Here is the first top ten of the month of October, everyone. And today, let’s liven it up with the total opposite: the living dead. Zombies were not that popular back in the early stages of film. Sure, you had The Mummy and Frankenstein, but nothing crazy like we have today. Then George A. Romero launched them into the mainstream that we known them for today. Nowadays, there everywhere, from horror movies, to practically comedies. We’re in no short supply of these kinds of movies, let me tell you. So, to make this list a bit more interesting, while I will be putting zombies on this list, I will not be including any of the zombies from my list last year onto here, to keep from being redundant. Also, these zombies can be from… anything. Games, movies, shows, anything. If their a corpse brought back to life, it counts. So, with that said, let us begin with the list.
#10: T Virus Zombies from Resident Evil
I decided to put these zombies at the lowest spot, since the Crimson Heads were on my original list. Technically, this isn’t the same spot, since I’m including all of the zombies, but I put them lower because of how they were in last years list. Anyway, these zombies were created thanks to a T-Virus. Found in the 60s, it was used to create a new form of humans by the Umbrella Corporation, but was later used by Spencer to create new weapons for war in the Arklay mountains, which lead to the creation of zombies. This lead to the zombies invading the Arklay Mountains. After S.T.A.R.S. destroyed the T-Virus in the mountains, Umbrella Black Ops went to William Birkin’s underground lab in Raccoon City to retrieve the new G-Virus, which caused an outbreak in Raccoon City, later leading to a huge amount of the virus being used across the world or the creation of new viruses. The people infected slowly begin to turn, showing signs of anger, and extreme hunger. This eventually leaves the host as nothing but being able to only walk and eat anything it finds. Should the host be attacked, it would not die, but lie in a dormant state, as the T-Virus goes hyperactive, creating something known as V-ACT, which turns the host into something that isn’t even human anymore. Not only does this change the physical form of the host, but this increases their intelligence, strength, and anger, but also sacrifices all cells, to where they won’t be able to heal and will be permanently killed in the process. At the time the Resident Evil game was made, the T-Virus zombies were definitely the most unique. They may not be so special anymore, but they were so creative for it’s time, I had to put them on the list.
#9: Kabane from Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
I always tell myself that Highschool of the Dead is the Day of the Dead for anime. If that’s the case, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is the Land of the Dead of anime. Little is known about the origin of the Kabane, but what is known is that they have been attacking Hinomoto for the last twenty years, and have human intelligence, able to create their own tactics, know who their enemies are, and make strategies among each other. The threat of the Kabane has caused people to live in iron fortresses, with railways linking them all together. When people turn into Kabane, their skin becomes a cold grey, and their veins glow like molten liquid. The Kabane can only be killed by either beheading them or shooting them in the heart, but this is hard to do, since their skin is like iron, and can deflect bullets, fire, and anything that isn’t an advanced weapon. It seems that these are some of the most unstoppable zombies in anime. It is just like Land of the Dead. People living in a civilization cut off from the rest of the world as intelligent zombies communicate with one another trying to destroy humanity from outside the city…. But it’s not Attack on Titan, so as a true to heart anime fan, I hate this show.
#8: Headcrab Zombies from Half-Life
It’s one thing to have a virus invade your body from the inside and turn you into zombies. It’s a whole other thing to have the thing that turns you into a zombie be latched onto your face. Once a Headcrab, an alien parasite, latches onto a human’s head, it will take control of all their motor skills, making them walk and attack enemies. Upon taking control, their hands will grow long sharp, and their chest will expose their ribs, which the Headcrabs use as mouths, with the rib bones being used as teeth, in order to eat other humans. They’re also able to lose their legs and keep movie by crawling on their arms. In later games, if the body was to be destroyed, the Headcrab can leap off of the body and attack. Sure, the standard Headcrab zombies are easy to kill, even in packs. They’re slow, do barely any damage, and it’s best to use a crowbar on them and save some ammo. But it gets bad when the more advanced Headcrab Zombies are brought. Other than the Standard ones, there are Poison Headcrab Zombies, which is one host carrying three Poison Headcrabs that leap at you, and can cause your health to be sent back to just one percent. But the scariest one has to be the Fast Headcrab Zombies, that shriek and leap at you, running forward until one of you is dead. Just seeing something that fast coming towards you is scary, and they’re everywhere in Ravenholm in Half-Life 2. Now we know why we don’t go to Ravenholm. But the scariest thing about them is that, if you reverse the audio they say, the host is still able to feel everything, and screams for God to help them. Screw Ravenholm, this is the scariest thing in Half-Life.
