All horror writers have obligations. All acknowledge the difference between creepy and terrifying monsters. Zombies are both.

Zombies have history. Lovers of Hammer Films relish The Plague of the Zombie, a film underrated by critics. Decades passed before low budget horror was taken seriously. None of the actors became stars but Michael Ripper appeared in several Hammer movies, and, with the name Ripper, he had to. Before The Plague Of The Zombies, the 1958 movie The Woman Eater featured a plant that ate women, and in 1951, John Wyndham wrote The Day Of The Triffids. In the 50s, scientists, rather than neighbours returning from death, were the threat to nature and existence. Then the nuclear arms race stoked paranoia, and, by 1966, when The Plague Of The Zombies was made, audiences were ready for dodgy Cornish neighbours. The Plague of the Zombies influenced many other zombie movies that followed on both sides of the Atlantic. Neighbours transformed into zombies had actually appeared two years earlier in The Earth Dies Screaming. The paranoia in that film, though, is more concerned with external threats. The group cooperates and survives. But the movie was unequivocal, the dead that live on create danger. Zombies are creepy.

Slow zombies shuffle and swarm together. They walk with an imbalanced gait towards their food source, the healthy upstanding citizen. Living flesh is their snack of choice.

Relentless and shambling hordes of once-people are unpleasant to ponder. Shaun Of The Dead is hilarious but also eerie. Zombies cause nightmares and appear in both poorly done B-movies and the masterpieces of horror cinema. Slow zombies disturb because they are dull and relentless. Their overwhelming numbers challenge notions of superiority.

Super-speed turbo zombies, the once-people that can move as fast as Linford Christie, are different.

After the creepy hordes, the zombies in 28 Days Later not only swarmed and had an insatiable hunger for living human flesh, they appeared and devoured in seconds. Both fast and slow zombies only need one bite. But fast zombies do not allow the victim to think and act.

The apocalypse created by fast zombies is darker. Decency, loyalty and common sense skills are no longer enough for the humans. The group will not prevail, only the gifted and lucky survive. This is why the group, when it is met in 28 Days Later, consists of military fascists in retreat.

Slow zombies, shambling their way to their next living snack, provide an ominous mood. But for the marriage of the macabre and disturbing with the heart-pounding fear factor, nothing beats fast zombies. They have acceleration and can tear apart sweet little old ladies at the end of the street in seconds.

Slow zombies are fine for the 100% creep factor that keeps a reader or viewer locked in their flat for the night. Slow zombies make us doubt our decisions on how to escape. Fast zombies, though, seal off the escape route, and make a reader dig through the attic for that old hunting rifle.

 

Anne often wonders why the zombie in her hamper keeps telling her ‘the stars are right’. She once earned 2^nd place in hopping at the Pre Kindergarten Olympics at her school and ever since she has vowed to improve those skills. Anne has hopped her way into the Zombie Bites anthology on a story called The Journalist. Zombie Bites will be published by Red Rattle Books on 30 10 2014. Zombie Bites and Mortal Shuffle will be launched at the Betsey Trotwood in London on 30 10 14. If you would like to learn more about Ann and her mix of the silly and horrific, you can follow her on Twitter. If you want to know more about Zombie Bites click http://www.redrattlebooks.co.uk