MovieChat Forums > The Plague of the Zombies (1966) Discussion > Misconception

Misconception

posted 14 years ago by pamelaloughray
2 replies | jump to latest

Hi everyone,

it appears to me that a solid fact about Zombies has been forgotten through recent years due to horrors in recent years portraying them as cannibals. As a results of this, many a young film fan are less educated about them so I shall clear this up for everybody once and for all.

Zombies do not eat people. Ghouls do. Even Romero, amazing creator of the 'Living Dead' series had the script refer to the creatures in Night Of The Living Dead as Ghouls. Pollution by media (surprise surprise) and other filmamakers cashing in on Romero's idea now have everyone calling Ghouls Zombies instead. Zombies, although similar in physique, are simply reanimated to do their Masters bidding.

And while we're on the subject the creatures in 28 Days Later we're neither. They was still alive but infected with a supervirus.

Don't have nightmares, do sleep well x

[–] rdoyle29 14 years ago

So ... you do know that none of these things are real, right? You speak as if it's a fact that zombies don't eat flesh. Since zombies are fictional, they do pretty much whatever the writer says they do.

[–] the lioness 10 years ago

Rdoyle, I think what the original poster is trying to say is through cinema history, zombies have been portrayed on the screen as mindless living people who are under the influence of someone who practices voodoo, which according to voodoo is what they are. As much as I like this film, it should be called Plague of the Living Dead.

As a matter of fact, zombies are not a work of fiction, on the contrary, there have been legitimate reports of people who walk around in a trance-like state. In the film, The Serpent and the Rainbow, a scientist discovers a drug voodoo practitioners use that will put a victim into a trance and can even appear to induce death, hence the victim being buried alive. This film is based on a book by that scientist.

So what the poster is trying to say is zombies are mindless, mostly living people who are under the influence of someone. This stuff we see today is the filmmakers taking zombies to another level. In addition, if you recall what the poster said about Romero is true. He never referred to his cannibals as zombies. He called them the living dead. If you watch Night of the Living Dead in its entirety, the hordes you refer to as zombies are called the living dead.

In in essence, the poster is right. This is a misconception on every level.