[Little Horn]

I'm a huge Horror Movie nerd. The way I see it, the more violence and gore, the better. Don't get me wrong, I love really good movies with a solid story line and good characters but gore and violence are a sure way to make up for a poorly executed/written script and horrible actors. If I can get both elements in one movie... what a treat!

My favorite kind of horror movies are movies that really make you think and have some foundation in reality. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is my all time favorite horror movie because of how "real" it is. Granted, to my knowledge there has never been a family of sadistic cannibals that chase young kids down with chainsaws and hack them to bits but that doesn't mean it isn't possible. The idea for Leatherface is based off of serial killer, Eddie Gein. He killed women and used their skins to fashion articles of clothing, lamp shades and various pieces of furniture much like Leatherface and his family did in the movie. There have been numerous other serial killers in American history that have kept parts of their victims as trohpies. To me this is by far, more terrifying than the idea of killer clowns or some supernatural creature picking a group of clueless teenagers off one by one.

Within this type of horror movie I feel that zombie movies are truly the horrifying. I lose a lot of people here as they view zombies as just another supernatural creature in the save league as vampires or werewolves but I fail to see them as such and I'll explain why.

I am currently working on a book that examines the realistic possibility of a "zombie oubreak" like the one that we see in the 28 Days/Weeks Later or Flight of The Living Dead movies. As I see it (and keep in mind that I am NOT a Microbiologist or Virologist) is that it is a very realistic idea.

Rabies is virus that causes irrational behaviour and increased aggresion in most animals. While this is not a common side effet of rabies in humans, with the advancements that we have made in genetic engineering it is not entirely out of the question that a "super strain" of rabies could be developed and acidentally/purposely released to the public. This would produce symptoms very similar to the "Rage Virus" the we see in the "28" movies.

Another potential possiblity is the ebola virus. While this is a less likey candidate as rabies the virus as it is now produces a lot of the symptoms that we see in the 28 movies like vomiting blood, and bleeding from just about every orifice of the body to include pores. While it does not really produce increased agression this is something I would think that scientists would be able to add to it with a little engineering. Or perhaps creating a deadly rabies/ebola hybrid of sorts.

Yet another possibility would be mad cow disease. While this virus is mostly seen in cattle it has been known to effect humans although it does not produce the same symptoms in humans as it does in cattle. In cattle, one of the biggest symptoms at later stages of the disease is a change in behaviour particularly agression.

While the incubation periods for these viruses is much longer than the 20-30 seconds that the Rage Virus take to incubate in the movies this is all a matter of engineering and altering the virus to make it's inubation period much shorter.

While zombies in the traditional sense of corpses rising from the dead is a little far fetched the idea of virus born zombies is a real possibility and quite frankly it is a possibility that is pretty damn scary when you really think about it.

Don't ask me why, after knowing all of this, I still love zombie movies because I've tried on many different occasion to try an explain why the feeling of psychological terror is my idea of a fun filled evening and I've yet to find a reasonable answer that doesn't make me sound like I'm mentalliy unstable.

I've cured my boredom for the moment. Does this sound reasonable to anyone else? Am I taking a giant leap or does anyone else agree with the idea that we could potentially face the zombie onslaught at some point in our existence? Does anyone else enjo zombie movies or even horror movies for this same reason?