# what unleashes zombies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296 "2005-06-29T00:20:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/21 "2005-06-29T12:58:48Z")
Hearing the song _Thriller_ makes them rise and dance from the grave. ---
**Author:** ![riserius1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@riserius1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/riserius1)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/22 "2005-06-29T13:31:16Z")
My theory is that the tagline for the movie is more than just that. “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth”. I take this to mean that,as a result of mankind sinning over and over, hell has finally become full, therefore people can’t die anymore, they just become zombies. The whole “satellite-probe” theory is just the characters attempt to rationalize what they can’t mentally cope with. As for the whole craving for human flesh, I got nothing. Chris W ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/23 "2005-06-29T14:09:37Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > As others have said, it varies with which movie/series of movies you’re talking about. > > In the _Return of the Living Dead_ series, for example, it was the chemical “2-4-5 Trioxin” that reanimated the dead into brain-eating ghouls. (Not sure how it made zombies able to infect the living, though.) I doesn’t. They only way to come back is if they are exposed to Trioxin (used to spray on Marjuana plants in the 60’s don’t you know). If not they remain gooey leftovers on the floor. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/24 "2005-06-29T14:16:11Z")
> [@riserius1](#): > > My theory is that the tagline for the movie is more than just that. > “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth”. > I take this to mean that,as a result of mankind sinning over and over, hell has finally become full, therefore people can’t die anymore, they just become zombies. The whole “satellite-probe” theory is just the characters attempt to rationalize what they can’t mentally cope with. > > As for the whole craving for human flesh, I got nothing. > > Chris W Yeah, but what about the people who die of natural causes without being bitten by a zombie? They generally don’t become zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/25 "2005-06-29T14:17:50Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I know Scully is the skeptic, but that script looked like it was from Season 7, and skeptic or no, after 7 years of running across aliens and the supernatural, how the hell can she say that people don’t come back from the dead? Hasn’t she seen ghosts and things even wierder then that? Heck, I stopped watching after the first episode, when it was already clear that the show wouldn’t be about things that might or might not be real but that it would take all that crap seriously. Scully was set up to be an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/26 "2005-06-29T14:58:30Z")
So if they are back from the dead, wouldn’t most of them be old folks? As for Scully, in the scene quoted, she’s actually not denying them so much as explaining what they are in real pop culture. She’s addressing the world of the real audience, which…btw, doesn’t have real zombis. Not stupid, just very smart writing. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/27 "2005-06-29T20:02:46Z")
> [@kingpengvin](#): > > I doesn’t. They only way to come back is if they are exposed to Trioxin (used to spray on Marjuana plants in the 60’s don’t you know). If not they remain gooey leftovers on the floor. Er, point of fact: the Trioxin-spawned zombies in the last movie (and maybe in the second one, too?) could bit people, who then died and rose again as zombies. I suppose the original zombie could have had traces of Trioxin in it’s system that could affect the people the zombie bit, but the 2nd generation zombies seemed to be infectious, too. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/28 "2005-06-29T20:50:37Z")
Cheap film stock seems to do it. ---
**Author:** ![poeticyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6bbea6/32.png) [@poeticyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/poeticyde)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/29 "2005-07-01T14:18:50Z")
> [@lno](#): > > Yeah, but what about the people who die of natural causes without being bitten by a zombie? They generally don’t become zombies. Though this was true in the remake of “Dawn of the Dead”, in the original series, one would come back regardless of whether one had been bitten or not. ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/30 "2005-07-01T15:41:03Z")
> [@Reepicheep](#): > > Killing the parent process with a kill -9. I don’t know what flavor of UNIX you’re using, but I thought kill -9 killed child processes, too. 'Course, I usually use killall -9. Gets all instances of that process, and you don’t have to use the pid. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/31 "2005-07-01T18:04:08Z")
> [@lno](#): > > Yeah, but what about the people who die of natural causes without being bitten by a zombie? They generally don’t become zombies. Depends on the movie. In Resident Evil: Apocalypse, there are zombies rising from graves in one scene. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/32 "2005-07-01T18:14:43Z")
> [@kelly5078](#): > > Cheap film stock seems to do it. The heat of summer and the smell of fresh popcorn. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/33 "2005-07-01T19:29:40Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > Depends on the movie. In Resident Evil: Apocalypse, there are zombies rising from graves in one scene. Yeah, but the movie itself is pretty damn stupid, particulary that scene. Think about it. The people buried there, many of them aren’t going to have enough flesh left to zombiefy and it doesn’t matter because they’re going to be trapped in a coffin under 6 feet of dirt. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/34 "2005-07-02T08:45:27Z")
> [@Tentacle Monster](#): > > I don’t know what flavor of UNIX you’re using, but I thought kill -9 killed child processes, too. 'Course, I usually use killall -9. Gets all instances of that process, and you don’t have to use the pid. Nope. kill kills the process with that specific PID. Since children have different PIDs, kill will not touch them. This isn’t specific to one flavor: It’s how kill works on any _functional_ \*nix. killall kills children because children generally inherit the parent’s name. (As an aside, this is one thorn in the side of implementing threads on \*nix, at least in the Linux pthreads implementation: Since each thread in Linux is really a process, sending signals to multithreaded program doesn’t work quite the way the POSIX folks think it should.) ---
**Author:** ![melondeca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@melondeca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melondeca)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/35 "2005-07-02T13:25:23Z")
> [@lno](#): > > Yeah, but what about the people who die of natural causes without being bitten by a zombie? They generally don’t become zombies. I should know this because I wrote a research paper on zombies. I think the movie was **Return of the Living Dead** where toxic rain over a cemetary caused people to rise from the dead. Dammit, now I have to dig out that paper and brush up on my zombie knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/36 "2005-07-02T13:43:32Z")
Here’s a question: After zombies eat the living, do they get fat? Do they excrete? I mean, their metabolisms can’t be too hot, you know, what with them being dead and all. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/37 "2005-07-02T13:55:03Z")
> [@melondeca](#): > > I should know this because I wrote a research paper on zombies. I think the movie was **Return of the Living Dead** where toxic rain over a cemetary caused people to rise from the dead. > > Dammit, now I have to dig out that paper and brush up on my zombie knowledge. FIRST was a nerve gas that caused a bunch of soldiers to become insane cannibalistic zombies when a leak occurred. That was the inspiration for NOTLD. The “dead” soldiers were sealed in metal barrels. One sprung a leak when smacked, releasing gas into a medical supply house which specialized in anatomical exhibits. Those exhibits were reanimated, bit some people, who became zombie, etc. When the contaminated site (Louisville, KY) became known to the Gov’t, it nuked that area of the city, thus sending radioactive zombie dust into the air where it came down in toxic rain. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/38 "2005-07-03T02:59:49Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Sometimes it’s because you didn’t say the magic words correctly. Or dial ‘Z’ (for zombies). ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/39 "2005-07-03T03:27:04Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > When the contaminated site (Louisville, KY) became known to the Gov’t, it nuked that area of the city, thus sending radioactive zombie dust into the air where it came down in toxic rain. Well, seeing that you’re a fellow Hoosier, I can say that you and I probably laughed when Louisville was nuked. However, since I live there now, I’m torn. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296/40 "2005-07-03T04:19:44Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > Here’s a question: After zombies eat the living, do they get fat? Do they excrete? I mean, their metabolisms can’t be too hot, you know, what with them being dead and all. Well, in the Zombie Survival Guide, it says they eat, but don’t digest or poop. The meat just sits there in the system, and one dissected zombie had over 300 lbs of meat in his diesgestive track. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unleashes-zombies/310296.md?page=3)