If you've ever watched a zombie movie, you know that a zombie is a terrifying but slow-moving monster, a dead body that moves as if it's alive and has a taste for human flesh.
There is an entire literary genre that features zombies and the people who are hunting or fighting them off, as well as scores of films about zombies. A zombie is an ideal movie monster, horrible to look at and nearly impossible to kill. The word zombie comes from West Africa, related to both the Kikongo word zumbi, or "fetish," and the Kimbundu word nzambi, or "god."