49 Fun Facts About Zombies

Dictionaries trace the English word 'zombie' back to which group of African languages?

Dictionaries trace 'zombie' to Bantu languages of West-Central Africa, such as Kikongo zumbi and Kimbundu nzambi; the English word is first recorded in 1819, in Robert Southey's History of Brazil.

Which 1929 W. B. Seabrook travel book introduced Western readers to the Haitian voodoo zombie?

William Seabrook's The Magic Island (1929) popularised the Haitian zombie in the West; its account of drugged plantation workers inspired the screenplay of the first Hollywood zombie film three years later.

Which 1932 Bela Lugosi film is generally considered the first feature-length movie of the genre?

White Zombie (1932), made independently by Victor and Edward Halperin with Lugosi as the sorcerer Murder Legendre, is usually counted as the first feature-length zombie film; the metal band White Zombie took its name.

Roughly how many years after his 1962 'death' did Clairvius Narcisse reappear at a Haitian market?

Narcisse was declared dead in May 1962 and walked up to his sister in a village market in 1980, 18 years later, convincing her with a childhood nickname and family details.

Wade Davis claimed Haitian 'zombie powder' relied on tetrodotoxin, found in which animal?

Davis argued the 'coup de poudre' contained tetrodotoxin from pufferfish, whose poison can mimic death; his 1982 Haiti fieldwork became the 1985 book The Serpent and the Rainbow.

Haiti's Penal Code classes drugging someone into a prolonged lethargic coma without killing them as what?

Article 246 of Haiti's Penal Code treats drugging someone into a lethargic coma, without killing them, as attempted murder; if the victim is then buried, it counts as murder whatever follows.

Wes Craven's 1988 film The Serpent and the Rainbow follows an anthropologist sent to Haiti by whom?

In Craven's film a Boston pharmaceutical company sends anthropologist Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman) to Haiti to find the zombie drug, hoping to market it as an anaesthetic; it loosely adapts Davis's book.

What did Romero call his flesh-eaters in Night of the Living Dead (1968)?

Romero's script and the film's radio reports call the creatures 'ghouls'; he saw them as something new, and it was critics and fans who attached the Haitian word zombie.

Why did Night of the Living Dead fall into the public domain almost immediately?

The notice was lost when the distributor changed the title at the last minute, so anyone could sell copies without paying Romero a cent.

Night of the Living Dead was shot in rural Butler County, about 30 miles north of which city?

Butler County lies just north of Pittsburgh, Romero's home base; the Evans City farmhouse and cemetery locations have become pilgrimage sites for horror fans.

Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) was filmed largely inside which real shopping centre?

Dawn of the Dead was shot overnight in Monroeville Mall, east of Pittsburgh, after the stores closed; the mall later embraced its fame with zombie-themed events.

Which Italian filmmaker co-financed Dawn of the Dead (1978) for its international distribution rights?

Dario Argento co-produced Dawn of the Dead in return for foreign rights and cut his own version, released in Italy as Zombi, which is why Fulci's unrelated 1979 film was titled Zombi 2.

Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 (1979) is notorious for an underwater scene in which a zombie fights what?

The underwater zombie-versus-shark fight was staged by a second unit with shark trainer Ramón Bravo as the zombie and a real, well-fed shark; Fulci himself was not on set.

What chemical reanimates the dead in The Return of the Living Dead (1985)?

2-4-5 Trioxin, a gas said to have been developed by the Darrow Chemical Company for the army, reanimates the corpses; the film also introduced zombies' hunger for brains.

Whose 1992 splatter comedy Braindead (Dead Alive in the US) is regarded as one of the goriest films ever?

Peter Jackson directed Braindead in his native New Zealand; a reputed 300 litres of fake blood went into the climactic lawnmower massacre, nearly a decade before The Lord of the Rings.

What is the name of the highly contagious, aggression-inducing virus in 28 Days Later (2002)?

Rage spreads within seconds of exposure; director Danny Boyle never considered it a zombie film at all, yet it is credited with reviving the whole genre.

In 28 Days Later, Jim wakes from a coma in which deserted London hospital?

Jim wakes in St Thomas' Hospital, which faces the Houses of Parliament across the Thames, making his walk over an empty Westminster Bridge all the eerier.

In Zombieland (2009), what snack does Tallahassee spend most of the film searching for?

Tallahassee hunts for one last Twinkie all film, fretting that the snack's shelf life is running out; he finally gets one in the closing scene.

What is Rule #1 on Columbus's list of survival rules in Zombieland?

Rule #1 is 'Cardio', because the fat ones were the first to go; Rule #2 is 'Double tap', and the rules pop up on screen as characters follow or break them.

Which celebrity plays himself hiding in his mansion disguised as a zombie in Zombieland?

Bill Murray, playing himself, wears zombie make-up so he can wander Beverly Hills and play golf; Columbus shoots him, mistaking him for a real zombie.

Which author wrote both The Zombie Survival Guide (2003) and the novel World War Z (2006)?

Max Brooks is the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, and has since lectured to the US military on preparedness.

Which Star Wars actor was in the cast of the Audie-winning World War Z audiobook?

Mark Hamill voiced one of the survivors in the multi-cast World War Z audiobook, alongside Alan Alda and John Turturro; the 2013 'complete edition' added Martin Scorsese and Simon Pegg.

In the 2013 film World War Z, zombies pile onto one another to scale a giant wall protecting which city?

Jerusalem's towering wall is breached when the undead swarm up each other, drawn by noise; the Brad Pitt film grossed over $540 million worldwide.

Train to Busan (2016) unfolds mostly aboard what kind of railway?

