Come and Join The Livin' Trivia Quiz

Answer: Salt

In traditional Haitian lore, zombies weren't infected by a virus. They were people placed in a trance by a dark sorcerer called a bokor and forced to work as mindless slaves. This originated from the enslaved Africans having to work the sugar plantations in Haiti in the 17th and 18th centuries. To keep them under control, the sorcerer fed them a bland diet with zero seasoning.

Tasting salt acted as a spiritual wake up call that reconnected the zombie to its soul and memories. Once they tasted salt, the spell shattered, allowing life to return to their bodies and they would be free. Hence, good and flavorful food was equated to freedom, which explains why Haitian food is bold and spicy (with salt, of course).

Answer: Love and emotional connections

In "Warm Bodies", zombification is a mental and spiritual state of cold detachment. When the zombie named "R" falls in love with a living human named Julie, their growing bond, shared empathy, and physical warmth spark a physical reaction inside him. As he begins to care for another person, his dormant heart starts to beat on its own, his body begins to heal, and his cellular structure slowly transforms him back into a living, breathing human.

Answer: Daily synthetic antiviral injections

During "In the Flesh", scientists develop a breakthrough drug treatment (a daily synthetic brain medication called Neurotriptyline) that reverses the brain-dead state of the infected. It is injected from the base of the neck with a syringe in the form of a green liquid.

The medication completely cures the zombies' rabid state, restores their human memories, and allows them to think, speak, and feel emotions again so they can return home to live with their families.

Answer: Apple

In "Minecraft", curing a zombie villager is a two step medical process. First, players weaken the undead curse with a Splash Potion of Weakness. Then, feeding the zombie a golden apple triggers the reanimation sequence. The zombie villager will begin to shake, make a loud sizzling sound, and emit red particles for a few minutes before completely transforming back into a living, healthy villager who will even offer lower trading prices as a reward for being cured.

Answer: His own immune blood

In "I Am Legend", Dr. Robert Neville (played by Will Smith) is naturally immune to the mutated virus that wiped out humanity and turned survivors into zombie-like Darkseekers. Working out of his basement laboratory, he repeatedly extracts his own immune blood to isolate the protective antibodies. By synthesizing a serum from his blood plasma and cooling down a captured test subject, he creates a working cure that slowly reverses the infection, restarting normal human body chemistry.

Answer: True Resurrection

In "Dungeons & Dragons", lower level magic like Raise Dead fails if a creature has been turned into a zombie or lacks an intact body. However, True Resurrection (the ultimate divine spell) bypasses physical decay entirely. This spell closes all wounds, neutralizes any poison, cures all diseases, and lifts any curses affecting the creature when it died. Cast by high-level clerics or druids, it pulls the soul back from the afterlife and literally creates a new, healthy living body for them.

Answer: Galvanism

The concept of using electricity to bring dead tissue back to life originated with 18th-century "galvanism" experiments. In Mary Shelley's book "Frankenstein", very little is mentioned on how the dead monster is animated. However, subsequent movies based on the book highlight galvanism. By re-establishing electrical impulses and oxygenation before brain cells permanently breakdown (necrosis), the nervous system is "rebooted," restoring brain activity and bringing the body back to a living state.

Answer: Radiation from a space probe exploding

In "Night of the Living Dead", while the characters inside the farmhouse are fighting to survive, news broadcasts reveal the origin of the nightmare. NASA scientists explain that a space probe returning from Venus was intentionally destroyed in Earth's atmosphere after discovering high levels of mysterious, unidentifiable radiation.

It was then hinted that the rogue cosmic radiation reacted with the human brain stem, reactivating basic motor functions in recently deceased corpses and sending them searching for living flesh.

Answer: Trioxin 245

In "The Return of the Living Dead", a botched military storage container accidentally releases Trioxin 245, a potent chemical gas developed by the U.S. military to reanimate corpses. Once airborne, the gas washes over a nearby cemetery and penetrates deep into the soil. Unlike typical zombies that rely on a brain stem, Trioxin causes every individual cell and muscle fiber in a corpse to reanimate, creating hyper-aggressive zombies that can still talk, run, and move even after being severed into pieces.

Answer: A cat jumping over the open coffin

In Chinese Taoist lore, a corpse turns into a Jiangshi if its soul cannot pass peacefully. This is often due to improper burial rites, a sudden lightning strike hitting the coffin, or a cat (more specifically a pregnant or black cat) jumping over the body in the coffin.

In folklore, animals possess strong yang energy. When a cat leaps over a fresh corpse, its yang energy jumps into the corpse's dormant yin (death) energy, acting like a spark that reanimates the body into a stiff, hopping zombie.