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I have always thought of zombies as dumb brutes. Minimal intelligence, and most of that residual memory.

I may have to revise that opinion. Last night I watched the first half of Night of the Living Dead with my daughter, as well as the AMC Webisodes for Walking Dead.

In the Webisodes a zombie retains enough memory to make its way home, not a huge feat, but still smarter than walkers had seemed to be.

In NotLD the cemetery zombie tries the door handles on Barbara and Johny's car, then picks up a large rock to smash the window so it can crawl inside. Later zombies pick up rocks and use them to smash headlights of Ben's truck.
Later Romero movies further develop zombie intelligence and memory.

Return of the Living Dead features zombies that can talk.

This raises the question of smart zombies vs stupid zombies. Are they shambling, mindless husks, or are they capable of reason and learning?

Thoughts?

I think Zombies are just like people. Some are smarter than others. Most are shambling brutes too stupid to try the doorknob- they'll try to bash down the door instead. But there are some rare exceptions that retain a few memories.

In the Romero movies at least, it seems to depend on who the zombie was beforehand. A good example is in Day of the Dead, where the scientists in the military base are trying to train zombies as soldiers. The best of them, Bob, is capable of following orders and operating simple machinery. He even retains a sense of irony, when he gives the base's CO a snappy salute as he is being devoured by the other zombies.

Mind you, it's debatable whether this is canon or not, given how the movie ends.

Stupid vs smart, slow vs fast, destroy-the-brain vs every-part-is-autonomous. I vote former on all these, but there really is no correct answer.

gentleman john wrote:In the Romero movies at least, it seems to depend on who the zombie was beforehand. A good example is in Day of the Dead, where the scientists in the military base are trying to train zombies as soldiers. The best of them, Bob, is capable of following orders and operating simple machinery. He even retains a sense of irony, when he gives the base's CO a snappy salute as he is being devoured by the other zombies.

Mind you, it's debatable whether this is canon or not, given how the movie ends.

Bub even shoots a gun. But IMHO such specimens are extremely rare. Thats just me- you can have your Zombies, however you like. Check out Brian Keene- his Zombies drive, shoot guns, talk, everything.


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They technically arent Zombies - but I do like 28 Days Later- "infected". It seems much more realistic too me.

3llense'g wrote:Stupid vs smart, slow vs fast, destroy-the-brain vs every-part-is-autonomous. I vote former on all these, but there really is no correct answer.

Depends what you're after, really. You can even have them exchanging witticisms with the hero and complaining about conditions as an evil footsoldier. Well, you can if you're Sam Raimi.