The film premiered in the Midnight Screenings section at Cannes and was the first Korean film of 2016 to pass 10 million admissions.

In the film Warm Bodies (2013), what are the skeletal zombies who have shed their flesh called?

The fleshless skeletal zombies are the Boneys, past any hope of recovery; the film riffs on Romeo and Juliet, with R (Nicholas Hoult) falling for Julie after eating her boyfriend's brain.

Roughly what share of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009) is Jane Austen's original text?

Seth Grahame-Smith kept about 85% of Austen's original text, splicing in zombie mayhem; the mash-up hit number three on the New York Times bestseller list within weeks.

In Shaun of the Dead (2004), what is the name of the pub where Shaun plans to wait out the crisis?

The Winchester is the refuge in the first of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, followed by Hot Fuzz and The World's End.

The Walking Dead premiered on AMC on which date in 2010?

The pilot aired on Halloween, 31 October 2010; the series ran eleven seasons and 177 episodes before ending in November 2022.

Which English actor played sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead?

Andrew Lincoln left in season nine, and the zombies he spent all those years fighting are only ever called 'walkers'.

Which fan-favourite Walking Dead character was created for the TV show and never appeared in the comic?

Daryl Dixon was invented for the show after Norman Reedus auditioned for his brother Merle; the crossbow-wielding survivor never existed in Robert Kirkman's comic.

Which company published The Walking Dead comic, begun in 2003 and printed almost entirely in black and white?

Image Comics published The Walking Dead's 193 issues from 2003 to 2019; Charlie Adlard took over the art from Tony Moore at issue #7 and drew nearly the entire run.

On which network did iZombie, about a brain-eating morgue assistant who solves murders, air 2015–2019?

iZombie ran on The CW for five seasons; every brain Liv Moore eats gives her the victim's traits and memory flashes, which she passes off as psychic visions.

Who plays Ellie opposite Pedro Pascal's Joel in HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us?

Bella Ramsey's Ellie faces a real zombie-ant fungus turned villain, adapted into a strain that infects humans instead of insects.

The Resident Evil games are sold under what title in Japan?

In Japan the series is Biohazard; Capcom renamed it Resident Evil in the West because of trademark clashes over the 'Biohazard' name, and the 1996 original defined survival horror.

Which actress played Alice across the six live-action Resident Evil films?

Milla Jovovich played Alice in all six films from 2002 to 2016; the character never appeared in the games, and writer-producer Paul W. S. Anderson married his star in 2009.

George Fan conceived Plants vs. Zombies as a defence-oriented follow-up to which of his earlier games?

Fan's earlier Insaniquarium had players feeding fish and fending off aliens; Plants vs. Zombies grew from a tower-defence take on that idea and was published by PopCap in 2009.

What is the name of the AI in Left 4 Dead (2008) that adjusts pacing and item placement each playthrough?

The AI Director varies enemy spawns, pacing and item drops each run; Zoey, Bill, Louis and Francis are the four survivors of the 'Green Flu' outbreak.

Which Left 4 Dead special infected is a bloated creature that spits vision-blurring bile?

The Boomer is the bloated infected whose bile blinds survivors and draws a horde; it explodes when shot, so killing one at close range is a rookie mistake.

Treyarch's Zombies mode made its Call of Duty debut in which 2008 game?

Zombies debuted in Call of Duty: World at War as a bonus mode unlocked after the campaign, pitting one to four players against endless waves of Nazi zombies.

What is the very first Call of Duty Zombies map, set in a bombed-out bunker?

Nacht der Untoten is German for 'Night of the Undead'; later maps added Perk-a-Colas and the Pack-a-Punch weapon-upgrade machine that became series staples.

The infected in The Last of Us were inspired by a segment of which BBC nature documentary series?

Planet Earth (2006) showed the real fungus taking over an ant's body, and Naughty Dog asked what would happen if it jumped to humans.

Who directed Michael Jackson's 14-minute Thriller video in 1983?

John Landis directed Thriller after his 1981 film An American Werewolf in London caught Jackson's eye; Rick Baker's makeup team turned the singer into a werecat rather than repeat a werewolf.

Which horror legend narrates the spoken section of Michael Jackson's Thriller video?

Vincent Price's spoken section aside, the zombie dance was choreographed by Michael Peters, who had also choreographed 'Beat It'.

The Cranberries' 1994 protest song 'Zombie' was written in response to a bombing in which English town?

Warrington's 1993 attack killed two children; in 2020 the video became the first by an Irish act to pass a billion YouTube views.

Which US agency published the 2011 blog post 'Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse'?

The CDC's Ali Khan, an assistant surgeon general, posted it in May 2011 as a hook to get people stocking the same kit they would need for a hurricane or pandemic.

'CONOP 8888', a zombie-apocalypse training plan, was written by officers of which body?

Planners at US Strategic Command in Omaha wrote CONOP 8888 in 2011 as a training exercise, picking an absurd enemy so nobody could mistake it for a real war plan against a real country.

Where was the Guinness record zombie gathering of 8,027 people set in October 2012?

Zombie walks often double as charity drives; one city's alone once brought in more than a ton of food for its community food bank.

The real 'zombie-ant fungus' forces an infected carpenter ant to do what shortly before it dies?

Clamp its jaws onto a leaf vein, then the fungus sprouts a stalk from the ant's head to rain spores on the colony below; the bite scars survive in the fossil record.

Roughly how old is the Messel pit fossil leaf bearing zombie-ant bite marks?

The Messel leaf is about 48 million years old (Eocene); its dumbbell-shaped scars match the death-grip bites of fungus-controlled ants, so the parasite predates humans by tens of millions of years.