"Not always running" - regardless, the point is - they're capable of running, and frequently do so on screen.
I'm definitely of the Simon Pegg school of thought - death is a disability - and anything running at you is scary. That's what I reckon on that subject.
But like I've said before, I have two "let offs" with running zed's, Dead Set and Deadlands. I'd still much prefer them to be shamblers, but I can at least stomach the notion in those two examples as there's something else on offer.
Dead Set has a great idea - zombie apocaylpse and a bunch of numpties on Big Brother are trapped in the house - plus it's British, and was made for TV, so it's unlike a lot of American output, so I actually found it quite scary at times ... haunting is maybe a better word - but the familiar setting and country worked to really punch the horror buttons for me. Plus it's jet black comedy written by Charlie Brooker.
Deadlands - the first one is full on pure-as-pure-can-be indie filmmaking. I watch it and I can see it being made, I can see the production behind it, I can see the family spirit of how it was put together, plus I liked the story - like you said, you get to see things you never get to usually see. Plus it's damn impressive for such a low amount of cash ... ... and then you make the superior DL2 for even LESS money, and yet ramp up the scale - that in itself is reason enough to dig DL2, but add in significant improvements on all aspects of the film (not to say DL1 was "teh suckage", far from it), a cool plot, cool setting and so on - and it easily overcomes the running zombie issue.
Plus you have a combo of runner & shambler, which makes the bitter runner pill easier to swallow. 
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But I still hate runners. It's like making Dracula sprout a jet pack and fly, or Frankenstein pretty, or The Mummy with skin grafts, or The Wolf Man with a 'thing for silver bling' etc etc etc.
I do think that for the average schmuck out there, runners are easier to write, there's less thought in 'how to make it scary', because as I maintain - anything running at you is pretty damn scary - and I think it's harder to write shamblers as scary, but it's definitely possible, you just have to think around the 'problem' (writing problem anyway), of having a slow moving enemy. I don't mean Fulci-slow, they take the piss, but GAR-slow ... the "GAR stumble" if you will.
Anyway, I've experienced it myself when I was writing the full version of "The End", my zombie epic featuring shamblers - I had to figure out how to make the slow ones scary as well as an intimidating force that can eventually take out the protagonists. But I figured my way around it all, and I think it works (obviously it's a first draft - but it works I think).
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I still hate Yawn04 though, I can't abide that shitly-written MTV turd festival.
Dead Set and Deadlands, though, have a lot more going for them than just "runners", so it out-weighs that problem (problem, to me at least).
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Anyway, got off on a rant there - kick arse interview there, nice to see, and thanks for posting it. 
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Originally Posted by MinionZombie
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