# Did Romero actually invent flesh-eating zombies?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-romero-actually-invent-flesh-eating-zombies/423790>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 24, 2007, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-romero-actually-invent-flesh-eating-zombies/423790 "2007-10-24T03:32:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-romero-actually-invent-flesh-eating-zombies/423790/21 "2007-10-25T22:46:22Z")

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I might have to turn in my Zombie Response Unit badge for this but, in Night of the Living Dead doesn’t it mention something about a satelite coming back to Earth and possibly that being the cause… so the Romero-vese isn’t completely devoid of explanations.

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**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-romero-actually-invent-flesh-eating-zombies/423790/22 "2007-10-25T23:22:16Z")

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[QUOTE=Push You Down]  
I might have to turn in my Zombie Response Unit badge for this but, in Night of the Living Dead doesn’t it mention something about a satelite coming back to Earth and possibly that being the cause… so the Romero-vese isn’t completely devoid of explanations.  
[/QUOTE]

I’m pretty sure that was just speculation, which would be in keeping with the consensus on this here thread. I could be wrong, though.

> [@Pushkin](#):
>
> I wouldn’t pick up a copy of World War Z because it sounded so twee and pedantic, trying to carefully reason a way for the plague of zombies to emerge.

Yeah, Max Brooks had something going with the Zombie Survival Guide–it was a new and creative way to reframe the genre. But that, too, was a little too handy in offering up the explanation of _why_ people rose from the dead, with that Solanum crap.

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**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-romero-actually-invent-flesh-eating-zombies/423790/23 "2007-10-26T03:28:24Z")

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[QUOTE=alphaboi867]  
In the 4th film, _Land of the Dead_, a man commits suicide by hanging and comes back as a zombie (yet his family is surprised for some reason :dubious: ).  
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That man from Land of the Dead was from the wealthy part of the city and I assume that he and his family were insulated from the dead world.

Marc

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