unnamednewbie13 wrote:
I think that too many zombie licenses rely on diseases, chemicals, parasites, etc. Aliens are slightly less used, but what I would like to see make a return for cause is plain and simple magic. Not in a magic realism fantasy land with Harry Potters, faeries and Gandalf, but just wherever you happen to be filming. You don't even have to explain the cause. It could just be hypothesized around a campfire with nobody figuring it out for sure.
It would also allow you to use skeletons if you wanted. Not the mummified meatsacks like in Warm Bodies. More like the Harryhausen ones.
My zombies occur in the narrow window of an evolutionary cycle.
The bacteria, yes it currently exists in warm fresh water, and it mutates, like it could irl.
Dogs eat the brains of these mutants, who appear to be as like zombies in our pop culture, and they too evolve.
I did some research on fast evolving bacteria and plagues and the average mutation cycle of a fast mutating virus is 28 days ( hence the title to that movie? ) which is why something like ebola is not a major global threat; it would just as quickly mutate into something harmless.
The zombies in TZW eventually turn into some sort of human maggot hybrid and beyond that are only a bit player in the epic.
I like the skeleton idea. Imagine a skeleton with like a maggots mouth from the shoulder up. Like, all the flesh is from the shoulders up and from the neck down its a drained carcass.
I do have in mind magic. The Preacher attracts his cult following and their belief in his gives him certain abilities that one might describe as magic.
As for this debate; can anybody see why this virus is not the most plausible explanation of a zombie type outbreak? It could mutate. It feeds on brains and there is no known cure.