Читать книгу The Zombie Book - Nick Redfern - Страница 31

In the 2007 movie I Am Legend, Will Smith’s character—Lieutenant Colonel Robert Neville—comes under attack from a vicious pack of zombified dogs. While Neville survives the onslaught unscathed, his own dog, a German Shepherd named Samantha, does not. With shocking speed, she transforms into one of the crazed, barking dead. Similar hounds of the dead appear in the Resident Evil series, too. Of course, zombie dogs are just the stuff of horror fantasy, aren’t they? Just maybe, they are not.

Within British folklore and culture of centuries past, one of the most feared of all supernatural beasts was the so-called phantom black dog. Typically the size of a small pony and with a pair of blazing eyes—often described as looking like red hot coals—the creepy canine was feared all across the land. The names of these infernal beasts varied widely and wildly according to locale, and include Padfoot, Black Shuck (which takes its name from an old English word, “scucca,” meaning “demon”), Skriker, and the Girt Dog.

According to some of the ancient traditions, the black dogs were the reincarnated, supernatural forms of recently deceased people. And, if someone was to encounter a black dog on a lonely and isolated stretch of road, late on the proverbial dark and stormy night, it meant only one terrible thing: the fiendish hound would soon be coming for the soul of the witness or that of a family member or close friend. So, what you may ask, does this all have to do with zombies? Well, consider the lore and traditions surrounding the phantom black dogs. A person dies, then very soon thereafter returns from the grave in monstrous form and fashion, and has only one goal on its mind: to take the lives of the living. Sound familiar? It should!