Zombies -fantasy or science fiction?

9 times out of 10, Zombies could be classed as Sci-Fi. They are normally caused by a virus or genetically engineered somehow. Something sciency is nearly always the culprit.

def SF. not fantasy.

Actually, I think you're going to find zombies lumped in with horror more often than fantasy or sci-fi.

I've run into the same problem trying to sell a zombie story of my own, though (I'm talking short fiction, FYI). For the most part, it varies market to market whether they're receptive to zombie stories, but I've sent it to at least one market in horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. None of them bought it, but each market was about as receptive as the other, based on their guidelines and the kind of stories they publish.

But setting and tone are what's really going to decide what kind of story you have, not what kind of creatures you populate it with.

It could be either, but more recently it has been science fiction. In fantasy a necromancer or other magic user might control or create a horde of zombies.

AVS said:

It could be either, but more recently it has been science fiction. In fantasy a necromancer or other magic user might control or create a horde of zombies.

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good point! (takes blinders off)

Speculative fiction. Most the time, it's SF. But there are circumstances that go outside of that.

J.W. Alden said:

Actually, I think you're going to find zombies lumped in with horror more often than fantasy or sci-fi.

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right you are! ...why didn't i think of that!!

Fantasy unless you use the original zombies that were drugged into being perfect slaves, rather than being reanimated corpese.

If your zombies come with a "scientific" explanation attached (e.g. drugs, virus, mutation, etc.) you can call them SF. If they come from magic, they're fantasy. If the goal of the exercise is to be scary or gross, they're horror.

I think it depends on if you have necromancers or not.

This makes me think of a discussion I had in like 5th grade if Dr Frankenstein was a necromancer or not.

benbenberi said:

If your zombies come with a "scientific" explanation attached (e.g. drugs, virus, mutation, etc.) you can call them SF. If they come from magic, they're fantasy. If the goal of the exercise is to be scary or gross, they're horror.

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This. I think zombies will fit more readily into horror because that is what most people associate the topic with.

I lean more toward horror on that because the emphasis lies with the Zombies--terror, death, cannibalism, creature, fear, survival, etc,. Although you could have space zombies or distopian future--SF.

If you posit that zombies are created by magic, it's fantasy.

If you posit that zombies are created by disease processes, radiation, scientific intervention, alien possession, etc., it's science fiction.

Either way, zombies can also fall under the horror category. Unless they're nice, vegetarian zombies. Brooooooooccoliiiii, unh, brooooooccooooooliiiiii....

Horror is a complex category I feel.

I always feel supernatural horror is a sub-category of fantasy. We are talking about fantastical creatures werewolves, vampires, zombies (magic driven) and so on.

Other horror such as Aliens or World War Z is still under speculative fiction but perhaps a sub-category of science fiction.

Then you've got the axe wielding maniac type, Criminal Minds real world possible horror.

You can do a lot with the horror category. Hmm.

I'm just happy that you're going against what many are beginning to think and not posing zombies as non-fiction.

Originaly zombies were created by magic as slaves and grunts for wizards those are considered fantasy, modern stories about zombies usually protray them as infected by some sort of virus those are science fiction so it depends on the origin of the zombies. It really seems like horror and science fiction are confused with each other alot but zombies do seem to cross those lines a bit so maybe the two genres have a bit in common, science fiction does produce some pretty horrifiying stuff.

I know of oneFantasy Zombie Novel, so I agree that, like many other stories, it depends on the rest of the story (science/magic/no explanation just death death death) as to what genre it is. I would classify most TV/movie versions of zombie stories as Horror, but I could see where they could be Sci Fi as well.

Can be either.

Raised from the dead by necromancer? Fantasy.
Created by science? Sci-Fi.
Created by hoo doo witch woman who sends it after you and your family? Horror/Supernatural (maybe a subset of fantasy).

