Fifty Horror Clichés That Need to Die in a Fire

#39: Zombies Being Just Decaying Walking Flesh Sacks

   What a lot of people tend to not know about the zombie trope in the horror genre is that they are usually more than the undead walking sacks of decaying flesh most people connect them with.  Depending on the story in question, the zombie virus tends to work in various differing degrees, and effects each former person in distinct ways.  Each is surprisingly unique to the story, with no two zombies being exactly the same.  The idea of zombies in horror fiction being plagued with sameness is a pure misconception, if not an outright cliché of its own.

  Zombies in the horror genre can be classified in one of three common categories.  All of them are created to fit the tone of the horror story in question, as well as create a certain level of stakes for the survivors.  In each example, an outbreak is probable and has differing consequences for human society.  However, each story uses the zombie classification they have chosen in unique variants, with the lore of one story not being the same as another story.

  The first are zombies that are mutating quickly due to the strain of virus adapting quickly to the environment, causing the host body to change into something truly monstrous.  In these examples, the zombies usually does not maintain much of their humanity if at all, and pretty much wreck any chance of humanity overcoming the apocalypse at all.  They almost always function through a hive mind, and the decaying process is either completely cancelled out or slowed to a crawl.  This type of zombie is by far the most dangerous to encounter due to their complete unpredictability to the survivors trying to fight them off.

  A great example of this type of zombie are those featured in the comic series DeCeased, where many of DC's iconic heroes are infected with a variant of the antilife equation.  This infection started out as one spread by the usage of the internet, much like in Stephen King's book Cell, but with much more devastating results on those infected.  Those infected by this zombie virus would first go completely insane, clawing at their faces in agony as they try to extinguish the poison flowing through their bodies in complete vain.  When the virus fully infects the host, they cave into a hive mind complex, seeking out those who are uninfected.  It was then that these zombies become superhuman feral beasts, spreading the virus further through bites or scratches, with no signs of decay ever inflicting their undead bodies.  Hence, it did not take long for the virus to infect billions of people, forcing the few million survivors to flee onto another planet in order to escape.

  The second variant of zombies is the one that almost always is the least dangerous, with these zombies being the ones who maintain their humanity the most.  These zombies are infected the traditional way through a bite or scratch, but come out with their human intellect pretty much untouched.  Though they crave brains and human flesh, as long as the zombie in question is well fed and kept in close observation by other humans, they will not ever go feral.  Decaying of the flesh can still happen, but usually a solution in the form a vaccine can halt the process completely.  As long as these zombies maintain a strong will to not cave into their animalistic instincts, they can live relatively normal existences, but have to keep their infection a secret.  An outbreak is still possible if enough zombies do not try to fight their animalistic tendencies, but the survival rate from these type of apocalypses usually is quite high.

  The Netflix show Santa Clarita Diet is a strong example of these types of zombies.  In the show, these zombies have their human intellect in tact once infected, but become complete opposites of themselves personality wise.  They are more prone to let their ID dominant them, and can decompose if not given a particular type of vaccine to stall the process.  These zombies can reattach parts of their body if lost, have tar-like blood, and need human flesh at least once a day in order to lower their chances of going feral.  Usually having a human companion creates the best outcome for those infected, who can help maintain their wild urges and assist in the dirty task of finding the right people to eat.  Hence, the infection rate is quite low and only few people in the world really know anything about this type of zombie.

  The third and final type of zombie is by far the most common and the one everyone automatically thinks of.  These zombies are the slow moving, decaying pieces of flesh that are most associated with the cliché way of thinking about this horror trope.  All of their humanity is lost once reanimated from the virus, spread by the common bite or scratch.  They only crave human flesh, wandering slowly through the land in hordes until they decay to the point of being unable to move.  Nothing about them is human in the slightest.  The person they once were is completely gone and replaced with animalistic tendencies.

  Although a well written horror series, The Walking Dead comics are a prime example of the basic zombie.  These zombies were all infected by a virus that kills the human host before operating the body again through their brain stem.  Their humanity is completely gone, with their only motive to exist being the pursuit of human flesh.  They decay over a process of six months to a couple of years depending on the environment, with colder regions taking the longest for full decay to set in.  The virus lays dormant in every human, with it only activating if infected by another zombie or dying of completely natural causes.  What makes this virus so dangerous is its fast infection rate, overwhelming most cities in about a month after first appearing.  Even at the series end, no cure was ever made, nor was a cause ever discovered.

Zombies in the horror genre can be written in any fashion the writer chooses, and does not have to purely follow the three prime classifications.  It can combine traits from all three, write out traits from one that seems less desirable to them, or create a new type of zombie altogether.  Whatever the horror writer chooses, they will not just make the zombies purely just sacks of walking flesh and instead will add some type of trait that distinguishes them from the rest.