However the writer/director/producer/editor/whoever-is-in-charge wants. It really is that simple.
Here in the real world, the only “real” zombie is a human that’s been dosed with a mix of drugs and brainwashed (just to keep it simple), and it’s largely a thing of rumor rather than something you can just go around and find.
So, you are left with extant fictional examples, any new examples that come along, and then the zombie *meta" which attempts to classify and describe all of those so that they can be compared. Thing is, in order to do that, you have to accept that each type is as valid as any other within the world it is from, and not waste your time trying to adjudicate which worlds are “realistic” in the first place.
An example: the walking dead comics and shows. Both media formats show zombies in states of advanced decomposition. They are missing muscles, visibly. Muscles like the pectorals, but the zombies are making movements that require those muscles. So, in that regard, Walking Dead zombies are entirely impossible unless you say that magic or some other force is in play, despite that not ever being part of the series in either medium.
But you also can’t ignore that world if you really want to address zombies as a trope.
So, that’s what it comes down to. Zombies behave how their controlling human in the real world wants them to.
However the writer/director/producer/editor/whoever-is-in-charge wants. It really is that simple.
Here in the real world, the only “real” zombie is a human that’s been dosed with a mix of drugs and brainwashed (just to keep it simple), and it’s largely a thing of rumor rather than something you can just go around and find.
So, you are left with extant fictional examples, any new examples that come along, and then the zombie *meta" which attempts to classify and describe all of those so that they can be compared. Thing is, in order to do that, you have to accept that each type is as valid as any other within the world it is from, and not waste your time trying to adjudicate which worlds are “realistic” in the first place.
An example: the walking dead comics and shows. Both media formats show zombies in states of advanced decomposition. They are missing muscles, visibly. Muscles like the pectorals, but the zombies are making movements that require those muscles. So, in that regard, Walking Dead zombies are entirely impossible unless you say that magic or some other force is in play, despite that not ever being part of the series in either medium.
But you also can’t ignore that world if you really want to address zombies as a trope.
So, that’s what it comes down to. Zombies behave how their controlling human in the real world wants them to.
I always liked that little background joke in Shaun of the Dead where you hear a newsreader say:
“Claims that the virus was caused by rage-infected monkeys have now been dismissed as bull…”
Nice little dig at 28 Days Later :-)