a lot of 40’s and 50’s era monster movies would depict whatever monster–Frankenstein, Dracula, whatever, reaching forward to grasp their victim.
Frankenstein’s monster didn’t shamble around with his arms out until 1943’s Frankenstein Meets The Wolf-Man, because he had been blinded in 1942’s The Ghost of Frankenstein.
That may be the one specific film where that part of the trope comes from, kind of like how Return of the Living Dead is the one and only origin of zombies eating brains.
Point is, the general public has a fully formed, detailed idea of what a movie zombie is, and not a single movie depicts zombies in exactly that way.
Frankenstein’s monster didn’t shamble around with his arms out until 1943’s Frankenstein Meets The Wolf-Man, because he had been blinded in 1942’s The Ghost of Frankenstein.
That may be the one specific film where that part of the trope comes from, kind of like how Return of the Living Dead is the one and only origin of zombies eating brains.
Point is, the general public has a fully formed, detailed idea of what a movie zombie is, and not a single movie depicts zombies in exactly that way.