Whaddaya mean, zombies don't eat, except for brains? I've seen them eat all sorts of body parts: arms, legs, even intestines. Near the end of every Living Dead movie there's a scene where everything's gone to hell and the zombies are attacking and eating the various characters. If you pay attention you'll see them chowing down on internal organs and fighting over limbs.

Zombies don't want brains for food.  That's why they don't eat each other.  The lust for brains is a mechanism to spread the zombie plague.

Interesting, but no. Most of the time when zombies catch a living human they devour him or her. Infection and turning only occurs when the victim manages to escape before being killed and eaten.

Once a human gets the plague, the zombies no longer want his brain.

There you have a point. Zombies don't eat each other. If I had to guess I'd say it's simply a matter of taste: Zombies don't taste the same as living humans. This opens the whole question of motivation. If zombies have to feast on the flesh of the living (or very recently dead) there has to be a reason why. Perhaps the living hold some chemical they crave, some physical component of life force that's irresistibly appetizing to the undead. At the moment that Stephen (David Emge) dies in Dawn of the Dead he is being set upon by a group of zombies. Once they realize that he's been turned they abandon him, much as a later group of zombies did to Homer in Treehouse of Horror III: Dial Z for Zombies (not considered canon). This implies that zombies have a way of recognizing their own that we don't quite understand. It may be smell or the absence of a heartbeat, or perhaps just a look on their face: it's vacant, with a hint of sadness. Like a drunk who's lost a bet. It also implies that once the infection has set in to the point where the being is turned the flesh is inedible or at least unappetizing to the zombie. The simplest explanation is that the flesh of the infected is tainted. Just as a human wouldn't eat a piece of meat that smells spoiled and shouldn't eat meat from a diseased animal, a zombie might be instinctively repelled by the smell of zombie flesh. You could argue then, that zombies are just very picky eaters. They like their food rare (really rare) and prefer that it's free-range and organic. On that point, I can't disagree expect to say I prefer mine medium-rare and I'd like a baked potato with butter and chives and a pint of Terminator Stout.

-=Logan
Research, facts, a Republican needs not these things.

Every zombie universe, of course, has slightly different rules, and consequently slightly different zombies.

There are two main different types of zombies.  There is the physical zombie, who occupies a universe with our laws of physics, and there is the magical zombie, who, like Frankenstein's monster, is animated by the Galvanic life force which people began to believe in when they first noticed that an electric voltage applied to the legs of a dead frog will cause it to move.

The physical zombie generally traces its lineage to Who Goes There, and is as often as not an alien.  These zombies were initially doppelgängers.  Some pure doppelgängers survive, as in Alien, but the crossbreed of doppelgängers and zombies is now as common.

The physical zombie usually has an enzymatic deficiency, like the human inability to manufacture vitamin C, which requires it to regularly eat brains in order to survive.  Slower consumption or consumption of only animal brains normally allows it to survive, but weakens it.  They physical zombie also eats human food, but due to its more efficient metabolism, it eats much less of it than a normal human.

The physical zombie is faster, stronger, smarter, more durable, and heals faster than a normal human, but remains killable with normal weapons.  The human body is normally just a shell for an alien parasite, and sufficient damage to the human body will force the parasite out of its host for a short while before it occupies another human's body.  This parasite is normally the only form in which the zombie can be killed with reasonable ease.

The magical zombie, which includes those of George Romero, often has a pseudo-scientific reason for existing, but remains magical in that it makes little pretense to obeying the laws of physics.

The magical zombie normally eats only human flesh, for the purposes of reproduction.  If its meal is interrupted, the human it was eating will itself become a zombie.  Magical zombies may eat other things, but have no desire to do so, and derive no sustenance from doing so.

As a human, any exercise will do damage to your muscles, which is part of why they hurt after exercise.  Any time you walk, it wears away your skin, eventually leading to a blister if continued long enough.  As part of the magic which animates them, magical zombies are immune to this type of gradual wear and tear, and can only be damaged when the damage is significant enough to notice.   Likewise, the magical zombie usually rots, but this never destroys its physical integrity.  As it ages, the requirement that they not be destroyed by rotting forces the rotting to slow.

The magical zombie's heart does not beat, and it requires no air.  It can be killed only by destroying its brain.  The brain should not be able to function without a continuous oxygen and sugar supply, so the only reasonable explanation for why destroying their brain kills zombies is that monsters require an Achilles' heel.

The magical zombie is a perpetual motion machine.  It converts heat to physical work, which is why the air feels cooler around a zombie.  Because zombies violate thermodynamics and do not wear out, it is possible to use them to allow any number of people to live on earth, subject only to space constraints.  All you need to do is place a huge number of zombies in huge habitrail wheels, place some preserved human flesh on one side of the wheel, attach the wheels to electric generators, use these to power electric lights, and use this light to grow food.  If you do this, you are no longer limited to the available sunlight, and you can use multiple levels of caves to grow food, and profwhat will finally be happy.

The physical zombie poops normally, though in smaller than normal quantity due to its efficient metabolism.  The magical zombie poops only after it has consumed humans, and, given the long residence time in its digestive tract, and the high protein and high fat nature of its diet, its poop smells amazingly bad.

No, the just have bowel Mooovements.  And afterwards, they wipe themselves with financial statements.

Er, have you seen Romero's Return, Dawn, and Day of the Dead series?

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

I was hoping someone would pick up on "Shaun of the Dead". It's a fantastic movie. It's a first-rate comedy and it's got both romance and character development. Shaun grows up, becomes an adult and develops real leadership skills. Ed evolves and when the chips are down he volunteers to lay down his life for his friends (Gaaayy). Finally, it could be considered canon for the Romero zombie films as it follows the same rules.

I saw a preview for "Shaun of the Dead" at Comic Con 2006 and I was hooked. I ordered it from Amazon.uk and watched it twice before the American theatrical release. When it was released in US theaters I dragged everyone I could to see it...twice. Finally, I bought the US DVD when it was released and I've been a rabid Simon Pegg fan ever since. I even liked Run Fatboy Run. While How to Lose Friends and Alienate People looks tame and lame, I have high hopes for Paul and a small indy film Simon just completed called Star Trek.

Have you seen Spaced?

-=Logan
Research, facts, a Republican needs not these things.