Zombies Vs. The Infected

by Rizzy

Ok, so as a horror movie addict and Bviewing tons of horror films, sooner or later I was going to have to talk about some of the big arguments in horror films and when it comes to heated horror debates, this one is at the top of the list.

This debate reached an all time high with the release of the film 28 Days Later, which is an end of days style movie about a mass infection of a rage virus that turns people into basically high powered zombies... they crave human flesh and spread their infection by biting others... sound familiar?

So now the question remains?  Do we call these "infected" zombies? And is 28 Days Later a zombie film? I like to call the infected new age zombies. Zombies + science = infection...

Zombie films rarely state for sure how the infection started, but usually at the very least allude to what caused it.  Most of the time it has to do with the predominant fears of the time. So if people are concerned with pollution, zombies come from toxic waste, if they are worried about the spreading evil in the world, then they are the damned over flowing from Hell. If your main concern is... say... biochemical warfare then zombies become "the infected." For some reason people don't want to put these in the same category.

A lot of people don't like to call the 28 Days Later films zombie films because they don't really follow the zombie format. In the the greatest enemy becomes not just the infected, but even more so the other humans that are left. The infected are more of a background threat, something that can come out to change your life, but doesn't seem real. 28 Days Later has a dream like quality to a lot of it.  There is these moments of perfection and idealism and happiness that are directly contrasted with moments of loss and death. This becomes a very powerful statement and creates a definite mood to this film that hasn't really been a big part of zombie films before.

I'm under the strict belief that just because these films don't go with the normal themes of most zombie films (which are all about survival for the most part) that doesn't stop them from being zombie films. In fact, I wish more zombie films would take the time/consideration to develop a plot as interesting as this one.

What does keep this movie from being a full zombie film to me?  One thing. The zombies are the undead.  To be the undead you must first die and the infected do not first die.  Even this though doesn't really completely sell me on the "not zombie" aspect of the film.  If these guys showed up on my doorstep, I sure as hell wouldn't be calling them the infected, I would be calling them zombies and shooting them in the head. Not only that, but these films really make me feel like this is what a zombie breakout would really be like and that's damned cool.  It's not just an illusion in this film, it's a reality.

So what's my conclusion? Zombie? Infected? It really doesn't matter, there are good arguments for both. Just stop arguing about it and sit back and enjoy the films!