31 Days of Halloween - Day 10: Top 5 Zombies

I know this is a delayed post and the reason why it is delayed is because I was at Music Box Massacre 5 in Chicago and I was unable to complete the post before hand. Well, this is a follow up to my post of Top 5 Zombie Killers, and this time around I am going to talk about the top 5 Zombies of all time, these are individual zombies and not hoards or anything like that. I don’t have a specific criterion but rather what zombie captivated me the most. So here they are:

 

5. The Tarman from The Return of the Living Dead: Why is this guy on the list, since, compared to the others he is a flesh eater? Because he is the fucking Tarman! He yells for “BRAINS!” and he totally fucks shit up when he can’t get what he wants. Plus… you gotta love that face.

 

4. Fido from Fido: Probably one of the cutest, innocent, harmless, servent of a zombie all thanks to a zombie collar. What makes him so special is because of exactly that! He slowly falls in love for Helen, he has a relationship with Billy and he is slowly becoming human. Even when the collar is off, he reduces to his primitive zombie needs but then he goes back to his original self because he knows he loves his family. Its touching and sweet.

 

3. Dean Alan Halsey from Re-Animator: Much like Big Daddy and Bub, he is a misunderstood zombie that was brought back to life for an experiment. What makes him so special is because he is conscience but is afraid of everybody around him; he is kept in an institution then mind controlled by Dr. Hill and when he finally sees that he gave up his daughter he snaps out of the mind control and starts to fight back. You are rooting for him because you want him to win, he understands that that is his daughter and she is about to be turned into a zombie for Dr. Hill’s sick experiment.

 

2. Big Daddy from Land of the Dead: Much like Bub, this is a zombie who is unaware that he is not supposed to exist. He learns, and he has feelings for his fellow undead people and that’s what makes him such a strong zombie; he is a leader who is trying to save his people from genocide. You can feel his pain and his rage when a fallen comrade gets shot up. He is slowly learning and for that, you can’t blame him for wanting to take out humanity because in his eyes, we are unwanted trespassers. Plus, since he is slowly learning, it gives him more pity because they are trying to be human.

 

1. Bub from Day of the Dead (1985): Why is Bub my number one favorite zombie you may ask? Because, this is a zombie that we love, we feel for and we want him to win in this case. He is innocent, he doesn’t know any better and he is somewhat conscience of what he is doing. He is the most loveable character in all of the Dead series. When Logan gets killed, you empathize with him because in a way, Logan was his father and he lost him. He just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and it’s just so touching.

Looking back on all of this, I think it is fair to say that most of these zombies are more civilized zombies, except for the Tarman, and I think that is why I love them so much… because they are innocent and they aren’t just mindless killing machines but there is depth and character to them that make them so special. It’s fascinating as well as brilliant to see character development in such a drone of a character.