Romero’s Zombies vs. Costello’s Triggers
By: Or Less
Tags: Zombies, Books, Zombie Apocalypse, Horror Fiction, Horror

Romero’s Zombies vs. Costello’s Triggers

There have been many important battles fought over the centuries. From Napoleon’s Waterloo to the Siege of Stalingrad, the Blitz of London to the Fall of Constantinople.

But none of them have ever inspired the sheer level of passion and enthusiasm as the current battle being waged between “Zombie Traditionalists” and “Zombie Progressives”.

For those who have been hiding under a rock for the last few months, or perhaps became so disenchanted with “The Walking Dead’s” staggering devolution into mediocrity, that they just gave up on the zombie genre altogether, a war has been brewing within the decomposed remains of the zombie fan base around the world.

And it’s all because of a book.

The release of “World Undone” by New Zealand author and screenplay writer Andrew Costello started out quietly enough, with low sales and absolutely no marketing or fanfare. He mostly wrote it as a niche book for the zombie hardcore. But as the weeks went by, and zombie fans (stuck at home because of a real life pandemic) spent more time online, word of mouth began to spread like the zombie virus itself.

What had initially begun as a passion project for the zombie faithful, quickly escalated into an avalanche of mainstream fans frothing at the mouth for more. Not since George Romero’s original “Night of the living dead” or the first “Resident Evil” film emerged from their respective graves, has the zombie fan base been this animated (re-animated?).

Costello’s hyper-violent “Triggers” have (literally) brought zombies back to life, and he has essentially accomplished what he set out to do, resuscitating what many had considered to be a permanently dead genre, that had become a mockery of itself and what it was intended to be. And that’s where the conflict began.

“Triggers”, despite clearly being Costello’s own original form of zombie, are not actually dead! Instead, they are the millions of meth addicts across America, who had their brain signals scrambled by a change in the drugs chemical composition. Yes, they kill people. Yes, they eat people. And, yes, they are decomposing horrifically as time goes by.

But, technically, they are still alive!

This has led many “zombie traditionalists” to proclaim that they are a separate type of creature altogether and should not be considered zombies (of the shuffling “Romero” kind). Much to the (purposely hilarious) fury of the rapidly growing hordes of “World Undone” fans! Who insist that the triggers are indeed a form of zombie and are bringing desperately needed new life to the undead genre.

Both sides have good points. So, in the tradition of marginal journalism, it’s time for a comparison!

FEAR FACTOR

It’s true that up till now, all “traditional zombies” have been dead by necessity. It’s what makes them scary. They may not be particularly effective individually, but once massed in numbers, they are quite terrifying, as well as being able to come out of nowhere quietly to inflict the odd bite on unsuspecting survivors.

But it’s equally true that the “triggers” are terrifying even when there is only one of them. Moving at adrenalin enhanced speeds, with staggering strength, they are able to unleash a level of violence usually reserved for werewolves! But, they also have the weakness of being easily heard with their psychotic scream.

BODY COUNT (Zombies and Humans)

“Traditional zombies” are easily killed and a single person with a weapon can actually wipe out vast numbers of them with a bit of planning, so it takes huge numbers of people to get infected to become a serious threat to civilization. But once they reach those numbers, the results are staggering, with entire cities falling in hours.

“Triggers”, on the other hand, are incredibly hard to kill, and your chances of surviving an encounter with one borders on nonexistent. A single trigger can kill dozens of humans, essentially flipping the equation. One trigger could essentially wipe out a small town. A few hundred triggers could take a city!

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE

It’s true that “traditional zombies” have waned in the publics interest over the last few years, thanks to cheaply and shoddily made products that try to maximize profits, with no consideration given to quality. But there have been highlights, mostly coming out of Korea. “Train to Busan” and “Kingdom” have both been enthusiastically received by both Zombiedom and mainstream audiences, and lets not forget classics like “World War Z” (the book, not the crappy film), as well as the highly entertaining “28 days later”. All of which have brought delight to the rotting hearts of zombie fans.

But essentially, “World Undone” wins this category hands down. With it’s high octane writing that literally manages to rival visual content with its heart stopping action, and it’s beautiful poetic prose that makes you care about whether the characters survive (and cry when they don’t), this book is 10/10 when it comes to sheer entertainment value!

CONCLUSION

Whether you are a “zombie traditionalist” or a “zombie progressive”, one thing is very clear, trouble is brewing in Zombiedom. And if we’re not careful, those small Instagram skirmishes may quickly escalate into an all out Twitter war!

Leaving us with the question, which do YOU think is better? Romero’s Zombies? Or Costello’s Triggers?