Zombies. I love ‘em. You probably do too—since I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who religiously reads zombie books (survival guides, novels, comics), plays zombie games (the ‘Resident Evil’ series, 'Dead Rising', ‘ZombiU’ on Wii U) and watches the shows and movies (‘World War Z’, ‘The Walking Dead’ and countless outbreak movies over the years).

George A. Romero cottoned onto zombies early, popularising them through ‘Day of the Dead’, ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and a bunch of admittedly cheesy spin-offs. His slow-moving, groaning walkers became the archetypal zombie for many years.

However, in more recent times, these slow and lumbering threats have given way to a rise of sprinting, screaming zombies that present a clear and harder threat to manage. It was Danny Boyle’s take on these fast-moving foes in ’28 Days Later’ that showed audiences how much more menacing an agile zombie could be. All that latent anger, bubbling just beneath the rotting flesh, waiting to run at the first sign of fresh meat. Creepy and tangibly frightening.

AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’, based on the spectacular and gory graphic novel series, has taken elements from all over the shop—combining slow zombies with the occasional fast one, just to keep the dwindling character list on its toes.

Even in the cinematic adaptation of ‘World War Z’, the Brad Pitt vehicle and adaptation of the Max Brooks novel of the same name, features fast zombie tropes. Fans of the book have cried foul over some changes (zombies swarming like ants and a few ‘epic’ moments not featured in the story), but one thing’s clear – even a potentially lousy zombie movie still has the red carpet rolled out for a dedicated audience of zombie fans.

But why? Why the lingering interest? Beyond other monsters – perhaps even beyond vampires (the other major and perpetual Hollywood love affair), zombies persist.

Look deep enough into what a zombie actually is and you’ll realize something pretty interesting about humanity: we’re all secretly petrified of death. I think that’s why we’re still continually fascinated with zombies—the shambling, undead give us purpose in death (even if that purpose is simply to chew a few necks and drag our broken ankles along as we search for our next victim).

Zombies give us permission to be violent and animalistic too. Even in light-hearted zombie flicks (‘Shaun of the Dead’ and 'Zombieland' spring to mind), gore, in fact, is another big reason for zombie popularity. Humanity is reset back to its Neanderthal roots – a hunter/gatherer society that is ruled by violence and bloodshed and the ability to outlast your brothers and sisters.

I think a big part of us, deep down, still yearns for that simplicity. Zombie stories simply present those core human yearnings – the need to survive in the face of adversity - in a context of modern-day life. Plausible enough to buy into, scary and very, very dark.

Whatever the reason, zombies never seem to wear out their welcome—and frankly, I’m okay with this. Years from now, when the inevitable zombie apocalypse finally occurs, we’ll have all the source material and survival guides at our fingertips.

The geeks shall indeed inherit the Earth.