“As the oil runs out, as the Three Mile Island nuclear plant sprays radiation into the atmosphere like an atomic teakettle that someone forgot to take off the burner and as the dollar gradually becomes more and more transparent, Romero invites us into a crazed bedlam where zombies stagger up and down escalators, stare with dulled fascination at department store dummies wearing fur coats and try to eat perfume bottles. The movie’s four protagonists at first segregate themselves from this world, and then, unknowingly become part of it. The only difference is that they’re not dead. At least not yet” Stephen King, Rolling Stone Magazine.
I thinl what S.K. is trying to say is that the Three Mile Island plant radiation did it.
"WHEN THERE IS NO MORE ROOM IN HELL, THE DEAD WILL WALK THE EARTH."
That quote, taken verbatim, is the only one I noticed present in both movies. I've watched the new version 4 times so far, and the original was my all-time favorite zombie movie--unitl now. The remake knocks the original out of the park. The characters are realistically portrayed, and the zombies were the scariest I've seen. They're dumb as dirt, and not as ingenious as your typical zombie, but they're super fast and strong.
To me, it is obvious that a zombie bite introduces some sort of pathogen into the bloodstream. If it were a radiation leak or some other external type of air-borne virus, EVERYONE who died subsequently would be affected. It also would explain why the pregnant woman's baby was born a zombie--had the baby been born prior to her death, I'm sure it woulda been fine, just as a mother infected with hiv can still deliver a healthy, uninfected child, but her condition prevents her from nursing the baby, or she'll infect the child. The uterine environment is as separate an entity as possible to protect the offspring. So, pathogenic mutation or something like that, I would say. That seems a fairly solid theory to me, and theologically, more satifying that most other possiblities.
I think it's stupid that it's never explained, I like it in ROTLD how Trioxin brings them back, but it's stupid how it brings back skeletons. It's obvious that it triggers a spark in the brain, but skeletons don't have brains, if a skeleton was bought back then its moving the movie into fantasy, which is very stupid......