#7: Necromorphs from Dead Space
Zombies and aliens are a few things. But, having zombified aliens… Oh, that’s something magnificently grotesque. The infection that creates the Necromorphs renders the original body into these morbid shapes, which are hostile to anything that isn’t infected. The Necromorphs hunt down anyone not infected, and tries to use their body to convert and spread the infection. Some crazed cults think that Necromorphs are the next step of evolution, but really, are the effects of being exposed to the Marker, a strange creation controlled by Brethren Moons, large Necromorphs that are created after every living organism on a planet has been infected, and use the Markers to create new Brethren Moons. The Necromorphs are able to twist their bodies into any grotesque shape that they wish. There is never the same kind of Necromorph. Their all disturbingly unique in their own ways. It could be a Brute, an armored beast made up of several corpses. Maybe it could be a Divider, that seperates into smaller creatures when the larger one is killed. Or maybe they can turn into Pregnant, which spawns smaller Necromorphs from its large sack. There are so many disgusting and disturbing Necromorphs, that looking at them is both terrifying, but incredible at the same time.
#6: Chuck D. Head from Decap Attack
You could argue that mummies are or aren’t zombies. Well, their reanimated corpses, only their in bandages, so I say it counts. With that out of the way, let’s talk about the Genesis classic, Decap Attack. Chuck D. Head was a creature created by the scientist, Dr. Frank N. Stein, so that he could defeat the evil Max D. Cap (I swear, the names in this game are just absurd). Chuck D. Head is a unique kind of zombie. Buy that, I mean Chuck D. Head doesn’t have a head. His face is on his torso instead. Throughout the game, he can only seem to attack enemies by thrusting his face through his bandages and striking the enemies through them. You can collect usual power-ups that you’d find in most platformers, such as invincibility, killing all enemies on screen, running faster, etcetera. However, the best power-up is the skull, which is what gives this game it’s name. The skull will rest on top of Chuck D. Head, who will then chuck the head at enemies, and the skull will come back to him like a boomerang (Until you get hit by enemies, then you lose it). He even got a comic strip, which was pretty funny, but I can only tell from some synopsis on Wikipedia, since I have never read the comic strips. Now I have great credibility as a critic, don’t I?
#5: Zombina from Monster Musume
The entry was requested by Aquamarine663… So… here you go, Aqua. I hope this satisfies your need for monster girls for the day. First off, what a great name they gave her. Zombina. I bet she’s a minotaur monster. But seriously though, she is a zombie. She is a member of the group MON, a group of monstergirls who stop other monsters. She is quite possibly the most human looking monster out of every character in the show. She can behave and looks like a normal person. No matter how much damage she takes, she’s always perfectly fine afterwards. She’s been shot, crushed, and stepped on, and aside from having a few body parts fall off that need to be sewn back up, she always comes out perfectly fine. She admires Kimihito for his courage and how he is able to act so calm to such situations, but they also kind of surprise her as well, given some of the situations at hand. She also really loves horror movies, especially ones with zombies, and has a very morbid sense of humor… obviously making her the best monster girl. Not seen much of this anime (And probably don’t want people to know that I would watch it), but this character definitely interests me
#4: Makina Hoshimura from Corpse Princess
What do you get when you mix together Hellsing Ultimate and Black Lagoon. Why you get Corpse Princess, and I think that is a damn good combination right there. Makina was just a usual girl who lived a normal life, until she was murdered. However, instead of dying, she came back as a Shikabane Hime, or a Corpse Princess. Not being able to pass on to the next life, she was tasked with killing one hundred and eight other Shikabane before she could be accepted into Heaven. She fights, using her dual-wield submachine guns. However, her main goal isn’t to get into Heaven, but to seek revenge on a dangerous group of Shikabane known as the Seven Stars, for killing her family. So, basically, she’s like The Crow to the Japanese. Killing her enemies for her own cause, but unknowingly doing some good for the world by doing so. Other than being a zombie, she is also able to regenerate when she is damaged, so no matter how much damage she takes, as long as she is alive, she can regenerate her body. However, with this regeneration ability, she was also more furious, getting angry at Ouri, her monk, who kept her in check as a Shikabane. She may not be your typical zombie (She doesn’t even eat flesh. What the hell?), but, for what she lacks in zombie-ness, she makes up for in having a pretty good anime.
