"What's Causin' All This?!"

[Danny]

^ now theres one other theory right there. in some amatuer films ive seen, and the autumn novels, the "whatever" kills living people, then there bodies rise, not those allready dead, thats way freakier, and a little more believeable, though not by much.

[Wyldwraith]

The virus/micro-organism theory endures because it works, The storyteller wants it to spread, viruses spread. They want it to convert the living to the enemy, infection converts living matter for its own uses. The parallels continue but the bottom line is simple. You just don't see another theory which so neatly bundles together every trait we've come to know and love from the Romero-esque zombie. Like a previous poster mentioned, plausibility is key if its to feel like a real potential threat and bring maximum creep-factor to bear on the audience. Almost every other theory leaves that hole: Why arent all the dead everywhere rising en masse, thus extinguishing humanity in hours? Every single attempt at a zombie story I've ever read that had the long dead and all dead just get up at once and start killing without a reason you could even speculate about quickly became boring. There's another reason the virus theory has charm. Humanity is beginning to get a grip on microbiology. A lethal virus threatening humanity is something we both fear, yet feel there's a chance we could struggle against. *Potential* extinction can be thrilling. *Inevitable* extinction is boring, repetitive and depressing. Would you want to watch characters you were absolutely positive were going to die, knowing that humanity as a whole was soon to follow....without the least hope of survival? I think there are ways to complicate the virus sub-plot that isn't normally explored, and that's a shame. For example, anyone familiar with the anime Trinity Blood knows the global nuclear holocaust caused mutation and is the central facet of their vampire creation myth...something similar would work for zombies...and thats just one complication.

[darth los]

I wasn't one of the people arguing for a viral cause, just pointing out that were it to be a virus it could be discerned relatively easily. A virus does seem to make the most sense. But as your man Dennis Hopper said, In a world where the dead are returning to life the word "sense" loses much of it's meaing.

[AcesandEights]

A virus does seem to make the most sense. But as your man Dennis Hopper said, In a world where the dead are returning to life the word "sense" loses much of it's meaing. Eloquently written, Darth