Zombies are meant to scare us in a few different ways:

• 1. They are in massive groups
• 2. They kill you in a painful and gruesome way.
• 3. They infect you with their 'poison' making you one of their mindless members.

But there is something in getting the feel for how they are scary.
I think it must be like 'the terminator' scenario where the machine never rests until it gets you.
I think that's the scariest part.
Can you give me some other reasons, you can find?
I appreciate your help.
Thanks.

--Gypsy

there's the gross-out factor, if you want to go there. zombies can look pretty nasty depending on how they died or how long they've been dead. and the sheer horror of seeing someone you knew when they were alive as a walking monster. hope that helps!

For me, the most important thing about zombies is that they're monsters who used to be your friends, relatives and neighbours. That's what's missing from so many recent zombie movies.

How do you format V.O. Should it be an V.O. then change to an O.S? I have my MC explaining what is going on at the end of the scene. While the scene changes she talks through the scene change. Is this a place for split screen? I want the character dialog to start as the scene opens and the V.O. ends. I'm not sure how it should look? HELP!

They've.... been... gnawed upon. (the 13th warrior)
Pinkus <:3 )~

To me it was always scary how you never knew where the next one was coming from. It could come up out of the ground at the cemetery or just be hiding in a building somewhere.

Also, they are scary because of how hard it is to kill them. You can stab them for days or cut off limbs, but they're still coming after you. Even if they have to crawl to you and bite your legs off.

AlpHa

"How do you format V.O. Should it be an V.O. then change to an O.S?"

I'm not sure what you mean.

O.S. means the character is off screen: i.e. they're in the scene, but not visible, for example talking from another room. V.O. means they're not in the scene at all, but still talking, for example talking over a flashback.

The scary thing is that they are unintelligent and have no conscience. They'll attack without discrimination.

I think a lot comes from the hopelessness factor. Your back is against a wall, and there's no way out. No matter how well you hide, or how resourceful you are you're still going to die. Whether it's getting torn apart, or simply dying from other factors seeing as you're completely cut off from EVERYTHING.

Let's face it, once they start spreading, there's nobody that's going to come save you.

Well, in most stories anyway.
------
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past.
Wisdom is knowing you will be an idiot in the future.
Common sense is knowing you should try to not be an idiot today.

Thanks for posts everyone!
Interesting ideas I never thought of. I like the one about knowing who the Zombie's were. It's a good conflict situation!!

*Does anyone think a Zombie should be indestructable altogether?
*Or is the standard head shot to kill enough?

Something I've been struggling with:
How would you describe a Zombie during an action take, without anything too lengthy, because obviously the characters don't want to stick around for the gruesome details!

i.e.
The smell of decomposed human flesh lingers heavily in the dark and dank hallway. The building is devoid of any furniture. They must be near. The subtle squelching sound is persistant, then as I peer into a small room, I see a man crouching over, eating.
He turns to look at me. His looks like he's wearing a beard but then I realise it's blood spread all over his face. His eye's are pale white and it hisses.

I can't really fit in something like:
The rotting flesh of the Zombie carcas is putrid. Maggots chew threw its brain, exposed by the piece of scalp, peeled back by some sort of head trauma. Which was most likely sustained after becoming a Zombie. I wonder if the victim survived.

Could you fit a description this lengthy (or even LENGTHIER!)into a scenario where a human encounters a zombie?

Without making the character seem like they're standing there studying the zombie's features??

I suppose it depends if you want to be true to the Romero style zombie, or not. Nobody is forcing you to have headshots = kills, but it is fairly standard in modern zombie mythos, or Romero style anyway. If indestructable fits the bill, then by all means.

As for the description... when writing a script, it doesn't have to be overly detailed. A couple of sentances isn't too long. It's longer to write it than it is to read it. But just describing them as "zombie" or "zombie with exposed scalp" should be sufficient enough for the script methinks.
------
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past.
Wisdom is knowing you will be an idiot in the future.
Common sense is knowing you should try to not be an idiot today.

The first time that a zombie is encountered, or where they sneak up on one, a longer description would be okay, but if you do it for every zombie just to get to 100 pages...

I know, I'm writing a zombie flick myself, and I'll be struggling through these scenes shortly. And I'm tempted...

It just means that I'll have to "flesh" out the rest of my story more...
:-)

Peanutgnome