#3: Hsien Ko from Darkstalkers
Back when I was a kid, I actually went to the arcade to play a fighting game. The one that I definitely put the most quarters into was Darkstalkers. My main character was always Hsien Ko… I think my younger self had a thing for dead girls. Hsien Ko is based off of the fictional Japanese hopping spirit, Jiang Shi, for her appearance. Hsien Ko, along with her twin sister, Mei-Ling, When their village was attacked and their master who taught them the ways of Senjutsushis was murdered, their mother offered her soul to the attackers, the Darkstalkers, and her soul was lost. Hsien Ko and Mei-Ling used their technique to turn into these creatures to hunt the Darkstalkers. There’s way more backstory than that, but that’s all I know from the arcade game I played. She’s a very light-hearted character who respects those who wish to do better and help others. But, she also is worried of losing control of herself, due to being a monster and having a hatred for them. When fighting, she has so much weapons, it’s insane. Their all hidden underneath her giant sleeves, with some being claws, swords, boomerangs, sledgehammers, axes, throwing stars, bombs, and even weapons from characters in other franchises, like Chun-Li’s bracelets and Vega’s claws from Street Fighter, and that’s just naming a few of her weapons. If I ever play Darksiders again, I should play as Hsien Ko for old times sake.
#2: Imhotep from The Mummy
Another mummy on the list, and a far more famous one. Imhotep was a priest that was resurrected, thanks to an archeologist expedition to an Egyptian tomb in 1921, lead by Sir Joseph Whimple. As it turns out, Imhotep had planned to use dark magic to resurrect his lost lover, Ankh-es-en-amon (What a mouth full). Anyway, due to this, Imhotep was sentenced to be mummified for his actions. Centuries later, during Joseph’s expedition, being the stupid idiot he is, reads the “Give-life-to-this-mummified-corpse” Scroll of Thoth, bringing Imhotep back to life. Now resurrected, he takes the Scroll of Thoth, and heads out into modern day Egypt (Modern for the year 1932), to find the reincarnation of Ankh-es-en-amon. Ten years later, Imhotep, using the alias Ardath Bey, where he finds a young woman named Helen, believing her to be the reincarnation of… Screw it, I’m just gonna call her The Princess from now on. So, he finds Helen, believing her to be the reincarnation of the Princess, and plans to kill her, mummify her, resurrect the spirit of the Princess so she can take Helen’s body, and marry her. The story of the Mummy is such a classic one, and Imhotep, played by the classic Boris Karloff, really adds to how creepy this corpse is, and what makes it so great.
#1: Frankenstein’s Monster from Frankenstein
Another classic horror movie monster, and one that I think deserves the number one spot more than any other. Victor Frankenstein, wanting to make a breakthrough in science, decided to bring life into a creature, made of of the body parts of several corpses, including the use of chemistry and alchemy, in order to bring life into the giant monster. However, when Frankenstein’s Monster was created, the doctor was so shocked and appalled by what he created, he wanted nothing to do with the monster, and made sure to avoid it with every chance he could. Frankenstein’s Monster was never given a name, which I think adds to the tragic creature that is Frankenstein’s Monster. This creature never asked to exist or be brought back from the dead, but was forced into it by a man driven mad by his want to do something science has never been done before. One of the things about Frankenstein is that he wants to be seen as a normal person. He wanted to live a normal life, have a family, and just be happy. However, due to being a monster, being a reanimated corpse (Or rather, corpses), he was not able to do that. People saw him as an evil monster that had to die, and it his tragic life was made all because of Frankenstein’s want to create life that had ended a long time ago. That is why I find Frankenstein’s Monster to be the best zombie ever- “Wait, Frankenstein’s Monster isn’t a zombie-” Shhhhhhhhhhh!
