Zombie Gait: Difference between revisions

** ''[[28 Days Later]]'', although they're actually [[The Virus|"infected"]] and not the undead, but close enough...

*** ''[[Zombieland]]'' seems to run off a similar virus, albeit one that is a mutation of Mad Cow Disease rather than an experimental serum.

*** It's also important to note that what we now call "zombie movies" pretty much started with ''Night of the Living Dead''. Before then, zombies mostly shuffled harmlessly around on Haitian sugar-plantations.

** Or, for that matter, ''The Return of the Living Dead''.

* Used with ''plant zombies'' in ''[[The Day of the Triffids]]'' by [[John Wyndham]]. The eponymous creepy, flesh-eating plants not only walk with a slow, shuffling movement, but have a sort of stick-and-drum arrangement capable of producing a rattling noise... which, you guessed it, calls hordes of other Triffids.

* Zombies in ''[[Can YOU Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?]]'' shuffle around until they sense food, at which point they start to sprint.

 

 

 

== Video Games ==

** In ''[[Dead Rising 2]]'': off the record. Frank Includes Completely deadpan "Brains, gimme brains"

* The ''[[Resident Evil]]'' series plays this trope completely straight... up until ''[[Resident Evil]] 4''. Los Ganados can run, use weaponry, and speak in complete sentences, and are much more interested in killing Leon than eating his flesh. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that Los Ganados are not actual zombies, but {{spoiler|parasite-infected villagers controlled by the leader of an evil cult.}}

** A few of the zombies in [[Resident Evil 3 Nemesis]] can move at a brisk pace.

* The MMO ''[[Urban Dead]]'' both plays this straight and averts this - zombie characters walk only half as fast as human characters until they buy the Lurching Gait skill.

* Ordinary Sims allow commands to walk, run or skip to a certain location. In ''[[The Sims]] 2: University'', Sims that have been brought [[Back From the Dead]] as zombies can only "shamble."

* [[Half Life]]'s zombies follow this trope; in HL2 however they do have fast zombies along with the slower types.

* Subverted in the game ''[[Left 4 Dead]]''. EVERY zombie can sprint at you with considerable speed (* slightly* faster than players...). Unnerving with the regular hordes, pants-wettingly terrifying when the muscle-bound super "tank" zombie sprints at you—and knocks over several vehicles en route. Again, though, these are [[Hate Plague|Infected]] and not undead. If you observe an Infected that hasn't spotted you yet, however, they do shuffle around like traditional zombies up until the moment they make a dash for your face.

** Interesting side note: If you watch them shuffle around long enough before they spot you, some will just lie down and die, right there.

* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]: Sanity's Requiem'' plays it not too over-the-top. But that doesn't change the fact that it's not a relaxing experience having it forced upon one of your many playable protagonists as his story arc progresses.

* The {{spoiler|ghosts of people you killed}} in [[Metal Gear|Metal Gear Solid 3]] during {{spoiler|the Sorrow's battle}} do this.

* Both ''[[Diablo]]'' games feature varying classes of zombies that fit the trope perfectly. In ''Diablo II'', some of them will poison the player with each hit and/or release a cloud of poison gas upon death, though this poison will not [[The Virus|turn the player or his/her minions into zombies]].

* ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]] 3'' features a wide array of zombies, most of which fit this trope perfectly (minus the braaaains). A few are faster than the rest (speed shambling) and usually either wield chainsaws or have been set on fire, but otherwise exhibit similar behavior. Zombie Commandos move quickly (no shambling), don't moan or grunt, and often wield guns and hide behind cover; however, they also don't look human and aren't the result of being bitten by another zombie, so they're arguably not so much an aversion of the trope as they are zombies [[In Name Only]].

* ''[[The Cyantian Chronicles]]'' averts this hard. The Cyantian Fox, a little smaller, slimmer, and much faster than a human, becomes a fast attack feral harbinger of death if infected with [[The Virus|The Plague]], a government "experiment" [[Gone Horribly Wrong]]. While the infected die rather quickly, there is a day or two of instinctively running around mauling everything that moves. Those that were lucky enough to fight off the infection died from their wounds inflicted by the others. It is so effective that 99.94% of the entire Fox population gets wiped out in their empire.

* Averted in ''[[Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]]'' -- {...}, the zombie, walks like a normal person, but occasionally seems to have faster reflexes than a normal person.

* Played straight, [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] ''and'' [[Inverted Trope|inverted]] in ''[[The Zombie Hunters]]'', in which the typical groan-and-shamble zombie is just one of [[Our Zombies Are Different|seven possible classes]].[[Night of the Living Mooks|Crawlers]], [[Breath Weapon|Spitters]], [[Evil Eye|Basilisks]] and [[Make Me Wanna Shout|Howlers]] all shuffle about. [[Mercy Kill|Mercies]] move like particularly graceful [[Subverted Trope|humans]]. [[The Berserker|Berserkers]] and [[Super-Persistent Predator|Hunters]] however, are [[Super Speed|faster]] and [[Super Reflexes|more agile]] than humans, with the Berseker in particular [[Inverted Trope|outclassing human sprinters]].