So any zombie in a pre-romero film aren't zombies? Because there's no eating of flesh.

Wow, after reading all of this, My head is filled with mental images of White Zombie and Serpent and the Rainbow zombies, fighting with Night of the Living Dead zombies and 28 Days Later rage "zombies"...Each of which are completely different, yet in some respects similar, types of 'zombie'...Except for 'rage victim' who shares many characteristics, but isn't really a true 'zombie' at all....*sigh*...I need some sleep...

I'd say a zombie is the body of a dead person reanimated and no longer mortal, thus meaning they would not age as such, although they may decay. A zombie seems to be were the mind lives on (albeit damaged by the death) but the body continues to decay.

I'd say the 'flawed Zombies' in question are the flesh eating type, yes. Voodoo slave zombies are totally different, that has already been pointed out here. If we can't agree on what a 'zombie' is, how can figure out whether or not the genre is as flawed as the original article suggested. Maybe we could come up with a classification system of our own. Then we could move a head with the discussion.

If zombies have brain patterns, and muscle control, why don't they have a pulse? If the muscles in the rest of their body function (somewhat) normally, why not their heart?

The way I have always seen it is:

Post Romero Zombies (PRZs for you cool kids) are dead, which means they don't breathe, their heart doesn't beat and they have no need for food. Somehow they have developed anarobic brain function, but the brain is working purely on an animal-level instinct.

The eating is a compulsion, a remnant of living ways, but they never feel full (they don't feel anything) so they keep eating. A PRZ will eat until it's stomach blows open and then still keep eating.

As a dead thing a PRZ will continue to decay. It will stop moving once it's muscles and tendons have rotten away from the bones. A warm, humid environment will speed up the process, a cool dry one can prolong the zombified state.

Then why isn't propagation more important to them, as in Dead-Alive?

Walking is in itself an extremely complicated task, even at the slow bumbling level. I still don't buy that a zombies' heart wouldn't also be fully capable of pumping, even if irregularly or even experiencing ventricular fibrillation (random non-functional twitching).

Return of the Living Dead had one briefly right before 45 Grave's tune starts up.

Which brings us to an important question - Can we regard a brain as functional when the heart in that body has stopped beating? Does a zombie actually have "brains"? If they do, it will explain the whole concept of a "voodoo zombie".

A zombie is a walking corpse, right? That means there is some semblance of brain activity. Not necessarily any heart pumping. Hmm...

I mean, for the brain to function it MUST need some sort of stimulator right? If there is no blood being pumped into it, how is it working? Electrical nerve twitches?

Or we go back to Doc's definition and accept that we have been regarding flesh-eating ghouls as the modern post-Notld zombies all along.

There should be some difference...

They're just fictional, must we know all the details? Think of it like God, if you can't think of an explanation just say "Well, they're Zombies. They can do what they like."

I think the whole living dead or zombie concept was developed in a purely fictional value without need for making any sense and just to entertain the genre fans in a new level of fantasy. But its enormous popularity, specially under Romero's social or political criticism-umbrella this has been seems now a days a very serious issue as his followers in the industry as well as we, the fan groups---"the zombies of the real world" have been dealing the matter too critically & seriously than it deserved and the problem lies somewhere in between here.

Fuck the ghouls, shoot the zombies in the head & just try to enjoy the films.

Anyway, I don't know why but an idea just came to my mind while reading the whole thread...A story or film about VEGETARIAN ZOMBIES! In a very fertile land of green plants & crops one 'fine' day all the dead are rising (for 'whatever' reason) & starts to eating all the green plants & trees which clearly indicates soon that green-fertile land will turn into a desert! Now, if you try to stop them by shooting on their head...they may not rise again but the problem is the 'virus' will spread on the air from their body/mouth so fast that it'll turn any living human into another Veg Zombie!

:D:D:D