#10: T Virus Zombies from Resident Evil
I decided to put these zombies at the lowest spot, since the Crimson Heads were on my original list. Technically, this isn’t the same spot, since I’m including all of the zombies, but I put them lower because of how they were in last years list. Anyway, these zombies were created thanks to a T-Virus. Found in the 60s, it was used to create a new form of humans by the Umbrella Corporation, but was later used by Spencer to create new weapons for war in the Arklay mountains, which lead to the creation of zombies. This lead to the zombies invading the Arklay Mountains. After S.T.A.R.S. destroyed the T-Virus in the mountains, Umbrella Black Ops went to William Birkin’s underground lab in Raccoon City to retrieve the new G-Virus, which caused an outbreak in Raccoon City, later leading to a huge amount of the virus being used across the world or the creation of new viruses. The people infected slowly begin to turn, showing signs of anger, and extreme hunger. This eventually leaves the host as nothing but being able to only walk and eat anything it finds. Should the host be attacked, it would not die, but lie in a dormant state, as the T-Virus goes hyperactive, creating something known as V-ACT, which turns the host into something that isn’t even human anymore. Not only does this change the physical form of the host, but this increases their intelligence, strength, and anger, but also sacrifices all cells, to where they won’t be able to heal and will be permanently killed in the process. At the time the Resident Evil game was made, the T-Virus zombies were definitely the most unique. They may not be so special anymore, but they were so creative for it’s time, I had to put them on the list.
#9: Kabane from Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
I always tell myself that Highschool of the Dead is the Day of the Dead for anime. If that’s the case, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is the Land of the Dead of anime. Little is known about the origin of the Kabane, but what is known is that they have been attacking Hinomoto for the last twenty years, and have human intelligence, able to create their own tactics, know who their enemies are, and make strategies among each other. The threat of the Kabane has caused people to live in iron fortresses, with railways linking them all together. When people turn into Kabane, their skin becomes a cold grey, and their veins glow like molten liquid. The Kabane can only be killed by either beheading them or shooting them in the heart, but this is hard to do, since their skin is like iron, and can deflect bullets, fire, and anything that isn’t an advanced weapon. It seems that these are some of the most unstoppable zombies in anime. It is just like Land of the Dead. People living in a civilization cut off from the rest of the world as intelligent zombies communicate with one another trying to destroy humanity from outside the city…. But it’s not Attack on Titan, so as a true to heart anime fan, I hate this show.
#8: Headcrab Zombies from Half-Life
It’s one thing to have a virus invade your body from the inside and turn you into zombies. It’s a whole other thing to have the thing that turns you into a zombie be latched onto your face. Once a Headcrab, an alien parasite, latches onto a human’s head, it will take control of all their motor skills, making them walk and attack enemies. Upon taking control, their hands will grow long sharp, and their chest will expose their ribs, which the Headcrabs use as mouths, with the rib bones being used as teeth, in order to eat other humans. They’re also able to lose their legs and keep movie by crawling on their arms. In later games, if the body was to be destroyed, the Headcrab can leap off of the body and attack. Sure, the standard Headcrab zombies are easy to kill, even in packs. They’re slow, do barely any damage, and it’s best to use a crowbar on them and save some ammo. But it gets bad when the more advanced Headcrab Zombies are brought. Other than the Standard ones, there are Poison Headcrab Zombies, which is one host carrying three Poison Headcrabs that leap at you, and can cause your health to be sent back to just one percent. But the scariest one has to be the Fast Headcrab Zombies, that shriek and leap at you, running forward until one of you is dead. Just seeing something that fast coming towards you is scary, and they’re everywhere in Ravenholm in Half-Life 2. Now we know why we don’t go to Ravenholm. But the scariest thing about them is that, if you reverse the audio they say, the host is still able to feel everything, and screams for God to help them. Screw Ravenholm, this is the scariest thing in Half-Life.
