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Old 10-08-2018, 06:43 PM
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Why in horror movies do the dead always attack the living?

And not just movies it's a common recurring theme in old horror stories too.

So why do dead people always want to hurt the living? My theory is that maybe they hold a jealousy against the living for having something that the dead will never have again? Maybe the dead all wish that they could go back to being alive and enjoy the same things that the living do but since that is impossible they take their anger out on the living and kill them so that they will become dead too?

Maybe the living fear the dead because they understand that the dead are angry at them for being allowed to die and that they themselves will one day be dead too?

I always feel sympathetic to the undead monsters in horror movies like ghosts, zombies, vampires, and other types of ghouls.
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Last edited by LuvablePsycho; 10-09-2018 at 04:21 AM.
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Old 10-10-2018, 06:16 AM
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I feel like this is some deep stuff. A lot of horror filmmakers and story writers always say that they sympathize with their undead monsters but they don't really explain why they sympathize with them.

So I decided to do my own analysis of the undead and their grudge against the living.
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Old 10-10-2018, 07:32 AM
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I think the dead might envy the living. In Dawn of the Dead they were talking about why the zombies were going to the shopping mall because there is still a part of their subconscious that acts as instinct. I know in the Return of the Living Dead movies zombies just wanted brains but And all the regular movies they just tear people apart and eat whatever they can. So the question is do they actually need flesh to survive as zombies? Or are they killing them anyway they can because they are envious of them?
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Old 10-10-2018, 10:05 AM
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I think the dead might envy the living. In Dawn of the Dead they were talking about why the zombies were going to the shopping mall because there is still a part of their subconscious that acts as instinct. I know in the Return of the Living Dead movies zombies just wanted brains but And all the regular movies they just tear people apart and eat whatever they can. So the question is do they actually need flesh to survive as zombies? Or are they killing them anyway they can because they are envious of them?
Yeah I never understood why the zombies in Return of the Living Dead only eat brains when in every other zombie movie they eat whatever they can tear out of their victims.

I don't think the zombies actually "need" the flesh to survive because as Dr. Logan pointed out in Day of the Dead when he removed the stomach and organs of a zombie they still crave human flesh as food even when they can't gain nourishment from it. And seeing how zombies are dead beings that slowly rot over time I doubt any of their internal organs work to digest the flesh they eat

I think their desire for flesh as food comes from a primitive animalistic instinct (the need to feed) yet it seems strange that they mostly target humans which are still the same species and not other animals. The act of cannibalism against their own species I think comes from something more than just primitive hunger. They must have something against the living humans themselves.

For example like Bub from Day of the Dead. The only reason he didn't try to attack Dr. Logan I think is because Logan was somehow able to awaken the humanity inside of him with his experiments and bring out what was originally lost when he became a zombie, and he saw Logan as his protector and provider of food and toys to play with.

When Bub saw that Logan was dead he reacted in genuine pain and sadness and knew immediately who was responsible for killing him (Rhodes and his men). So he picked up a gun and hunted Rhodes down to act out another human emotion: vengeance.

Bub grew very attached to Logan because of the way he reminded him of his own humanity but in the end he was still a zombie and would always be a zombie until the day he was destroyed in the brain or rotted away completely.

And it was interesting how he didn't even bother to eat Rhodes like the other zombies after he shot him. That shows just how much contempt he had for the guy for killing Logan.

Now vampires on the other hand, I think they actually DO need human blood because without it they loose their powers. In Bram Stoker's Dracula (the book I mean) I believe that Count Dracula would actually start to age drastically when he didn't feed for awhile.

And I think ghosts mostly attack humans for entering the areas they haunt because they are territorial and possibly because they envy humans for still being alive. Of course some ghosts aren't so bad and they either remain neutral or try to warn the humans to leave the haunted area out of genuine concern for their safety.
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Old 10-11-2018, 07:01 AM
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Another interesting thing about the undead is how they try to kill the people they once loved and cared about when they were still alive.

Like in Night of the Living Dead when the Cooper's daughter became a zombie and killed and ate her own mother and father.

Maybe when a person becomes dead they feel that they would be lost without their family or friends so they decide to pull them into death too? I mean after all they have already become dead so they might feel that it isn't so bad for their loved ones to join them in death too.

Now ghosts on the other hand, it seems like sometimes you have a ghost who refuses to do that sort of thing to a loved one and they might actually follow that person around looking after them and protecting them.

Like a ghostly mother who protects her still living child.
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Old 10-11-2018, 09:28 PM
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Why in horror movies do the dead always attack the living?

Because otherwise it would be dead on dead crime.
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Old 10-12-2018, 03:15 AM
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Why in horror movies do the dead always attack the living?

Because otherwise it would be dead on dead crime.
Ha! Ha!

But seriously though, the dead must hate us for still being alive.
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Old 10-12-2018, 03:21 AM
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Ok...some good points here.
But, basically - They attack the living, because they're a bunch of fucking dickheads.
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Old 10-12-2018, 03:26 AM
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Ok...some good points here.
But, basically - They attack the living, because they're a bunch of fucking dickheads.
But aren't the living oftentimes dickheads too?



Like Barbara said in the NoTLD remake "They're us, we're them and they're us."
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Old 10-12-2018, 03:48 AM
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If they didn't attack us then it would just be some film about a zombie/ghost standing around. While the living just go about their business.

Maybe the act of dying makes you evil. Why do we fear ghosts? They're just people who died. Why would dying make you evil?
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