What Is A Zombie?

Shaun of The Dead — A Romantic Comedy.. With Zombies!

“SHAUN OF THE DEAD” is an everyday tale of life, love and the living dead focussing on a group of friends who encounter a literal night from hell at their local pub, under attack from a zombie invasion.

But Zombies are no strangers to the silver screen. Since the dawn of Hollywood, classic films such as the Night of The Living Dead, Army of Darkness, Evil Dead, Dawn of The Dead and more recently British horror 28 Days Later have graced cinemas across the world. And on April 9th 2004, Working Title’s Shaun of The Dead comes to the big screen.

What is a zombie?

The Cambridge dictionary describes a zombie in two ways:-

1- a person who lacks energy, seems to act without thinking and is not aware of what is happening around them

2- a dead person who is believed, in some Caribbean religions, to have been brought back to life by magic

In the case of Shaun of The Dead, the latter is of course more appropriate. Or maybe not.

What are the main characteristics of a zombie?

The main characteristics have long been argued over but below are some of the more accepted features:

• Zombies primarily crave human flesh and eat whenever they can. • Zombies can tell the difference between those alive and those already dead and will not attack another zombie • Zombies don’t seem to run very fast • They always seem to have blood coming out of their mouth • They always seem to wear really tatty clothes that they could not possibly have been buried in. • Their arms are always held out in front of them • They have lost the ability to talk without grunting • They always appear from nowhere

So how do you kill a zombie?

Zombies can be killed in a number of ways. Although none of these have been proven, a number of films have come up with various strategies.

1. Poke them in the eye with a blade 2. Shoot them through the heart 3. Try reasoning with them 4. Kill them with dry wit or a ‘knock knock’ joke 5. Launch a full scale war with bazookas 6. Make them drink a blood thickening agent 7. Decapitate them by throwing old vinyl records from your collection at them ( as is the case in Shaun of The Dead) 8. Get your three wood from the golf bag and swing away 9. Become Brian Lara and knock for six with a cricket bat

As a failsafe to the suggestions above, if you see a zombie — RUN! - unless of course it’s a member of your family stuck in front of the tele all day.