by Ryan Richards

Created on: October 12, 2009

Zombie movies: Which are more effective, fast zombies or slow zombies?

This question is like asking which mode of transport is more efficient: bicycle or automobile? The answer is obvious, the automobile. The same can be said about the great zombie debate. Sure they both get the job done, but which one is more terrifying? One that you can easily outrun or one that will most likely catch and devour you?

"They seem to go down when you shoot 'em in the head." (Tom Savini as the Sheriff in Dawn of the Dead 2004)

The classic "Romero" zombies, or slow-moving undead are forever ingrained into the minds and hearts of movie-goers. I believe this to be for one reason: It's easy to get away from them. Many will argue that a dead body can not move fast and wouldn't have the same reflexes as a normal living human. Why not? It just died, rigor mortis hasn't set in yet, nor have the muscles started to deteriorate. If anything, the undead would be the same as the fallen person it once was, with two exceptions: none of it's vital organs need things we call necessities (air, water, food), and they have the ability to ignore pain.

Not only is a fast, somewhat agile zombie more effective at scaring audiences, (the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead has been sited as one of the scariest in the genre, far more than the original.) they are more effective hunters as well. In a world where the dead come back to life, the first to go are the slowest and weakest. Survival of the fittest. This is true in every species, including our own. As a body's muscles decay and deteriorate, so will the ability to run and jump. Speed will decrease and it will eventually become the lovable, shambling corpse will all know and love so much. In the initial stages of decomposition, run, hide, just don't be there when it hits the fan. There's an old saying; I dont have to run faster than it, I just have to run faster than you.

So next time you're watching a zombie movie, think of the undead and what they're doing for you. Don't just take my word for it, you decide.

In the movies, we have seen a variety of attempts to portray the undead in a number of ways. Fast, slow, comical, gruesome, mutated; whatever the portrayal; nothing scares the audience like the fear that it could happen to you. The movies you walk away from with that feeling of an unsettled stomach are the best, and their the ones that keep the audience coming back for more.

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