COLUMN: More fear for shamblers than sprinters
Slow zombies are and always will be more frightening than fast zombies.
Up until the 2002 release of “28 Days Later” the idea of a zombie that could sprint and perform feats of near-superhuman agility was as antithetical to the concept as one not enjoying human flesh.
Though that film was a great movie in its own right, its technically living “infected” seemed to spark somewhat of a disregard for traditionally shambling corpses.
“Why would I be afraid of a zombie,” many macho types asked themselves. “I could out-jog it.”
There is little to fear from a zombie if one can get past the natural revulsion humans feel for corpses and the psychological shock of seeing a friend or loved one risen from the dead in an altered and wretched form.
One zombie would pose little threat to a healthy, calm individual with plenty of space to flee. But a horde of them is entirely different.
The greatest fear comes when a survivor realizes that no matter how far they run, they will be pursued.
You can outrun one, you can outrun a hundred, but you can’t outrun a thousand.
Eventually you will grow tired. The undead will not.
No matter how secure of a safe house you can find, the stumbling masses will continue to converge on it as long as they smell your flesh and hear your panicked breathing.
No matter how many you or your ingeniously designed defense mechanisms kill, there will always be a hundred more groaning at your door.
Fast zombies simply do not carry the same aura of inevitability. They are too immediate.
There is no time for dread to build when hundreds come rushing over a hilltop. But there is plenty when a single slow one comes lurching towards you because zombies — by their infectious nature — love company.
If I was forced to choose between an apocalypse filled with fast zombies and slow zombies I would pick the fast ones.
But only for the end to come sooner.
