There are not a lot of things that a zombie and a vampire have in common. That is not to say there aren’t any. We can discuss a few of them here. 

1. The most obvious comparison between the two is the fact that they are both undead. In popular culture, zombies are dirty and mob like. They move around in mobs looking for their next meal. Vampires are also the undead. Although there are two camps, one says that vampires are immortal while the other says that they do age but they have such a long life span they seem immortal to the measly 60 or so years that humans have to enjoy life.

2. Both vampires and zombies have the same basic diet. Living humans. Of course there is a slight difference, vampires prefer the warm blood from their victims while zombies tend to just rip chunks off of the living person. Whichever way it is done, human is still the main course.

3. Vampires and zombies both possess what we would consider super human strength. They are much stronger than the average person. If either one of them gets a hold of you, for all practical purposes, you are dinner.

4. They both have heightened senses. With a vampire it seems to be all the senses. With zombies it is mainly smell. They can smell a living person from pretty far away. This is bad for you because hiding from them won’t necessarily work. All they have to do is follow their “un dead” noses to find you.

5. They both have the ability to change you into one of them. If they happen to decide that you are not just dinner, both a zombie and a vampire has the ability to change you from human into a zombie or vampire. If the initial attack doesn’t kill you, the pathogens that they carry in their blood will cause you to die and be reborn into one of the two creatures.

These are some of the ways that the zombies and vampires are the same. Just like comparing any two species, there are also differences. One of the biggest difference between the vampire and a zombie is intelligence. Vampires are usually very smart. They have had many years to learn things. They can make plans, set traps, and in many cases live among humans without too much of a problem.

Zombies do not possess this kind of intelligence. They pretty much just look for food. If they happen onto it, they eat. If they don’t, then they stumble around like a bunch of crack heads. Some types of zombies will starve to death while others seem to be able to go long periods of time without having to eat (since there has not been any serious scientific studies done, the reason for this phenomenon is unknown).

Another difference between the two is speed. Most vampires can move faster than the human eye can follow. Zombies usually just shuffle around. One exception to this is a kind of zombie know as a “rage”. They are very, very fast and aggressive. These types probably account for less than 1 out of 10 of zombies.

In modern culture, the vampire has taken on a sexy persona. This could never really happen with a zombie. Rotting flesh falling off just doesn’t scream sex appeal, no matter what you may be in to.

While at first glance there didn’t seem to be anything that a vampire and a zombie had in common. The deeper you look, the more things you can actually find. The differences between the two are much easier to see (especially on the surface). It just goes to show you that the old saying goes for monsters that eat people as much as anything else: Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.