The Wolves showed up yesterday and created quite a frenzy! If you missed the post, check it out here – Zombies Vs. Werewolves… Don’t forget to leave me a comment for a chance to win a digital version of my novel Days with the Undead: Book One! I’m giving away one digital copy each day and then at the end of the week I will be giving away a signed print version as a grand prize!
In a war fought only by zombies and The Thing, who would win? Is there one monster that would reign supreme? In order to answer that question, we must first consider each of the creatures in turn.
The Zombie: As I stated in my Zombie versus Vampire argument, the modern archetype of the Zombie is rooted deep in the genre. Zombies are undead; that’s fairly simple to ascertain. They are plagued with a voracious hunger, they never stop to rest, and they move whether it’s night or day. They have no preference in whom they will kill and they can add to their ranks with a single, infected bite. The Zombie exists with no subtlety, no brains, and absolutely no subterfuge. That makes them pretty formidable, but how will they stack up against the Vampire or the Werewolf?
The Thing: As a parasitic life form, The Thing can absorb and assimilate anything it touches. It adapts within any environment that can sustain multi-cellular, complex life, which happens to be its principle food and host source. Just one cell can work as well as a group of them, using a host to replicate itself over and over again. The thing even has a fantastic defense system – it mimics itself completely as its host so unless you’re super paranoid, or it tries to assimilate you, you may not even know how close it really is…
The fact that The Thing can adapt to an environment that can sustain complex life, multi-cellular complex life to be more specific, is both a strength and a weakness. The Zombie is technically is not alive, so the question remains; could The Thing even assimilate one without dying itself? Or would there be some sort of biological mutation that would occur to create a hybrid?
So now it’s your turn – discuss, ruminate, and render your choice as to who would reign supreme…
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Days with the Undead 
I honestly believe the thing would assimulate the zombie and turn into whatever it was in life.
For me personally the thing would absorb the zombies in my theory because as long as the brain is active or some what active it would absorb it. However this will lead to mutation since the zombie’s organs, blood, and saliva or infected with the zombie virus as well as leading it to be a hybrid. Since the zombie isn’t fully dead as some would argue because part of the brain is still active, the thing will mislead it as a new food source leading it to become a hybrid of the two.
I have to say that a hybrid of The Thing and a zombie would be particularly frightening… I feel a story idea coming on!
Hm… Interesting idea.
On one hand, I think The Thing would have no interest in Zombies, since, as you said, its food source has to be capable of sustaining life. While a zombie isn’t dead, it is rotting, rendering them inedible. Even if The Thing did try to eat them, it would be REALLY messy, like eating soup out of a colander.
On the other, zombies would likely try to eat the Thing, since it’s alive, but it could easily shift into a plant. If it turns into a flower, the zombies will leave it alone, since they don’t eat such things and have no established interest in horticultural sciences.
I say this war goes to The Thing, simply because it can shift from plant to plant until all the zombies die off.
Does The Thing shift to plant life? That’s an interesting point and one that could certainly give it the edge. Thanks for bringing it forward Alex!
I am going to have to sink my teeth into the hybrid idea.
Sticking to the zombie genre during the time of release of The Thing-1982-I think that there would have been no winner or loser between zombies and The Thing, in a manner of speaking. The Thing is a parasite with an agenda: the assimilation of any given species. Though zombies are technically dead, they are still mobile and motivated enough to feel the need to feed upon the living. True, The Thing has no use for a dead human body, but within the constraints of the film, those bodies were not up and walking around. I think that if you were bent on assimilating a species-as long as they had the ability to move about-they would be of useful employ.
I believe that a hybrid “Zombie Thing” would have been the ultimate outcome. They both were after the same thing; to feed off of humanity in one form or another, so either way…
And honestly, who wouldn’t want to see a hybrid Tom Savini machete zombie thing?
Great supposition Eric! it’s hard one to say for certain but I love the idea of the hybrid!
And I’m thinking they need to make a film just to that Savini can work his magic!!
I’ll chime in with the Thing would have no interest in Zombies, it leaves a dead host to move on; and conversely as the Thing has no brain per say (even if it’s current host does), the Zombie would have no interest in it.
These two could/would co-exist with no notice or issue… my 2 cents 😉
That very well may be true – but does the Thing have the ability to recognize that the Zombie is dead? Also, keep in mind that when MacReady brought the corpse back to their camp, Fuchs told him that the creature was still alive – on a cellular level. At some point, those cells either regenerated or they simply were not incinerated by the fire that rendered it immobile (for the moment).
As for the Thing having no brain – we are assuming that the Zombie would only want it for its brain. Zombies are consumers and while they may prefer brain (at least in Return of the Living Dead), it doesn’t mean that the only thing they will eat 🙂
I have to agree with Dark Angel, they’d simply co-exist. Until the food supply ran out, than it be extinction for the both of them.
While I don’t disagree, it doesn’t stop me from wondering LOL
We’ll all wonder… Until the dark day they face each other. 🙂
Let’s hope that day never comes to pass…