Zombies. They are everywhere. Dozens of movies are made about them. Books, stories and legends. There is nothing new about zombies. They have been around since the beginning of time. While there may not be any hard evidence, there is a good chance that stories about them predate writing. Oral histories were handed down since the beginning of time.

What is the difference between the zombies that were talked about and written about in folklore and the ones that we know about today from the countless movies, books, and clubs that are dedicated to zombies?

If we look at the old school folklore-based zombies, they tended to be either people that had died and “magically” came back to life. Many times this was the work of the Devil or a witch (or any other agent) of the Devil.

In areas of Africa and the Caribbean as well as parts of Louisiana (the areas of the New World were because of the slave trade), practitioners of Voodoo (or Hoodoo) were able to take over the soul of a person and make them into the walking dead. This made them half living slaves to the will of the master.

In the modern version, which many would say started with “Night of the Living Dead”, but the creatures that were used in the Romero classic were never referred to as zombies in the movie. It was a term that was given years after the movie came out. It did, however, start an entire genre of monster movies that we know today as zombies.

What is the single biggest difference in modern zombies and those that come to us from folklore tales? Modern zombies don’t have anything to do with witchcraft or the Devil (or any other kind of god-like entity).

Modern zombies usually come from scientists attempting to do some sort of good. Of course something always goes wrong. Usually it has to do with gene manipulation, or some kind of age-defying chemical or just good old fashioned biological warfare.

It sounds good in theory, and the scientists don’t mean to cause a world wide plague that destroys most of humanity but some sort of accident always happens.

There are different kinds of zombies, fast, slow, photosensitive, you name it and there is a kind of zombie. Popular culture’s love of the zombie has made sure of that.

There are 3 things that modern zombies all seem to share. 1. They have lost almost all functioning of the brain. The only part that is left is the animal instinct. 2. Their choice of food is living humans that are not infected (in many versions it is specifically the brain, but that trend has fallen out of popularity). 3. The cause of the zombies is some sort of blood-born pathogen. If you are bitten or scratched (and don’t die), you will eventually turn into a zombie. This is after the infection kills you and you reanimate.

To summarize it; in folklore, evil forces, a witch doctor etc. takes control of the body and mind. In modern zombies, scientists have played God in some way or the other and caused a plague that could not be controlled. The next logical question? Which would be more dangerous? The modern ones. At least the ones from the old days were controlled by a single evil person. The modern ones are self-sustaining and have one goal. To feed. Why is this such a problem? The food of choice is us, living human beings.