When the Dead Walketh the Earth....

Some time ago, I watched "Resident Evil: Acopalyse", which was eh... much better than the first instalment. I also watched the "Dawn of the Dead" when it was screened some months back, and yes, I am a great fan of the Resident Evil game series (which in general were much better, especially Resident Evil 2, compared to the movies re-make). The reason why I kept going for zombie movies, despite their lack of promise in good plot, good lines and great acting (the 3 basic things I look for in a movie), is simply because of my fascination for the walking dead.

Now, in case anyone think that such a weird fascination is rare and that perhaps I have some kind of hormone imbalance, I would like to say that I am not (alright, I concede that mad people supposedly seldom admit that they are looney). There is a book in the market called "The Zombie Survival Guide", which is a satirical survival guide (obviously) written to help the reader survive a walking dead holocaust like that portrayed in "Dawn of the Dead". Now, the fact that such a book is written at all should show that there are quite a number of loonies like me out there who have fascination with the biting and shambling chunks of dead flesh. Though I have never read the book before (and yes, I would be interested to read it, if I can somehow get hold of it), the description and extracts I read on the web shows that it is a very detailed piece of work. The author(s) goes into great depths to describe and analyse what makes a zombie ticks, how to kill one, what to do in an "outbreak", symptoms of someone who has been infected and so on and so forth.

If I can get hold of this book, one question which I would really like to have an answer, and which so far seems to be neglected by all movies even though it might be critical is: what sustains a zombie? We know from our primary school science that all things that move need a source of energy. For living things, that would be obtained through the food that are consumed, for machines like cars and the electric fans, that would be through gasoline or electricity. Well, the walking dead falls into neither category, leaving us to wonder from where does a zombie get the energy to shamble, identify a potential human victim and to bite. If zombies get their sustenance through feeding on human flesh, does it then mean that if we can cage one and just leave it there for days, it would eventually just "die"? Also if, a zombie gets its source of energy through feeding, then would it not mean that the digestive system must be functioning for it to survive a reasonable period of time and thus other than killing it instantaneously by a bullet shot through the head or decapitating it, if we can blow up its stomach, it would soon "expire"?

Well... forgive my obsessively analytical thinking, the by-product of being scientifically trained for much of my education... Anyway, is there any place on earth where we can find a zombie? I remember reading a story long ago in some "Bookworm" book (is this local publication series for kids still in existence?) that Haiti is supposedly home to the walking dead. These zombies are nothing like those in "Resident Evil" with the insatiable hunger for human flesh but are more like robots. They are supposedly resurrected by some sorcerers (in fact until we invent the notion of dead-resurrecting viruses, all zombies in folklore and mythologies are brought back by magic) so that they can work as slaves in the sugarcane plantations. The story that I read told of an outsider who saw such zombies and taking pity on one of them gave it a salted biscuit. According to folklore, if a Haitian zombie eats any salted stuff, it would realise that it should be dead and goes back to its grave which was what happened in the story.

Now, for anyone who is suddenly interested in Haiti because of the zombie story (I was and made a promise to visit the place when I was small), Haiti is a very poor country which shared the island with the Dominican Republic and located in Central America. According to the CIA World Fact Book, the country is very unstable, torn by strife and very much improverished (Perhaps if the zombie stories are true and there really are zombies, Haiti could consider marketing itself as a zombie centre to attract more tourists and enrich themselves). So not a good idea to visit the country unless you are ready to risk being killed by the militia and perhaps returning as a sugarcane plantation slave.

Beside this, I also remember hearing or reading of the folklore that in ancient China, in the inner regions, there was an activity called gan shi (driving corpses). Apparently, the inner regions are more mountainous and thus if someone dies, it is rather difficult to transport the body in the coffin over the steep terrain for long distances (the need might arise when someone died far from home and the family wants the body to be buried in the hometown). So what those innovative priests did was to resurrect the dead and have him walk (or hop) behind the priest back to the hometown. Of course, because of the unsightliness of such a procession, the corpses only walk at night and woe to the unfortunate traveller who run into them.

Although these are fascinating sights even if true, they are perhaps less exciting than the violent dead in "Resident Evil". But then again, things are only so fascinating when we need not suffer the consequences of such happenings so let's keep it that way. I doubt anyone would be very fascinated (including myself) with dinosaurs, vampires, zombies, and other "horrors" if we are trying to run away from the fate of becoming their victims.....