Your classic zombie is undead. The virus, as it’s often defined in the more sci-fi horror genre, takes over after death and reboots the lower brain and spinal cord and much of the CNS up to the lizard brain(higher brain functions not so much.) The virus somehow maintains some basic active transport without a heart as a pump. Which is often why they’re slow, and typically cold blooded. Sometimes the reanimation doesn’t even need a brain. Severed limbs can sometimes remain animated for a while. And usually in this type you get eventual starvation where they will die without fresh flesh/brains/blood. And they tend to rot actively, falling apart over time.
Zombies tend to be short (un)lived.
YoFrodo@lemmy.world 4 days ago
there are many different types of zombies, and since they arent real theres no ‘single source of truth’
in the 28 Days Later series they are not undead, they are hyper rabies infected people. In some series it a magical or spiritual afflicition (hell ran out of room so the dead roam the earth) In some series its a biological pathogen, so some kind of virus or fungus that takes over the body and is centrally controlling the brain.
The_Lurker@lemmy.world 3 days ago
In “Cast A Deadly Spell” they’re animated by voodoo and are servants. “You can get’em in 6-packs, like bonbons!”
starlinguk@lemmy.world 3 days ago
It’s a fungus in The Girl with all the Gifts.