#7: Necromorphs from Dead Space
Zombies and aliens are a few things. But, having zombified aliens… Oh, that’s something magnificently grotesque. The infection that creates the Necromorphs renders the original body into these morbid shapes, which are hostile to anything that isn’t infected. The Necromorphs hunt down anyone not infected, and tries to use their body to convert and spread the infection. Some crazed cults think that Necromorphs are the next step of evolution, but really, are the effects of being exposed to the Marker, a strange creation controlled by Brethren Moons, large Necromorphs that are created after every living organism on a planet has been infected, and use the Markers to create new Brethren Moons. The Necromorphs are able to twist their bodies into any grotesque shape that they wish. There is never the same kind of Necromorph. Their all disturbingly unique in their own ways. It could be a Brute, an armored beast made up of several corpses. Maybe it could be a Divider, that seperates into smaller creatures when the larger one is killed. Or maybe they can turn into Pregnant, which spawns smaller Necromorphs from its large sack. There are so many disgusting and disturbing Necromorphs, that looking at them is both terrifying, but incredible at the same time.
#6: Chuck D. Head from Decap Attack
You could argue that mummies are or aren’t zombies. Well, their reanimated corpses, only their in bandages, so I say it counts. With that out of the way, let’s talk about the Genesis classic, Decap Attack. Chuck D. Head was a creature created by the scientist, Dr. Frank N. Stein, so that he could defeat the evil Max D. Cap (I swear, the names in this game are just absurd). Chuck D. Head is a unique kind of zombie. Buy that, I mean Chuck D. Head doesn’t have a head. His face is on his torso instead. Throughout the game, he can only seem to attack enemies by thrusting his face through his bandages and striking the enemies through them. You can collect usual power-ups that you’d find in most platformers, such as invincibility, killing all enemies on screen, running faster, etcetera. However, the best power-up is the skull, which is what gives this game it’s name. The skull will rest on top of Chuck D. Head, who will then chuck the head at enemies, and the skull will come back to him like a boomerang (Until you get hit by enemies, then you lose it). He even got a comic strip, which was pretty funny, but I can only tell from some synopsis on Wikipedia, since I have never read the comic strips. Now I have great credibility as a critic, don’t I?
#5: Zombina from Monster Musume
The entry was requested by Aquamarine663… So… here you go, Aqua. I hope this satisfies your need for monster girls for the day. First off, what a great name they gave her. Zombina. I bet she’s a minotaur monster. But seriously though, she is a zombie. She is a member of the group MON, a group of monstergirls who stop other monsters. She is quite possibly the most human looking monster out of every character in the show. She can behave and looks like a normal person. No matter how much damage she takes, she’s always perfectly fine afterwards. She’s been shot, crushed, and stepped on, and aside from having a few body parts fall off that need to be sewn back up, she always comes out perfectly fine. She admires Kimihito for his courage and how he is able to act so calm to such situations, but they also kind of surprise her as well, given some of the situations at hand. She also really loves horror movies, especially ones with zombies, and has a very morbid sense of humor… obviously making her the best monster girl. Not seen much of this anime (And probably don’t want people to know that I would watch it), but this character definitely interests me
#4: Makina Hoshimura from Corpse Princess
What do you get when you mix together Hellsing Ultimate and Black Lagoon. Why you get Corpse Princess, and I think that is a damn good combination right there. Makina was just a usual girl who lived a normal life, until she was murdered. However, instead of dying, she came back as a Shikabane Hime, or a Corpse Princess. Not being able to pass on to the next life, she was tasked with killing one hundred and eight other Shikabane before she could be accepted into Heaven. She fights, using her dual-wield submachine guns. However, her main goal isn’t to get into Heaven, but to seek revenge on a dangerous group of Shikabane known as the Seven Stars, for killing her family. So, basically, she’s like The Crow to the Japanese. Killing her enemies for her own cause, but unknowingly doing some good for the world by doing so. Other than being a zombie, she is also able to regenerate when she is damaged, so no matter how much damage she takes, as long as she is alive, she can regenerate her body. However, with this regeneration ability, she was also more furious, getting angry at Ouri, her monk, who kept her in check as a Shikabane. She may not be your typical zombie (She doesn’t even eat flesh. What the hell?), but, for what she lacks in zombie-ness, she makes up for in having a pretty good anime.
