I thought in Romero's films, anyone whose brain stays intact returns in zombie form? He was shot across the chest. What gives?
"I can't help but notice that there are skulls all over everything. Are we the baddies?"
We never see how long Frankenstein is dead for. People reanimated at different times, it's not consistent.
shareOr - here's another possibility - Logan did not die at the hands of a zombie (he was shot dead by Rhodes), so he stayed dead.
sharePeople turn when they die from gunshots. Didn't you watch the first film?
"I can't help but notice that there are skulls all over everything. Are we the baddies?"
On the commentary track Roger Avary shares a nice "geek out" anecdote about this scene.
He says that he woke up in the middle of the night absolutely convinced that Romero had cut a scene in which Logan revives and becomes a zombie. As you've noted, it doesn't make much sense that he wouldn't turn, having died as a result of bullets that avoided his brain.
Avary even went as far as placing a phone call to Romero, whom he'd never met, and then being effectively struck dumb, forgetting why exactly he'd called in the first place, and just gushing over the phone at a gracious Romero.
I'm sure someone else must've asked the director this question at some point, but I don't have the answer.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think there's any evidence that people who die naturally or as a result of an accident come back as zombies in Romero films. I know that's the case for other zombie films but different movies have different laws governing how zombies live, spread and die.I know it looked like Greg Nicotero's character had been reanimated as a zombie but in reality Logan was merely stimulating the brain of the dead soldier for experimental purposes. Johnson may not have been brain dead and Logan therefore used his corpse as a 'control' in his experiments. If there was some belief that all the dead (bitten or otherwise) reanimate as zombies it could be argued that Logan's corpse was in the freezer and was prevented from doing so due to the extreme cold.
shareJohnny (Barbara's brother) revived in 'Night' without being noticeably bitten. After having his head smacked into the gravestone, the graveyard zombie left him alone, and chased Barbara. Now, I'm not saying some ghoul passing by couldn't have taken a bite out of him, but there would likely be less of him left over.
I can't count any of the bikers that Peter shot in 'Day' because they were likely consumed before they had a chance to reanimate.
"Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it!"
There is no evidence that Johnny died due to the head injury alone and then reanimated as a zombie. The likelihood is that some drool, or body matter, entered into his bloodstream through a scratch in his skin when he was fighting the zombie. Or as you said - another ghoul came along and bit him while he was unconscious, or otherwise. It's pretty evident that in Romero films you have to be bitten, or contaminated in some way, by a zombie before you turn into one of the living dead.
shareIt's pretty evident that in Romero films you have to be bitten
In my previous post I explained that there is no evidence to suggest the dead soldier in Day of the Dead had not been reanimated because he was "infected" - it's more likely in my belief that the soldiers head was being kept alive by Logan in some weird experiment that he was conducting. The head was fixed up to wires so the facial movements may have been electrically activated nerve impulses? Plus, whose to say the soldier was actually killed by the bullets anyway? He may have had a weak pulse after being shot and Logan chose to not save him and use the soldier for his medical experiments. The Mother in NOTD may have been infected by her daughter in some way (bite, scratch, kiss even)? It's not absolutely impossible considering the amount of time she spent nursing her daughter. yes she was stabbed but that probably wasn't the trauma that reanimated her as a zombie. I do not know anything about Romero's new films as the bits I've seen make me not want to watch them - they're pretty awful.
shareYou are making quite a lot of assumptions without any real evidence. Besides the fact that Romero has said himself that zombies reanimate independently, it makes more sense for them to do so in the context of the film's universe. Mankind wouldn't be facing extinction if the zombies required a bite or scratch to turn.
And you just ignored my point about the hanged man in Land reanimating.
Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.
The Savini character was shot but he may have got chewed on once he'd hit the deck?! We'll never know for sure. Could his character have been bitten before he even entered the mall with the pack of bikers? there's limitless possibilities!
shareThe zombies need the flesh of the living. Johnny was killed by the head injury. Thus, the zombie showed no further interest in him as food.
If Johnny was still alive at that point, the zombie would have had no reason to pursue Barbara. It would have stayed there and eaten Johnny's living flesh.
First off let me say that there were no "infected" zombies or people in any of Romeros films. Thats a device for newer zombie movies that over explain things because stupid people cant use their imaginations to fill in the blanks anymore, and nerds on the internet cry about every little thing that isnt fully and accurately explained. The initial reason was thought to be the Venus probe in NotLD. In Dawn, it is said to be because "When theres no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth", and in Day, the closest explanation is that (paraphrased) "We are being punished by the creator. He visited a curse upon us. Maybe he didnt want to see us blow a big hole in his sky" and "We were getting too big for our britches trying to figure his *beep* out". Romero was obviously leaning more towards the idea that we are being punished by god for being so awful. The whole social commentary on people being braindead in dawn, all the people (in all his movies) not being able to get along and work together, instead choosing to figuratively and literally EAT each other when *beep* hits the fan. It doesnt need to be over complicated or explained. Its better that it isnt and the reasons or hints he does give are better than any kind of logical explanation IMO. Certainly they are creepier and hit way harder on a human level.
As for Logan not coming back, Romero probably just forgot. I bet if you asked him now he'd say that wouldve been a cool scene. But if you wanna be an ultra nerd about it (not you specifically), maybe he did come back, an hour later or something, if it makes you feel better.
Well it's pretty obvious that you don't have to be bitten to turn... Just look at Night of the Living Dead. The original Zombies were just dead bodies that re-animated without any kind of bite or infection. It's even on the radio reports.
"It has been established that persons who have recently died have been returning to life and committing acts of murder. A widespread investigation of funeral homes, morgues, and hospitals has concluded that the unburied dead have been returning to life and seeking human victims."
How would the outbreak happen originally? People eating bad chicken? If you had to bit by a zombie to turn to a zombie then that's like what came first the chicken or the egg? There had to a patient zero zombie to bite someone so they will turn and how will that spread world wide? It wouldn't. There is no virus that would spread world wide because it would be contained if that was the case. It had to be something to cause all dead rise and attack unless the brain was damaged.
Grant it, trying to be logical in zombie movie is never very logical but always fun. :)
I agree that fresh corpses in morgues and cemeteries were re-animating in that initial 'night of the living dead' wave but there is no evidence at all to suggest that corpses were re-animated in this way for the following movies. I personally believe that after the initial wave (which may have been caused from a virus, radiation or some other weird phenomena) the only way to become a zombie is from being bitten, scratched etc.
shareWell, there's no hard and fast timeline given that states officially how long it takes for a dead person to reanimate in these movies. It seems to vary from person to person on a case by case basis. Logan isn't dead very long by the time the movie ends, so it's quite possible that he turns and we simply don't see it happen. But to those saying a zombie bite is required in order for a person to "turn," this flies in the face of everything we see throughout the course of Night, Dawn, Day and Land of the Dead. The only way to prevent the dead from getting up and killing, to use the parlance, is to incinerate their bodies or destroy their brains.
shareThe real reason is because Romero screwed up, but that doesn't mean we as viewers aren't allowed to come up with a plausible in-story explanation ourselves.
While Rhodes is firing we at first see Logan getting hit in the chest, but then the angle changes to behind him while bullets are still flying. That's when he could have been hit in the head. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think we get another front view after that. When we see Logan's body later the left side of his head isn't really visible, so there could be a bullet wound there.
Either that or he just took longer than usual to zombify.
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