I was thinking what SiL said. He's way creepier as a disfigured freak than a zombie... but I love zombies and think he looks awesome as a walking corpse.
And, also as SiL's saying, he does not actually die until the end of the fourth movie. In the first film, they talk about him as if he's dead, but in the second, the legend is altered to "I hear he survived and still roams the woods."