[Season 2 The Walking Dead Spoilers Ahead]



When you think of zombies, one of the most defining features is the required headshot to kill them. Headshots are a unique feature to the zombie mythos. While most other genres allow a bullet anywhere to kill the creature, zombies need to be taken down with a shot to the head.

But why is destroying the brain key to the zombie genre? What makes this so different and distinct from other types of monsters.

1. It removes the zombie’s human qualities…

Even though modern science has told us our heart just pumps blood around our body and doesn’t do much more, we still believe the heart is the center of our being. We give out hearts on valentines day. We tell people our heart is broken when dumped by a loved one. The heart represents the human soul.

And when you shoot a zombie right through the heart, you realize they are no longer human. They are just a corpse who wants to eat you.

In The Walking Dead, Hershel Greene realizes that zombies are no longer alive when Shane shoots a walker in the chest multiple times. Hershel sees that these zombies are no longer humans. Their hearts no longer do anything, they are the dead who have risen up.

2. Headshots balance out the slowness of zombies…

Traditional zombies are usually slow moving. They become a mob and wander towards the characters in the world. Slow, predictable creatures are easy to eliminate. But with the headshot, they won’t die unless they are hit in a very precise spot. These two characteristics balance off against each other.

If a zombie required a headshot and was super fast (like in 28 days later), that would not only be terrifying, but kill off the characters very quickly. No characters could keep safe in a world like that. Any movie or game would end as quickly as the characters are confronted with the dead monsters.

And if a zombie was both slow and could be killed like a regular human, they become too easy. Any zombie can be taken down by a rain of bullet fire.

3. Zombies require a special skill to kill…

Video games have glamorized the headshot as a skill. But in reality, making a headshot is not commonly taught. Not only are headshots hard, hitting anything is hard. In fact, 70% - 80% of shots miss the intended target completely. Police are taught to aim right for the center of mass. The trainers know that hitting something in the height of the moment isn’t going to be easy, and head shots are even more difficult.

But you can’t hit a zombie in the heart. It keeps coming at you.

And unlike the movies, a person usually dies from bleeding out after being shot. It isn’t common that a person immediately dies from a gunshot wound. Look at 50 Cent. He was shot all over and survived to become a successful business man making millions off of vitamin water.

Zombies won’t bleed out. They need to have their brain destroyed by bullet, bat or knife. You need to have the skill to precisely shoot them in the brain. Heads sway back and forth and zombie brains only account for the top half. You are either going to get up close and personal or become very good with a rifle.

So zombies are now deadly enemies. They require special training no one normally receives. These zombies are much harder to kill than humans. They become a big challenge.

4. Slow zombies move in packs…

One of the scariest moments in The Walking Dead was in season 1 when Rick rounded a corner to be confronted by a wall of Walkers. They were stumbling and hungry for Rick and the horse he rode in on.

Zombies who don’t need to have their brain destroyed are easy to kill. Set up a M249 Light Machine Gun (an automatic heavy weapon used to create suppressive fire) and you can take a wall of zombies down easily. Now that horde shambling towards you is just a future pile of dead zombies.

But with headshots, your M249 which is great at taking out people is suddenly much less useful.

As the rounds rip through the zombies, a few of them lose legs and arms, but as the horde moves forward those who can no longer stand keep moving. Even if 50% fall, those 50% are still alive. They drag their legless bodies towards your position, hungering for your brains.

Groups of zombies are the biggest problem. Taking their brains out effectively require a well placed machete hack, but a group of them will divide your attention. You can’t take out one if another one is grabbing and biting your arm.

But headshot zombies are being replaced by creepier fast zombies.

It is interesting to see the zombie movies moving laterally away from traditional headshot required zombies. With movies like 28 Days Later and games like Left 4 Dead, zombies are moving to the “infected” style of humans.

28 Days Later didn’t have traditional zombies. They had infected people who had a virus that wouldn’t stop them from becoming incredibly rageful. They even hired athletes to play the zombies, to set them apart from being human. 28 Days Later zombies worked because they were so wonderfully scary, but they weren’t a traditional zombie.

With Left 4 Dead, the game isn’t really a zombie game. Sure it has zombies and it is set following the apocalypse, but the game is about co-op, not survival horror as described in this great Game Developers Conference lecture by Mike Booth, founder of Turtle Rock Studios. These zombies are designed to draw players together and have them fight for their lives. It isn’t a survival horror game.

Headshot zombies are hard to make scary. The Walking Dead often has zombies sneak up on the characters. Camera angles allow this. In video games, the player can move too fast to make slow zombies easy to implement. It is much easier to make them fast and increase the terror for the player.

But headshot zombies are the most interesting. They build up suspense as they shamble towards the characters. You can survive, but only if you keep your wits about you, don’t trip and ensure you aren’t doing stupid things you will survive. By being smart and savvy, you can win against overwhelming odds.