higher paced, infected version of the zombie. The new sense of urgency resonates well if your goal is to make people in the theater jump or if you want to provide gamers with a frightfully relentless enemy to kill.

Would I rather survive a slow onslaught of corpses or take my chances with the faster infected?

I think the inevitable doom which lingers over either case really makes me choose the second, faster type of zombies. In those movies, the characters are a lot more concerned with destroying the infected than with always running to safety, and this seems very proactive and productive to me. Although, with my weapon skills, I would assume a shorter life expectancy. In either case, the survival of a zombie apocalypse requires one to be healthy, intelligent, and willing to work together as a species. These sound like good real life goals!

Zombie media referenced/seen/played: MJ Thriller, Dawn of the Dead (remake), Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, I Am Legend (not really a zombie movie… but it has zombie elements), L4D (1 and 2)