Zombie Gait: Difference between revisions

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[[File:zombie-gait 5584.jpg|frame]]

Zombies usually shuffle around with both arms out in front of them, groaning "[[Brain Food|Braaaaaains]]" or something similar.,<ref>The groan depends on the zombie; vegetarian zombies usually say "graaaaaains", for instance, while zombie plumbers say "draaaaaains", zombie jockeys say "reeeeeeins" (or [[The Hyena|lots of hideous laughter]]</ref> [[Left 4 Dead 2|depending on the species]]) and theoretical physicist zombies say "braaaaaanes". It's normally brains, though. [[Gratuitous French|Or]] [[All He Ever Wanted|Cerveeaauuuux.]]

Nevertheless, these zombies can often jump at protagonists from [[Behind the Black]] in a [[Deadly Lunge]]. See also and compare [[Marionette Motion]], where a human body (shaped object) moves as if it were a puppet on a string.

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Blassreiter]]'', the zombies, called demoniacs, follow this trope straight until they start being aggressive. They then break this trope by running on all fours, run along walls, and to more extremes, merge with vehicles like cars, motorcycles, and later on, Typhoon jets, to go really, really fast.

* Zombies in ''[[Blackest Night]]'' avert this. They're not only fully mobile, they have superpowers!

* Similarly, ''[[Marvel Zombies]]''.

* Played straight in the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' movies until the third where Umbrella creates fast zombies.

* Also been used as a [[Flanderization]]—Frankenstein's monster (who is made of corpse parts, but usually not thought of as undead) walks this way in the end of the ''[[The Ghost of Frankenstein]]'' and in ''[[Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man]]'' because a botched operation has left him totally blind. Thereafter, it became a defining mark of the character, even though later movies [[Retcon|returned his sight.]]

** Let's not forget that beginning in Part VI, Jason ''is'' in fact a zombie, and yet displays very few of the classic traits of the walking dead. He doesn't shamble, he's lethally intelligent, and while he rarely moves at more than a brisk walk, he is clearly capable of superior speed. Pretty much the only true "zombie" traits he follows are the rotting flesh and extreme resistance to/ignorance of physical damage.

* Played for fun in ''[[Shaun of the Dead]]'', where the protagonists [[Pretend We're Dead|mimic zombie gait]] to fool other zombies.

* The Missing Link does it in ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'', but only because he had just been in the pool and his eyes were burning with chlorine.

** Dr. Cockroach walks like this for a few seconds after his transformation in the General's video clip.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in Max Brooks' novel ''[[World War Z]]'' - the groan of a zombie attracts other zombies to living humans - who, once they hear the groaning and sense the presence of living humans, also begin to groan, thus attracting more. This can have the effect of attracting hundreds, thousands or even ''millions'' of zombies to one position, depending how the chain-reaction of groaning travels and how many zombies are in the vicinity and able to pick up on it. Despite their traditional slow-moving walk, this also has the result of effectively destroying the morale of any defenders and causing complete panic; you might deal with the zombies right in front of you, but there could be the zombified converts of an ''entire city's population'' right behind them.

** The same applies in Mira Grants' ''Feed''. The "zombies" moan deliberately in order to draw more zombies to the "meal".

* 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.