No , I don't mean post - "Night of The Living Dead " gutmunching cannibalistic Zombies . As great as NOLD , and as good as it's two sequels are , neither these films , nor the many unofficial followups , remakes ,  variations on the same theme , and parodies have much of anything to do with the actual legend of The Zombie , which , in itself , has nothing to do with cannibalism or radiation. Besides , "The Creature With The Atom Brain" is arguably the first radioactive "Zombie" picture , and , well , they were dead. They did'nt need to eat.

The real Zombie legend is pretty simple....The salt is drained out of a dead person's body , Voodoo magic is applied , and the corpse becomes reanimated , to do it's master's bidding. THE STORY , OF COURSE , ORIGINATES IN HAITI , BY WAY OF AFRICA. Some people still believe it's possible to produce a Zombie.........BUT , to be fair , some people may  think Justin Bieber will have a career in ten years , too.

Some Zombie titles include  WHITE ZOMBIE (Lugosi.),  I Walked With a Zombie , Zombies on Broadway (Lugosi) , Zombies of Mora -Tau , King of The Zombies (Mantan Moreland.) , Plague of The Zombies ( Hammer.) , and even Santo Vs. The Zombies. "I Eat Your Skin" does'nt even involve cannibalism , bu t, its been so long since I've seen this dubbed Voodoo picture , I can't verify that it involves Zombies.....But , as I recall, it does.  It must. 

The last almost - faithful Zombie pic of note was probably ZOMBIE , tho' , of course , it involves cannibalism.

Anyway , I hope the Zombie genre will make a comeback......We've got what're called Zombies coming out of our ears. Anyway , any favorites ? Or , even least favorites?

Still eager for more of the same , or a return to tradition ?

No , I was'nt familiar with Strigoi....I'd only read the legend about Vlad Tepes losing so much blood in a battle that he drank the blood from his dead enemies , thinking it would restore his life , and that is , reputedly , why Bram Stoker adopted the story  of  Vlad , or "Drakul" , and came up with Dracula. It appears to me , though , as horrific as realities were in Vlad's regime were , that Stoker drew far more from legends in that region. The legends of Vampires (See Karloff in "Black Sabbath" as The Wurdalark.) and Werewolves vary in different parts of teh world .

It's true , Romero's films were social commentary ( The Black man becomes the hero , gets shot dead , anyway....and , on a bigger scale , it's all about the end of the world...... The scene in "Dawn" where the guy takes all that money from the bank , thinks he's set for life , then realizes , there is no life. It's the beginning of the end.)......But , I think it's time we reclaim The Zombie. I don't care if there's  more psuedo - Romero Zombies (THEY WON'T STAY DEAD!) , but , it's as though the original Zombie did'nt exist.

The Santo pictures are closer to folk tales , because Santo and his compadres (Most of them deceased, exc. Mil Mascaras.) were Folk heroes in Mexico. Still are. The Mummies in the "Mummies of Guanajuato" series are more like the actual Mummies still on display in Guanajuato......But , the Zombies Santo does battle with are more like the Zombies of previous films (This was made in or around 1961.). I recently just saw "Santo Vs. Black Magic" , which was actually shot on location in Haiti , and shows what appear to be real Voodoo rituals , or an approximation approved by the Voodoo church. At any rate , the subject is handled with respect.   But , I'm thankful that my bringing this topic up is appreciated. "King of The Zombies" IS closer to the legend , even though it's a comedy , with Mantan Moreland in rare form.

The Romero films were just supposed to be social statements as opposed to actual movies on or about zombie lore and legend. I appreciate that you bring up the subject of actual zombies. I really love the earlier films you're naming, specifically I Walked With a Zombie (1943) because when you watch it you know immediately that someone had obviously done a lot of research on the subject of zombies in Haiti. I think that the subject was really being explored in the 1940s, or at least brought into public consciousness at that time. Jacques Tourneur also directed Cat People, another great classic horror must-see.  King of the Zombies (1941) is another closer to the subject zombie film. I've never seen Plague of the Zombies or Santo Vs. The Zombies....Both actually sound very entertaining on different levels, not so subject-specific. I have to say on the purely amusement factor, the 2009 Norwegian film Dead Snow was not all that awful as far as the whole blood 'n' guts mock-shock Zombie-train goes.

This sort of enters into the subject of vampirism, but have you heard of strigoi? It's the  Romanian folk belief that gave rise to modern-day vampirism, which was actually a pretty common belief not only there and throughout history, but oddly enough in early colonial New England times as well. I recall reading something about there being an actual physical condition in which people thought someone was dead and were buried, but were just actually severely ill with some rare sickness that put them in a comatose state similar to zombies. So, I saw this movie Strigoi (2009), Romania?, which goes into this subject. It falls under the terror-comedy genre. I feel like it sort of explained this belief and the actions of a strigoi pretty well. . . the movie being so-so.

There was a movie the serpent and the Rainbow in the 8o's that broached the subject a bit. I dig the white zombie flick. I'll have to check some of those other titles. Always on the look out. Cheers