OH MY GOD - you love zombie movies? I'm so darn pleased. My Mum (78) is also a fan. There's a zombie book series I also loved called 'The Reapers are the Angels' which always stuck in my mind and was well written southern gothic take, and Colston Whitehead's 'Zone One'. I think a lot of people think they're all guts and brains, but they're much more than that. They're an opportunity to critique social ills and a way to imagine how life can reform anew around an apocalypse. There's a multitude of different ways to explore it, and as you say, you can suspend disbelief and sub 'reanimated dead' for 'general pandemic' if you're struggling with the concept of reanimation. Jamie hasn't enjoyed one since the remake of 'Dawn of the Dead' and usually tunes out, but I don't think they make enough films to feed my appetite, so to speak. Obviously, if it's just jump scares and gore it's a missed opportunity to philosophise about humanity - although that's exactly why people shy away from them.