28 days later(i know,not zombies) and the remake of george romero’s Dawn of the Dead have started a debate if zombies should be able to run or just shuffle along.
Running zombies have been spotted in earlier flicks such as Umberto Lenzi’s City of the walking dead;aka Nightmare City.
Personally,i believe zombies should be able to run until rigor mortis sets in,but then would zombies suffer from rigor mortis?

I prefer either actually. Both are scary.

Fast zombies: Scary because they are really fast and they’re not gonna get tired of chasing their food down.

Slow zombies: Scary because...well they’re slow, but I mean slow zombies tend to come in hords majority of the time, so where there’s one there’s usually more somewhere and no matter how fast you’re gonna run, they catch up some how.

I don’t think rigor sets in, I mean...they’re dead right? With reanimated blood cells. So that’d be a ’no’...right?

fast zombies are just... new... hhaa with the new ways horror is being brought fast zombies is it.

Slow ones are original and if they wanted to make an original zombie movie they better make those fuckers slow

slow zombies fast ones are just dumb they are all rotting and falling apart if they run fast they will just have pieces dropping all over the place. gravity sucks. the slow ones are much creepier " shawn of the dead" cracked me up

Rigor Mortis sets in about 3 hours after the body dies. The body does not reach FULL rigor until 12 hours after death. It lasts for about 24 hours, but then dissipates after another 12 hours as muscles begin to deteriorate.

So, to answer the question of slow or fast zombies, you have to look at what’s CAUSING the bodies of the dead to rise and walk once again.

A curse of some kind would imply a supernatural means of reanimation. In such a case, the simple physiological aspects of RM would most likely be ignored. A supernatural force gives VIGOR to the dead body, rather than RIGOR.

A virus, on the other hand, implies a strictly physiological cause for the reanimation. Once the body becomes infected and dies, normal movement would be available to the zombie for around 3 hours, as previously stated. After that time, and for the 12 hours post mortem, movement would slowly become more and more difficult. For the next 24 hours, the newly undead would suffer from the typical shuffling gait of the traditional zombie. After that point, the zombie would begin to experience normal movement once again, but also be subject to the start of decomposition.

My question is: When would a zombie be the MOST hungry? Immediately after death and reanimation, or once deterioration and decomposition set in? Would the need for flesh (and therefore fresh DNA to replicate and use for fuel) be strongest in a newly risen corpse, or once RM dissipates, and the need to stave off decomposition begins to peak?

No. the virus that reanimates the bodies pools in the front of the brain and changes it, so that it works independant from the body. That’s why you sometimes see the head still snapping if you decapitate them.

The virus also works like formaldehyde and preserves the muscle tissue, which also delays the decomposition. So they don’t start to rot for about 3-5 years.

And theirs no way that new blood cells are made because, well, they’re just dead.
The heart doesn’t beat and in turn can’t pump blood to the rest of the body, which is why when you shoot them they don’t bleed.

And they don’t get any nourishment from eating flesh.
It’s just an instinct brought on by the virus.
They also can’t digest it so as they eat, they start to fill up and sooner or later, it’s either pushed out their ass or it explodes out of their stomache..Violently.

i prefer the classic slow zombee, at least then you had a chance at getting away

Gotta be slow zombies, these fast zombies just get on my nerves.

T[FK] wrote:
And they don’t get any nourishment from eating flesh.

It’s just an instinct brought on by the virus.

They also can’t digest it so as they eat, they start to fill up and sooner or later, it’s either pushed out their ass or it explodes out of their stomache..Violently.

I loved that description.


I don’t prefer either or of the two. They both have their spot in cinema. Fast zombies are scary because you never know when they’re gonna be there, and as soon as they are, you know someone’s fucked.

Where as, with slow zombies, it’s like a psychological torture in a way, seeing how the people who are no longer people rotting away like that, shuffling towards you, with no clear way out but death. They’re daunting, and disturbing, and perverse. An abomination to what we call life, and it scares us.

Or at least, thats what they’re supposed to do.

if you go into the science of it it is actually impossible for a zombie to run since zombism is caused by the frontal lobe melting and a side effect of that is impaired motor skills, in movies however its an interesting concept it adds more suspense and an on the edge of your seat feeling in the viewer i mean if a zombie is just shambling towards you you can walk or jog away and are fine as long as you arent dumb enough to get surrounded but fast zombies can run longer than you can and maybe even faster.

some of you have put an amazing amount of thought into this.....I love all of the answers...You guys are great....I prefer the slower Zombies, but the fast ones are a bit scarier.

i just love fucking zombies, i would prefer fast zombies if the zombie apocalypse were to happen. it would be more of a challenge and fun in a sick twisted way. the fact that if either of them were to happen it would be scary that the dead has risen. slow zombies seem to be dumb if you pay attention you can run by them and it takes a second for them to realize that you just ran by them. where as fast zombies just keep up with everything you do. either way they are both scary and awsome

Are you kidding me? 28 Weeks later-28 Days later- Dawn of the dead-
I mean faster is just scarier! But if you wana go with old fashioned then slow is best. I mean personally fast is just so much scarier! Imagine these " things " running after you at like 20 Mph?? Sheesh Gimme a break.

why not just have both slow and fast zombies, have the best of both sides, slow zombies give the creeps but you have a chance and fast zombies give you the scare and make it harder.

Either way no one is safe against the zombies