The Lore
An author, film-maker, comic writer, etc is of course free to express their creative idea in any way they like. Bending, changing or ignoring the accepted rules is entirely their artistic decision. However, the archetypal zombie is defined by a set of rules. These rules intend to characterize the notion of a zombie by what it is and what it does – if it is dead, but talks, runs and thinks then it can be argued that it is no longer a zombie; call it a demon or other monster. If it’s not pink and it doesn’t taste of spam, then it’s not spam.