Zombies have become such a cliche in and of themselves. Originally they started off as a Haitian legend touching on Voodoo - - - they adopted traits of the 'sombalistic,' called the living dead but more in the realm of hypnotized subjects slow moving, lurching when they walked, when adopted for the screen it became a cliche to create an 'empty eye effect' once that was satirized in a 1944 movie called Zombies on Broadway which despite tacky production values and a questionable cast actually works on some levels.
In the mid 1960's a director of Mexican heritage wanted to tackle the issue of racism amidst the fury of the Civil rights movement and came up with the phrase 'The Living Dead.' Director Romero kept the idea of a slow walking 'hypnotized' undead with the added touch of various forms of decay. Romero injected the notion that the only way to kill a Zombie was to destroy the stem of the brain. In later Living Dead films this allowed detached arms & legs (and in X-rated spoofs other parts) to have a life of their own.
Reinventing the Zombie notion shortly after 2001, a modern director retained the undead notion, but made the zombies hyper fast and pretty much indestructible. Most recently AMC unleashed 'The Walking Dead' which stays true to certain cliches while adding others as the writers work to keep the show viable.
In many all the cliches are 'bad;' Undead or Hypnotized, the sombalistic walk (think Cabinet of Dr Caligari) - - - can't be killed unless the writer wants the creature to die; the rotting flesh has become rather silly especially in Manja comics and on film.
Some cliches are clearly borrowed: several variations have the zombies avoiding sun light,
I did always like the Eating Brains bit, just amuses the heck out of me.
Drawing inspiration from 'Plan Nine From Outer Space,' the idea of an alien race calling upon the dead to rise out of their graves has lots of mileage to go.
Peace/////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\