Could a desiccated zombie be considered a mummy? If a mummy rises is it considered a zombie? The two are often compared. In horror film and literature, mummies are usually dead corpses that are resurrected by the curse of the pharaohs. Zombies are a more modern and popular spectacle, shown as dead corpses that are resurrected by an infection, mostly in an apocalyptic setting.

 

“The reasons zombies have become rich imagery in these kind of apocalyptic scenarios in which they’re embedded are numerous, but all of them are related to this notion that we are living in the end of time,” says David Castillo, a literature professor at the University of Buffalo focusing on fantasy and horror.

 

The first zombie film ever released was Victor Halperin’s White Zombie in 1932. Popular zombie-themed movies were released every decade, slowly improving in graphics and special effects. Night of the living dead (1968) directed by George A. Romero was one of the first zombie movies to display the possible apocalyptic effects on society. The film was a box office success, grossing $30 million internationally.

 

A 16-year-old zombie fanatic from Toronto, Ontario, Rebecca Barringham enjoys the nail-biting experience that comes with the thought of a possible zombie apocalypse. Her fascination started in 2013, when a friend introduced her to the AMC series The Walking Dead.

 

“Zombies are so big in the world of horror because it's considered an actual possibility of how the world would end, and mummy’s are less realistic to people” says Barringham. 

 

“Imagine such a scenario that the end of the world could come to something like that- meaning a disease or infection causing so many deaths and these people coming back to life and coming after the living. Living in a world like that would be a heart pounding, on the edge experience which is why zombies are so popular in horror,” she says.

 

In horror films and literature, a zombie isn’t self-aware and has one goal, to eat brains. A mummy’s goal in horror is to fulfill an ancient curse. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

Carl Freund directed The Mummy in 1932, which was one of the first films that featured a mummy. The style continued throughout the next decade, with many movie releases such as The Mummy’s Hand (1940,)  The Mummy’s Tomb (1942) and The Mummy’s Ghost (1944.) Similar films have been released ever since; yet lack the same attention-grabbing technique used in zombie films.

 

The curse of the pharaohs is often seen in mummy movies. The curse is believed to be cast upon whoever dares to disturb an Ancient Egyptian mummy, resulting in illness, death or just bad luck. In The Mummy (1999) starring Brendan Fraser, a group unleashes a curse that had been put upon the High Priest Imhotep. The series continues with two more sequels up until 2008.

 

According to mummy expert and Director of the Anatomical Services Division (Body Donations) of the University of Maryland School of Medicine Ronald Wade, mummification is the process of preservation by desiccation.

 

“Like dried fruit or flowers, it halts decaying and putrefaction by removing the cellular water, halting the digesting bacteria and if done with care, the mummified (dried) body will retain the human form but not necessarily the life-like appearance, hence the wrappings on Egyptian mummies,” Wade says.

 

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Wade sees the study of mummies from past cultures as a “multi-disciplinary look at all history of the past cultures that the mummy and its artifacts provide.” He describes the history of pre-dynastic eras where burial sites showed strong reverence for the loss of the deceased family member- showing that these cultures believed their dead would eventually be resurrected.

 

“Many may have considered an after-life and like the Egyptians, perhaps a resurrection,” he says.

 

It’s a common misconception that mummies are strictly preserved Egyptians wrapped head to toe.

 

“A mummy is preserved human remains, a cadaver, a deceased. The preservation may be intentional like Egyptian mummification or our modern day ‘embalming.’  It can be unintentional, where the body is naturally preserved by the environment and means of disposition, like the ‘bog mummies’ or those found in extreme old and arid dry climates that is preservation by freeze drying.”

 

This shows that mummy’s in horror come from real history, although in film they are exaggerated in many ways with a play on mythical stories and beliefs. Zombies are an imaginary creation, which many believe are our future.

 

“I think the zombies are that reminder that everything we are neglecting to see and rejecting from our field of vision can come back to haunt us – and in fact will,” Castillo says.

 

Mummies are man-made or naturally desiccated beings, with history dating back to 3100 BC. Zombies are mythical creatures with no real history. There are processes for both mummification and zombification, although according to the facts, it may be possible to turn a zombie into a mummy, but not a mummy into a zombie. 

 

                 Watch the guys of Big Bang Theory argue about it here: