That was part of the curse. Three-hundred years ago they sentenced someone to death because they were scared of her, so in returned she cursed them to rise up again every year on the anniversary of her death. She would ...also try to basically destroy the town if someone didn't try to put her back to sleep again.

It's kind of complicated.

Also, I think most of them didn't even have stomachs anymore, so I dunno. They just didn't want to eat.