1. Not a Monster
Not a Monster… Well Technically I Am
By: Mikele Neely
Colorado Technical University
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2. Not a Monster
Not a Monster… Well Technically I Am
“All we want to do is eat your brains. We’re not unreasonable, I mean no one’s
gonna eat your eyes (Coulton 2006).” The term zombie means many things. Zombie,
according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, means:
1 a: The supernatural power that according to voodoo belief may enter into
and reanimate a dead body, b: A will-less and speechless human in the
West Indies capable only of automatic movement who is held to have died
and been supernaturally reanimated, 2 a: A person held to resemble the so-
called walking dead… b: A person markedly strange in appearance or
behavior… (Merriam-Webster 2008)
When I think about the term zombie, “A person held to resemble the so-called
walking dead” is what comes to mind (Merriam-Webster 2008).
Zombies are mentioned in many mediums of entertainment. We can see them in
movies; read about them in books; even fight them in video games. Some zombie movies
include, Night of the Living Dead, which is a George Romero film, and Resident Evil,
which is based off of a video game. A couple novels that have zombies in them include,
Guilty Pleasures, by Laurell K. Hamilton, and the novel I am currently working on titled,
This Is Not a Drill. All of these zombies have one main thing in common; they are all the
risen dead. However, even with this in common, they all differ.
From what I have seen in, Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, the zombies are
very slow. They shuffle about, hardly lifting their feet. They also have little brain
function. For example, they can not speak nor recognize loved ones or friends from their
life. This kind of zombie basically groans with its arms outstretched, grabbing for their
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3. Not a Monster
prey. They will wander away from a place, only to return at a later time hoping food will
be waiting. The final thing that is noticeable in this movie is that there is no reason for
the untimely outbreak on this ungodly night (Romero 1968).
The zombies in the Resident Evil movie are very different than the zombies we
have come to know in Night of the Living Dead. These zombies have the ability to move
fast. For example they can closely follow their prey by a form of clumsy jogging. They
also have the ability to climb stairs or pull themselves up, like onto a fallen pipe. They
have retained enough brain function to recognize people even if only for a brief moment
before their insatiable hunger for human flesh takes over. Even though they do not have
the ability to speak, they can groan and hiss unless their throat has been ripped out by the
thing that infected them with the virus. They can also grip things like axes and clothing.
A large thing that I noticed while watching Resident Evil is that the zombies were created
by a virus that was originally constructed for military purposes (Anderson 2002).
The zombies in Laurell K. Hamilton’s novel Guilty Pleasures are specifically
ones that have been raised from the grave by a necromancer, animator, or a voodoo priest
or priestess. These zombies require magic to be poured into the grave by one of these
magically inclined people. These zombies have the ability to speak only when they have
been asked a question by the person they were raised by. They do not hunger for human
flesh or feel the need to eat at all, because they are merely extensions of the magic that
created them. They have a memory of their life that slowly deteriorates over time as their
body continues to decay (Hamilton 1993).
However, the zombies in my novel differ greatly from the zombies I have read
about in Guilty Pleasures or seen in movies like Night of the Living Dead or Resident
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4. Not a Monster
Evil. The infection, in my novel, was created by nature and spread through water that has
not been filtered, boiled, or bottled previous to the epidemic. The zombies that the
characters in my novel face begin as slow moving creatures with little brain function.
Then as years pass, and the virus that nature has created thins out from bite to bite, the
zombies become faster with the ability to reason as the brain retains more information
from their life.
All in all, zombies differ because of the person who is creating them. Whether
they are Romero’s slow moving zombies that shuffle around or Anderson’s fast moving
zombies that can climb stairs, zombies will continue to use their movement to help them
catch their prey. When I compare Hamilton’s zombies that have the ability to speak only
to lose it over time to decay to my zombies that become smarter as the years pass because
of the thinning of the virus, zombies are creatures limited to the decay of their brain.
Now that these zombie classifications have been clarified you’ll never think of zombies
the same way ever again.
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5. Not a Monster
References
Anderson, P. (Director). (2002). Resident evil [Motion picture]. United States: Screen
Gems.
Coulton, J. (2006). Re: Your Brains. Thing a Week [CD]. Brooklyn, NY: NA.
Hamilton, L. (1993). Guilty Pleasures. New York: Jove Book.
Romero, G. (Director). (1968). Night of the living dead [Motion picture]. United States:
The Walter Reade Organization.
Zombie. 2008. In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved November 8, 2009,
from http://www.merriam-webster.com/doctionary/zombie
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6. Not a Monster
References
Anderson, P. (Director). (2002). Resident evil [Motion picture]. United States: Screen
Gems.
Coulton, J. (2006). Re: Your Brains. Thing a Week [CD]. Brooklyn, NY: NA.
Hamilton, L. (1993). Guilty Pleasures. New York: Jove Book.
Romero, G. (Director). (1968). Night of the living dead [Motion picture]. United States:
The Walter Reade Organization.
Zombie. 2008. In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved November 8, 2009,
from http://www.merriam-webster.com/doctionary/zombie
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