People have often asked, “Why do zombies eat brains in movies and TV shows?” Ever since their inception and appearance in various television and film media, such as Return of the Living Dead, The Walking Dead, and 28 Weeks Later, zombies have become notorious for consuming or trying to consume the brains of human beings. This is both disgusting and quite interesting, as it raises many questions about zombie psychology and behavior.

So why do zombies eat brains? Does it satisfy their hunger or give them some form of pleasure or relief? Here is what is known on the matter.

Why do zombies eat human brains?

The idea of zombies eating human brains first originated in the 1985 comedy-horror film, Return of the Living Dead. In this film, zombies do not eat brains out of necessity but for pleasure and easing their own brains. Thanks to this movie, human brains have become commonplace in the zombie diet for many films and TV shows focusing on and exploring zombies.

However, the depiction of zombies themselves in many film and television media can be traced back to George A. Romero’s 1968 movie Night of the Living Dead, which interestingly did not refer to the living dead as flesh eaters or zombies. Moreover, the zombies in this movie did not even eat brains. Romero himself was baffled when he was told about the depiction of zombies eating brains and their increased popularity in a 2010 Vanity Fair interview.

It is interesting to see how the idea of zombies and their behavior evolved over time in their media depictions throughout the years, especially when we consider how different writers came into the fray and gave their own ideas of how zombies behaved and looked like, as evident by the slightly similar but mostly contrasting behaviors of various zombies in film, television, and video game adaptations like The Walking Dead, 28 Weeks Later, Army of the Dead, and The Last of Us.