Hollywood Zombie

Revenge from the past

Visions of the walking dead as instruments of ghostly vengeance date from ancient times. Also known as corporeal ghost, they are not really zombie as they usually display a strong personality and remembrance of the past. Their vengeance is usually restricted to those who have violated their sleep or caused their unfair death. The influence of Romero's living dead lies mainly in the type of violence they commit. These days the general audience of these films expects zombies that mutilate their victims horribly and their vengeance is more likely to have a degree of cruelty which was not present in early days.

The Crow (1994), half shapeshifter, half zombie, comes back from the grave to revenge on those who killed him and his fiancée. Similarly, in one of the stories of Tales from the Crypt (1972), Cushing plays an eccentric old man who is cruelly driven to his death by a malicious neighbour. He returns in a state of decay, face gaunt and wrinkled, clothes covered in grave-dirt, to express his displeasure in a direct show of violence,  that is, ripping out his tormentor's heart. In Creepshow (1985), another homage to horror comics, revenge becomes even gorier as an angry father, dead, returns in an advanced state of decomposition and ironically creates a designer birthday cake out of his daughter's head.

Another variation puts on stage various evil groups or individuals from the past returns to create havoc in the present, such as Ossorio's Knights Templar or Nazi zombies (The Frozen Dead, Lake of the Living Dead, The Treasure of the Living Dead, Shock Waves). These zombies embodie the power of evil that continue to haunt generations to follow, a symbol for psychological trauma.

Scientific experiments

Zombies that supposedly can be created by scientific experimentation on chemical or genetic alteration of the human physiology have been made popular by the "living dead" series of films.

Another theme which frequently appears in zombie movies is the hell brought on by government experiments. This is the basis of Return of the Living Dead (1985), Return of the Living Dead II (1988), and Return of the Living Dead III (1993). In these movies, the zombies are created from an experimental chemical weapon produced by the military and somehow accidentally released onto a graveyard in every movie. The idea of the military ploting and creating havoc is a widely used concept in many conspiration films and find a perfect vehicle with these types of zombie movies. In Toxic Zombies (1980), a secret government agency uses an experimental herbicide on a marijuana plantation, and those trying to harvest the illegal crop. The resulting zombie-like creatures take a general revenge on anyone in the vicinity.

Magic

Zombies created by voodoo tend to be harmless, and are often used as slaves by the witch doctors who have created them. In many cases, humans who have committed grievous crimes against a community are the subject of such spells, transforming them into slaves to pay the price of their past sins.

Sticking pins in "voodoo dolls" was once used as a method of cursing an individual by some followers of Vodun in New Orleans; this practice continues occasionally in South America. The practice became closely associated with Voodoo in the public mind through the vehicle of horror movies

Alien force

Sometimes the zombie germ comes from outer space. In Night of the Comet (1984), a rare astral passing converts the survival sighters into violent zombies. Also originating from outer space is the menace of The Night of the Creeps (1986). Zombification takes place when alien slug-like creatures kills the victims but habit the corpse that keep walking around, trying to infest others. Lifeforce (1985) has some visiting, energy-draining aliens causing those they have killed to return to life filled with a desire to inflict similar injury on other humans. The apocalyptic climax, depicting London overrun by zombies intent on sending the life-energy of the populace to the alien mother ship and its load of comatose aliens, is an effective piece of gaudy and oddball SF histrionics.

Mario Bava's SF thriller, Planet of the Vampires (1965) display similar aliens that turn earthlings into zombies.

Demonic

Another popular theme in zombie films is the presence of some evil force or black magic that releases the zombies on the living. In Lambert Bava's Demons (1986), the source of the infection is demonic possession The audience at a late-night horror film preview find that demonic images on the screen are being replicated in reality as victims are turned into killing zombies, who then infect others.

The Evil Dead (1982) and The Evil Dead II (1987) are based on the concept of evil possessing the living and turning them into zombies. Sometimes it is the devil himself who creates the living dead.

The best explanatory sentence is probably to be found in Dawn of the Dead :

 "When there's no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth."