>>83765584Things which aren't exactly people have always been in human fiction. It used to be actual horror, because if there were hordes of corpse people running around trying to eat the living alive, and you could become infected, that'd be terrifying. I used to get scared shitless by zombies as a kid. It was conceptual terror.
Just the idea of being totally, hopelessly outnumbered. Like in the Dawn of the Dead remake where they look outside the mall and there's just a fucking sea of zombies. The idea of having to be completely quiet, hiding, and hopeless, because if you're spotted, the horde is all over you. They smell like rotting meat, and they don't kill you then eat you. They kill you by eating you.
Every house probably has zombies in it. The woods are full of zombies. Anywhere could potentially house zombies. You get bit, get blood in your mouth or an open cut, you're one of them. I guess the horror comes from inescapability. I've had vivid nightmares that I'm hiding in the house I grew up with the windows boarded up, and a dumbass family member makes noise, causing them to claw at the house and try to find a way in.
