Zombie Information & Zombie Trivia

One type of zombie is that of the Afro-Caribbean or Haitian voodoo belief where a Bokor sorcerer reanimates the dead as a slave.

The zombie of the horror movie became popular in 1968 with the black and white film "Night of the Living Dead" by George A. Romero.  This is where the idea of a zombie plague or infection by a virus began.  

In Dan O'Bannon's sequel "Return of the Living Dead" it goes farther to suggest that zombies arise due to the chemical Trioxin, and in the zombie movie "28 Days Later" by Danny Boyle it is a man-made virus that cause zombification.

In the book "The Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks it is the Solanum virus that causes the zombie plague.

Art of a Zombie at Night in a Sugar Cane Field in Haiti by Jean-noël Lafargue

In Archaeology Magazine there is an article about historical "evidence" of zombies in Ancient Egypt.  In 1892 during a British dig at Hierakonopolis along the Nile River a tomb was discovered with a partially decomposed body with a brain thought to be "infected" with the Solanum virus that turns people into zombies.  The sealed tomb was filled with scratch marks which appeared that the zombie tried to claw its way out.  They also discovered archaeological evidence (such as the hieroglyphs shown at the right) that suggests there was a zombie war at this time.  The article also includes a handy reference made by the archaeologists presently at Hierakonopolis on how to handle zombies and an outbreak of Solanum today.

Photo by Keith Schengili-Roberts

Researchers at Carleton University and Ottawa University in Canada carried out a mathematical exercise studying the effects of a zombie apocalypse.  The conclusion of their study Infectious Diseases Modelling Research Progress was that unless the zombies were dealt with quickly and aggressively there would be a total collapse of civilization.  This study acts as a model of how other infectious diseases could spread.

Photo by Joel Friesen

This ingenious quiz tests you on every day choices that you make to see if you really have what it takes to survive a zombie apocalypse.  Answer questions about what you've done in the past to see if you can handle the future zombie plague.

Do you know what you'll do if the zombie apocalypse happens?  Are you prepared?  Fear not.  If you don't have a zombie survival plan, we're here to help.  Check out Zombie Survival and Defense Wiki to read  the survival plans created by others.  There is lively discussion of the pros and cons of each survival plan so you can choose the one that suits your needs best.  You can even create your own zombie survival plan and have it commented on by others so you can update and correct any problems before the zombie plague actually hits.

Graphics by Da Cruz Pereira

How many zombie movies have you seen?  Do you think you've seen them all?

Check out our extensive list of zombie movies and check them off as you see them!

Night of the Living Dead by George A. Romero

FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on the hit TV series "X-files" believed that zombies awoke hungry, but after they had their fill of brains they just wanted to dance.  Check out these dancing zombies videos from around the world and decide for yourself.

Matt Busch has recreated 6 Star Wars movie posters into a new franchise - Zombie Wars.  Now that's a movie we'd pay to see! (over and over and over)

Check out his posters here - they are fantastic!

If you would like to know if you'd survive a zombie outbreak, test your mettle in Zombie vs. Humans, a tag game played on college campuses all over the world.  Those designated as humans protect themselves with socks and NERF guns from the zombie hoards.  Once tagged by a zombie the human is "infected" and joins their mob.  Beginning with only one zombie, the goal of the game is to see if the zombies can infect all of the humans or if the humans can survive in a set amount of time.  

Find out more at their official rules site Humans vs. Zombies.

Run around the dark city trying to stay alive.  If you become infected by a zombie you become a zombie yourself and the object of the game changes to infecting other humans.

Test your skills as a zombie hunter for the military in this first person shooter game. Your mission, should you accept it, is to save the captives from the zombie hoarde. Good luck!