ZombiesThese hordes of the undead have enjoyed a twist and turn here and there in both movies and fiction, but the formula has remained relatively the same: the walking dead come back to life craving the flesh of the living without fear, emotion, or regret.
Sure, some movies have zombies reclaim some cognizance (a la Fido and Return of the Living Dead III), but by and large they are the legions of reanimated corpses unstoppable except by severe head trauma via bullet, axe, bat, or spike-shooting gun thingy (Land of the Dead).
Historically, however, zombies are strikingly dissimilar. In the realm of voodoo, zombies are resurrected much as slaves or servants of the person who brought them back. I suppose the slave-master could order his zombie to go around moaning "Braaaaaaains," but more likely has him mowing the lawn or doing the dishes.
In other, similarly old traditions, zombies are more like that creepy vomiting girl from The Sixth Sense - come back to life to seek vengeance for crimes committed against them in life, like starring in The OC.
The desire for brains in particular is a recent trend for pop-culture zombies as is the resurrection of the long-dead, which - in zombie lore - is a no-go: only the recent dead may rise again.
Historically, zombies may also simply be humans without a soul, an image revamped in the popular book series His Dark Materials as a person whose daemon is severed.
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