# "Head Shots" for Zombies -- Origins?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 15, 2012, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296 "2012-06-15T23:25:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/1 "2012-06-15T23:25:55Z")
How long has this meme been around :
“To kill a zombie, you have to destroy the head”
I know that modern-day movie/comics/TV zombies are nothing like the zombie of actual folklore, who would rebel if given salt in their food (if my memory is accurate), and were not generally seen to be dangerous to living people, otherwise.
Any info would be appreciated!
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### Author:  [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/2 "2012-06-15T23:31:02Z")
I think that the original _Night of the Living Dead_ created much of modern zombie lore, including the “head shot” kill method.
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### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/3 "2012-06-15T23:51:32Z")
> [@pinkfreud](#):
>
> I think that the original _Night of the Living Dead_ created much of modern zombie lore, including the “head shot” kill method.
“Ya gotta shoot 'em in the head”
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/4 "2012-06-16T02:58:15Z")
If you have a question about where did a given bit of modern zombie lore come from, the answer will be one of three sources:
1. Night of the Living Dead (headshots, flesh eating, spontaneous reanimation)
2. Return of the Living Dead (braaaaaaaaaains)
3. A misinterpretation of one of the above (bite-spread plague)
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/5 "2012-06-16T03:15:23Z")
> [@Tengu](#):
>
> 1. A misinterpretation of one of the above (bite-spread plague)
So, when one of your group gets bit during a mass zombie fight, you don’t have to shoot him?
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/6 "2012-06-16T03:22:05Z")
**Return of the Living Dead** zombies are also pretty much the only ones who eat only brains as opposed to flesh in general. It was Dan O’Bannon’s way of making the film less gory to ensure an R rating. Headshots not killing zombies (along with hall body parts being seperatly animated) was a deliberate choice to subvert the audience’s expections (“You mean the movie _lied_?!”). Zombies being able to talk & reason was pure comedy.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2012, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/7 "2012-06-16T04:53:27Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#):
>
> So, when one of your group gets bit during a mass zombie fight, you don’t have to shoot him?
By Night’s rules:
Chances are he’ll die, so, you probably will.
The thing is, the same goes for the one who died of tetanus after stepping on a rusty nail, and the one who hung himself because he couldn’t take living in a zombie apocalypse.
By Return’s rules:
He will have been infected by the bite, but any other exposure to Trioxin would have done the same thing, not just the bite.
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2012, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/8 "2012-06-16T06:27:36Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#):
>
> So, when one of your group gets bit during a mass zombie fight, you don’t have to shoot him?
In a Romero zombie flick anyone who is bitten will succumb to infection and rise as a zombie. Of course anyone who dies with their brain pan intact will also rise as one of the living dead with cannibalistic urges.
Romero zombies have a rudimentary ability to use tools. In the first movie the little girl uses a trowel to stab her mother to death. In the beginning of the movie the graveyard zombie picks up a rock to bash a car window in.
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### Author:  [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/9 "2012-06-18T16:03:59Z")
> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> “Ya gotta shoot 'em in the head”
I thought the line was “Kill the brain and you kill the ghoul”.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/10 "2012-06-18T16:12:42Z")
I assume over the years people have noticed head shots worked best for stopping zombies. The first person to reduce this to rule is probably lost in the mists of time. We’ll never know who figured out how to kill a werewolf with a silver bullet either. They must of tried bullets made from every available material and fired at werewolves until one of them died. I pity the guys who had to figure out how to kill a vampire. I don’t know how many must have died while trying to hammer a carrot or icicle into a vampire.
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### Author:  [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/11 "2012-06-18T17:08:11Z")
Thanks for the info!
It is interesting how zombies, and the various other horror move monsters, have evolved through time…
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/12 "2012-06-19T17:20:31Z")
> [@cjepson](#):
>
> I thought the line was “Kill the brain and you kill the ghoul”.
Both are used IIRC.
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### Author:  [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/13 "2012-06-19T17:29:20Z")
> [@cjepson](#):
>
> I thought the line was “Kill the brain and you kill the ghoul”.
Which reminds me, who decided that the ghouls in NotLD were zombies? They were called ghouls in the movie and had practically nothing in common with earlier zombies, folkloric or fictional (or real for that matter), and much in common with earlier ghouls.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2012, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/14 "2012-06-19T17:53:24Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#):
>
> Which reminds me, who decided that the ghouls in NotLD were zombies? They were called ghouls in the movie and had practically nothing in common with earlier zombies, folkloric or fictional (or real for that matter), and much in common with earlier ghouls.
I believe Romero refused to call them zombies right up until Land of the Dead. (Dennis Hopper’s character says ‘I hate zombies’, at one point, which may be the only time in the original Romero series the word was used.)
As to who decided they were zombies, not ghouls, I’ve no idea.
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### Author:  [@JMH125](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JMH125)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/15 "2012-06-19T18:06:39Z")
In D&D, ghouls are much worse than zombies. 🙂
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### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/16 "2012-06-19T18:14:35Z")
> [@JMH125](#):
>
> In D&D, ghouls are much worse than zombies. 🙂
“Just one hit die worse, that’s not **much** worse…”
“It is when it means that ghouls have double the hit dice of zombies.” 😃
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/17 "2012-06-19T18:16:03Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> I don’t know how many must have died while trying to hammer a carrot or icicle into a vampire.
Ah, but a large, woody _frozen_ carrot…
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/18 "2012-06-19T19:30:03Z")
> [@Tengu](#):
>
> I believe Romero refused to call them zombies right up until Land of the Dead. (Dennis Hopper’s character says ‘I hate zombies’, at one point, which may be the only time in the original Romero series the word was used.)
>
> As to who decided they were zombies, not ghouls, I’ve no idea.
Nope.
In Dawn-- “there’s going to be a million zombies in here These guys will be too busy to worry about us.”
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/head-shots-for-zombies-origins/625296/19 "2012-06-19T19:49:00Z")
Clearly, I need to rewatch the original trilogy.
\ Oh. The suffering. \