From 1979 to 1990, something terrifying occurred in Italy. A unique type of zombie monster rose from the earth to feast on the flesh of the living. This screen monster emerged and evolved within a cycle of films that went on to alter the development and evolution of the zombie figure in the cinema, despite their poor historical reputation. These particular films are quite understudied and overlooked (and this current study looks to remedy that a bit through examining specific films that have been chosen largely due to their importance within Italian horror as well as their somewhat surprising influence on zombie cinema). This work will be divided into two parts with the first examining Zombie (1979), Zombie Holocaust (1980), Nightmare City (1980), and Burial Ground (1981) with the second study looking at Hell of the Living Dead (1981), Zombie 3 (1988), Zombie 5: Killing Birds (1988), and Zombie 4: After Death (1990). Through these particular films, we will look at how zombies function as our cinematic doubles, reflecting our collective fears and anxieties. This rotting corpse, dirt-caked with earthen flesh dangling from its wounds, is a shambling (and sometimes running) image for these films as they explore visceral, Corporeal horrorscorporeal horrors, and deep fears about the deformation, degradation and horrifying consumption of the human physical form. They also present key connections to the natural world, depicting nature as a terrible force that drives and embodies a malicious resurrection and then horrific reanimation, summoned from the depths of the earth. The hybrid Italian zombie indeed is both a twisted horror of nature and supernature (or “supranature” a term discussed later on) at once embodying thematics connected to science, nature, biology, technology, metaphysical forces, consciousness, and contagion.