50 Fun Facts About Zombies

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

The Kikongo word 'zumbi' is one likely root; the English word was already recorded in the 18th century, long before any movie monster.

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

The book was so influential that a Hollywood screenwriter adapted it into a horror film only three years later.

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

The film was made independently by the Halperin brothers and its title was later borrowed by a heavy metal band.

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

He convinced his family with a childhood nickname and intimate family details, and his case became the most famous alleged 'real' zombie.

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

Davis called the mixture 'coup de poudre' and turned his 1982 Haiti fieldwork into the book The Serpent and the Rainbow.

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

The article goes further: if the person is then buried, the act is treated as murder regardless of what happens afterwards.

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

The company hoped the drug behind zombification could be turned into a 'super anesthetic'; the film is loosely based on Wade Davis's non-fiction book.

The word 'zombie' is never spoken in Night of the Living Dead (1968). What did Romero call his flesh-eaters?

Romero said his creatures were something new; it was audiences and critics who attached the Haitian word to them.

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?

The farmhouse location near Evans City has since become a pilgrimage site for horror fans.

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

The crew shot overnight after the stores closed, and the mall still hosts zombie-themed events decades later.

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

The Italian cut, released as 'Zombi', is why an unrelated 1979 Italian film was cheekily titled Zombi 2.

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

The scene was shot without Fulci's approval, with a local shark trainer playing the zombie.

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

The gas was supposedly developed by the Darrow Chemical Company, and the film is the one that gave zombies their appetite for brains.

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

A reputed 300 litres of fake blood were used for the climactic lawnmower massacre, years before the director tackled Middle-earth.

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

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?

The hospital sits directly across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament, which makes his empty walk across Westminster Bridge all the eerier.

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

The four leads never use their real names, going by place names such as Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock instead.

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

Rule #2 is 'Double tap', and the rules pop up on screen throughout the film as the characters break or follow them.

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

His character keeps up the zombie disguise so he can still go out and play golf.

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

He 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 full cast of the Audie-winning 2007 World War Z audiobook?

Alan Alda and John Turturro were also in the cast; a later '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?

The film, starring Brad Pitt, grossed over $540 million and became the highest-grossing zombie movie ever made.

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 film is a zombie riff on Romeo and Juliet: R, played by Nicholas Hoult, falls 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's mash-up hit number three on the New York Times bestseller list within weeks of publication.

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

It is the first film in 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 series ran for eleven seasons and 177 episodes before concluding in November 2022.

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

He left the show 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?

Norman Reedus originally auditioned for the role of Merle before the crossbow-wielding brother was written for him.

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

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?

Every brain Liv Moore eats gives her the victim's personality traits and flashes of memory, which she passes off as psychic visions.

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

The show made the real zombie-ant fungus its villain, adapted into a strain that infects humans instead of insects.

Disney's Zombies (2018) gives its undead teens 'Z-Bands'. What do the bracelets do?

Zed the zombie footballer and Addison the human cheerleader meet in the planned community of Seabrook, and the franchise reached a fourth film in 2025.

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

The 1996 original is credited with defining the survival horror genre and dragging zombies back into pop culture.

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

Alice never appeared in the games; the films were written and produced by Paul W. S. Anderson, who married their star.

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

The 2009 game was published by PopCap, which Electronic Arts bought two years later for $750 million.

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

The 'Green Flu' outbreak begins in Pennsylvania, and Zoey, Bill, Louis and Francis are the four survivors you play.

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

Being splashed with its bile also summons a horde, so shooting one at close range is a rookie mistake.

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

The first map launched automatically once you finished the campaign, and one to four players faced unlimited waves.

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

The name 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 nature documentary series?

The 2006 BBC series 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?

He had just made An American Werewolf in London, and Rick Baker's makeup team turned Jackson into a werecat rather than repeat a werewolf.

Which horror legend narrates the spoken section of the Thriller video?

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?

Two children died in the 1993 attack; 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'?

Assistant surgeon general Ali Khan's joke was a hook to get people to stock 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?

The outlandish premise was chosen deliberately so cadets could learn planning without anyone mistaking it for a real war plan.

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?

The fungus then sprouts a stalk from the ant's head to rain spores on the colony below, and the leaf-bite scars survive in the fossil record.

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

The dumbbell-shaped scars match the death grip of ants manipulated by the fungus, meaning the parasite predates humans by tens of millions of years.