#3: Hsien Ko from Darkstalkers
Back when I was a kid, I actually went to the arcade to play a fighting game. The one that I definitely put the most quarters into was Darkstalkers. My main character was always Hsien Ko… I think my younger self had a thing for dead girls. Hsien Ko is based off of the fictional Japanese hopping spirit, Jiang Shi, for her appearance. Hsien Ko, along with her twin sister, Mei-Ling, When their village was attacked and their master who taught them the ways of Senjutsushis was murdered, their mother offered her soul to the attackers, the Darkstalkers, and her soul was lost. Hsien Ko and Mei-Ling used their technique to turn into these creatures to hunt the Darkstalkers. There’s way more backstory than that, but that’s all I know from the arcade game I played. She’s a very light-hearted character who respects those who wish to do better and help others. But, she also is worried of losing control of herself, due to being a monster and having a hatred for them. When fighting, she has so much weapons, it’s insane. Their all hidden underneath her giant sleeves, with some being claws, swords, boomerangs, sledgehammers, axes, throwing stars, bombs, and even weapons from characters in other franchises, like Chun-Li’s bracelets and Vega’s claws from Street Fighter, and that’s just naming a few of her weapons. If I ever play Darksiders again, I should play as Hsien Ko for old times sake.
#2: Imhotep from The Mummy
Another mummy on the list, and a far more famous one. Imhotep was a priest that was resurrected, thanks to an archeologist expedition to an Egyptian tomb in 1921, lead by Sir Joseph Whimple. As it turns out, Imhotep had planned to use dark magic to resurrect his lost lover, Ankh-es-en-amon (What a mouth full). Anyway, due to this, Imhotep was sentenced to be mummified for his actions. Centuries later, during Joseph’s expedition, being the stupid idiot he is, reads the “Give-life-to-this-mummified-corpse” Scroll of Thoth, bringing Imhotep back to life. Now resurrected, he takes the Scroll of Thoth, and heads out into modern day Egypt (Modern for the year 1932), to find the reincarnation of Ankh-es-en-amon. Ten years later, Imhotep, using the alias Ardath Bey, where he finds a young woman named Helen, believing her to be the reincarnation of… Screw it, I’m just gonna call her The Princess from now on. So, he finds Helen, believing her to be the reincarnation of the Princess, and plans to kill her, mummify her, resurrect the spirit of the Princess so she can take Helen’s body, and marry her. The story of the Mummy is such a classic one, and Imhotep, played by the classic Boris Karloff, really adds to how creepy this corpse is, and what makes it so great.
#1: Frankenstein’s Monster from Frankenstein
Another classic horror movie monster, and one that I think deserves the number one spot more than any other. Victor Frankenstein, wanting to make a breakthrough in science, decided to bring life into a creature, made of of the body parts of several corpses, including the use of chemistry and alchemy, in order to bring life into the giant monster. However, when Frankenstein’s Monster was created, the doctor was so shocked and appalled by what he created, he wanted nothing to do with the monster, and made sure to avoid it with every chance he could. Frankenstein’s Monster was never given a name, which I think adds to the tragic creature that is Frankenstein’s Monster. This creature never asked to exist or be brought back from the dead, but was forced into it by a man driven mad by his want to do something science has never been done before. One of the things about Frankenstein is that he wants to be seen as a normal person. He wanted to live a normal life, have a family, and just be happy. However, due to being a monster, being a reanimated corpse (Or rather, corpses), he was not able to do that. People saw him as an evil monster that had to die, and it his tragic life was made all because of Frankenstein’s want to create life that had ended a long time ago. That is why I find Frankenstein’s Monster to be the best zombie ever- “Wait, Frankenstein’s Monster isn’t a zombie-” Shhhhhhhhhhh!