Watch out! Undead Ahead!
"You know, it's an interesting thing when you consider: the Earth people, who can think, are so frightened by those who cannot: the dead."
— Eros, Plan 9 from Outer Space
Zombies fall precisely into the Uncanny Valley. That's why they're so scary and so fun to kill. This is an index of tropes about them.
Braaaaains...
Compare Mummy Tropes, Skeletal Tropes, and Vampire Tropes.
Ironically, The Living Dead is not an example.
Tropes:
- Artificial Zombie: A corpse that's re-animated by (or for) science.
- Attractive Zombie: A zombie who is beautiful and attractive in spite of being undead.
- Beware the Living: When there are zombies running amok, humans are more a danger to themselves than the zombies are.
- Brain Food: Zombies eat brains.
- Burn the Undead: When fire is effective at destroying the undead.
- Cavalry of the Dead: Summoning an army of undead soldiers to fight a mutual enemy.
- Clown-Car Grave: An absurd or limitless number of enemies spawning out of a disproportionately smaller area.
- Creepy Cemetery: An unusually scary cemetery with zombies, and maybe other monsters, abound.
- The Dead Have Eyes: The undead either still have functioning eyes or are able to see without eyes.
- Deadly Lunge: Sudden zombie leaping attack.
- Dead Weight: Obese zombies.
- Devoured by the Horde: When a character is Eaten Alive and/or torn apart by multiple parties.
- Elemental Zombie: Zombies with elemental powers or an elemental theme.
- Elite Zombie: Superpowered zombies.
- Episode of the Dead: A chapter, episode, level, or stage dedicated solely to zombies in a work that is often otherwise about something else.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: When flesh-eating zombies are added to a story just for the sake of coolness.
- Fearless Undead: When the (re)animated dead have no concept of self-preservation.
- Flesh-Eating Zombie: A zombie that feeds on the bodies of the living.
- Friendly Zombie: A zombie who's nice and friendly.
- Glowing Eyelights of Undeath: Undead creatures depicted with glowing eyes.
- Hemo Erotic: The biting, cutting, and/or drinking of blood for sex appeal.
- Horror Hunger: When a character feels a supernatural and irresistible hunger for other humans.
- Incongruously-Dressed Zombie: A zombie wears clothes that makes them stand out more than the other undead corpses seen.
- The Jaywalking Dead: Zombies are dumb enough to walk into traffic and get run over.
- Marionette Motion: When someone or something moves like a puppet.
- Mistaken for Undead: When a character thought to be dead is accused of being undead despite not actually being so.
- Nazi Zombies: Undead Nazis.
- Night of the Living Mooks: The villain uses the undead as their foot soldiers.
- No FEMA Response: When earthquakes, terrorist attacks, and/or stranger events don't elicit a response from authorities, and the survivors are left to fend for themselves.
- Not a Zombie: It takes a while for someone to realize a zombie is a zombie in spite of the obvious clues.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: A zombie isn't directly called a zombie.
- No Zombie Cannibals: Zombies don't eat each other.
- Parasite Zombie: A zombie produced or controlled by a Puppeteer Parasite.
- Patient Zero: The first person who got infected by the zombie plague.
- Perpetual-Motion Monster: Zombies who don't need to eat, drink, or rest.
- Picky People Eater: Zombies only eat specific parts of people.
- Plague Zombie: A zombie created by The Virus or The Assimilator.
- Possessing a Dead Body: When a dead body is reanimated by a spirit inhabiting it.
- Pretend We're Dead: If you act like zombies, real zombies won't attack you.
- Raising the Steaks: Zombie animals.
- Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: When the only way to kill something is by destroying or removing its head.
- Revenant Zombie: A zombie that is more intelligent and aware of how they were in life than most depictions of the walking dead.
- Ridiculously Alive Undead: Despite being undead, these zombies act similar to or just like us living people.
- Rise from Your Grave: When a person who is dead and buried turns out to be undead and has to claw their way out of their own grave.
- Robotic Undead: Zombie-bots.
- Room Full of Zombies: When a locked room turns out to be storing dozens, or a hoard, of zombies.
- Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: The different forms of healing for the undead.
- So You Want To.Write a Zombie Apocalypse: Instructions for how to write a zombie apocalypse story.
- Spring-Loaded Corpse: When an undead character or enemy is Faking the Dead only to rise up and attack.
- Stages of Monster Grief: The human-to-monster version of the Five Stages of Grief.
- Technically-Living Zombie: A monster that has everything in common with the typical depiction of a zombie except for the fact that they are not undead, i.e., rabies victims or possessed people.
- Title of the Dead: Titles including the phrase "of the [Living] Dead".
- Undead Barefooter: Zombies that don't wear shoes.
- Undead Laborers: Using undead as servants or workers.
- Undeath Is Cheap: Zombification or vampirism that is easily cured.
- Undeathly Pallor: Undead creatures portrayed with pale skin.
- Viral Transformation: A transformation that can be spread virally and physically changes humans to non-humans.
- The Virus: A creature causes other beings to turn into creatures like itself.
- Voodoo Zombie: The original zombies of Caribbean Voudon folklore.
- You Can't Kill What's Already Dead: When the dead are nearly indestructible.
- Your Brain Won't Be Much of a Meal: Zombies aren't interested in eating the brains of stupid people.
- Zombie Advocate: A human character who fights for the moral rights of zombies and/or other non-humans.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The world gets overrun by zombies.
- Zombie Apocalypse Hero: Someone who shows a particular talent for killing zombies.
- Zombie Gait: Zombies move slowly.
- Zombie Infectee: Someone gets infected by a zombie and turns into a zombie themselves.
- Zombie Puke Attack: Zombies with deadly, projectile vomit.
- Zombify the Living: Using necromancy on those still living.
