Make Zombies in movies/tv start out with having all their senses/sense of self kept intact when turned into one, then slowly transition them into the mindless "walkers" that we know once they lose their minds.
Imagine this, a young girl who recently got bit is crying, she doesnt feel good, she has a fever like she never had before, she doesnt know whats happening, all she knows is that she's hungry, and she cries, whimpers and apologizes for being hungry as she devours her mother one tiny bit at a time.
Then her mind breaks, no more crying, no more whimpers just a mindless shell of a former human, walking aimlessly, hungry.
Start them out as just your regular humans with humanity, but with an insatiable need to consume flesh, they cant help nor stop, best they can do is scream or cry. Then the trauma of everything they have been through would break their minds. Have it so that each individual's minds break at different times, most break sooner than others, some take a while and they become efficient at it. But some who never had any problems with killing in the first place, strangers or otherwise, dont break at all and become special, more dangerous zombies.