Super Mech Pilot said:

Originaly zombies were created by magic as slaves and grunts for wizards those are considered fantasy, modern stories about zombies usually protray them as infected by some sort of virus those are science fiction so it depends on the origin of the zombies. It really seems like horror and science fiction are confused with each other alot but zombies do seem to cross those lines a bit so maybe the two genres have a bit in common, science fiction does produce some pretty horrifiying stuff.

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Originally? I think the modern stories actually precede or are at least in alignment with the fantasy ones. Zombie horror movies have been around since the late 20s/early 30s though they were mostly based on Haitian voodoo legends. Some of the early 'non voodoo' zombies appeared in the 50s. Not sure there is a reference for a fantasy necromancer in film or literature before that point?

I think it started out as Horror but has shifted into other genres. The early stuff is all occult horror but the later stuff begins to sift in some science which lets it border on sci fi. The more recent zombies have all seemed to have some pseudoscience behind them even if that is a ludicrous one (and there are whole debates to be had about when a sci fi explanation veers over into fantasy). As far as I am aware, the main references to zombies in fantasy are based on RPGs and wargames (which places them post 1970s) and i am not aware of any fantasy zombies in literature or film before that. Would be interesting to know of any if they exist.

I think the point here is that there is a meta genre which is horror but within that zombies can take on traits of other genres. 28 Days later, for example, is a horror film but the zombies have a scientific explanation which is plausible (if ludicrous to an actual scientist in that field) and so it is horror with elements of sci fi. Warhammer fantasy roleplay has necromancers in it who use magic to summon zombies. This is fantasy but the goal is create terror and so there is an element of horror in that too.

Of course, there was a point when anything that was 'modern day' with 'supernatural elements' was classified as 'horror'. Now they are as likely to get put in the urban fantasy shelves instead...

J.W. Alden said:

Actually, I think you're going to find zombies lumped in with horror more often than fantasy or sci-fi.

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This ^

benbenberi said:

If they come from magic, they're fantasy.

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I sure hope agents and editors agree with this, otherwise I'm wasting my time. I'm not writing sci-fi, and I don't even know how to write horror: my MC animates corpses by way of magic, and the whole world is rife with Fantasy tropes (well, minus horses).

Atalanta (cool name, btw), I think you're fine. My first reaction when I hear the word "zombie" is Wade Davis and "The Serpent and the Rainbow." Dark mojo creating zombies.

Whether a story with zombies is Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror, depends much more on what the story is about than how the zombies were created, or the setting for that matter.
For instance, I'd argue that generally a Post Apocalyptic story will always be Science Fiction. But if the main purpose of the zombies in such a setting is to create a scenario where a group of characters have to fight for survival against all odds and are picked off one by one, then you would be into the Survival Horror genre. Survival Horror is mostly a game genre, the Resident Evil games started as Survival Horror (, although they've moved into Action), the first movie is also clearly Survival Horror. (The rest of the movies can be debated much more.)

Generally though, there's a lot of blending over of genres. I've seen Post Apocalyptic Horror been used as a genre. And if you move to movies, Alien is clearly Survival Horror when it comes to story, but since it is has a very clear future setting most people think of it as Science Fiction. -Aliens however is much more clearly a Science Fiction movie, but it still retains much of the Survival Horror from the first movie.
The debate over SFF (, which I use instead of Speculative Fiction since some people still take offense to that term because of its origin,) subgenres is endless. The three main genres blend a lot. What main genre a subgenre belongs to can be the subject of debate, and what subgenres applies to a story is almost always up for debate. Taking Steampunk, I'd argue that its main subgenre is Alternate History, it can't work without it. Alternate History is a Science Fiction subgenre, although you'll find people arguing against that because they say History isn't a science. But since many Steampunk stories contain some sort of supernatural element, many people classify it as Fantasy.
In short, SFF fans have lots of opinions, and like to debate them.

But really, none of what I wrote above really matters. In the last few years I've seen the term Zombie Fiction being used. So if you have a story with zombies, just write it, and let the agent/publisher worry about what genre to put it in when they accept it. -Which is something of a general advice. Genres, especially subgenres, are more marketing categories than anything else.