As everyone knows, popular culture is caught up in an intense love affair with the undead creatures known as zombies. This is evident because zombies are pretty much everywhere you look, from movies and literature to video games and comic books. Zombies have even taken over television with the popular and amazing AMC series "The
Walking Dead." People participate in zombie walks where they dress up like the undead and stumble down the street, and zombie races in which they run through obstacle courses while being chased by people in zombie costumes. In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even released a zombie preparedness guide online.
The most recent zombie craze seems to have begun in the early 2000s and has yet to die down. But zombies have been around for a lot longer, appearing in literature as well as movies such as George A. Romero's Living Dead film series, which are among the most well known zombie fiction. Zombie lore itself originated from West African spiritual and religious practices and the Haitian Voodoo (or Vodou) religion created by African slaves who were brought to Haiti in the 16th century. In the Voodoo religion, zombies were corpses that were mystically reanimated and controlled by a sorcerer or priest known as a bokor.
The 1932 film "White Zombie," considered the first zombie movie, stars Béla Lugosi as a white Haitian Voodoo master that controls a horde of zombies. Redefining zombie lore for modern times, Romero kicked off his previously mentioned Living Dead series when he released "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968. While zombies were previously depicted as creatures that followed the orders of a sorcerer, Romero's breed of zombies had only one goal--devouring human flesh. The 1985 film "The Return of the Living Dead," an offshoot of the Living Dead series not done by Romero, created the popular idea of zombies hungering for human brains.
I am proud to admit that I am one of the many who are obsessed the living dead, but that was not always the case. I am a longtime fan of horror films (a topic I will revisit in a future post), however, while growing up I rarely watched zombie movies. This was probably because there were never any good ones on television. I recall watching one movie with talking zombies that was complete garbage (I believe it was actually part of the Return of the Living Dead series). I now realize there were better options like the Romero classics, but at the time all that was available was whatever was on basic cable and HBO.
My love of zombie lore didn't begin until spring 2002 when I first saw the horror film "Resident Evil," which would become one of my favorite movies and go on to spawn an awesome franchise (at least in my opinion.) In addition to horror movies, I am also a fan of video games and video game movies so, even though I have yet to play through a "Resident Evil" game, I had to see the movie. "Resident Evil" had serious ghouls that craved flesh, not the silly zombies from my youth that moaned "braaaiiins." Not long after that another movie, "28 Days Later," also brought the scariness back to zombie lore (although the creatures were more like rabid people than zombies, but I won't split hairs.) In both movies the zombie plague--known in extreme cases as a zombie apocalypse--is caused by a viral outbreak, which adds an explanation as to why zombie bites turn a living person into a zombie. Ever since then there has been a constant stream of zombie movies, including the 2004 remake of Romero's "Dawn of the Dead," the "Resident Evil" sequels, [REC], and many others.
I'm not exactly sure why the current obsession with zombies is still going strong (not that I'm complaining.) Vampires, another type of undead, have always been popular but it seems like their popularity waxes and wanes. For instance, vampires became über popular after "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" the series became a success in 1997 and again with the more recent TV series "True Blood" and the horrible "Twilight" books and movies that for some reason are much beloved by many teenage girls. With zombies it seems like there has been an increasing, or at least steady, level of popularity over the past decade.
There are numerous reasons why I love zombies and why I believe others love them as well. One reason is that zombies are known to usually appear in hordes. Even though other fictional creatures may attack in groups at times, none are known for it as much as the walking dead. Zombie movies are thrilling to watch because at some point the characters end up surrounded by an army of undead creatures trying to devour them with escape difficult to nearly impossible. Another reason is that, as previously mentioned, zombie bites (and sometimes scratches) turns a living person into a zombie, which makes combating them extremely dangerous. I believe a bigger reason why zombies are so popular is that zombie stories involve a lot of extreme violence. This society is obsessed with violence, and in a zombie attack someone could justifiably shoot, stab, and bludgeon people. On a side note, one of my aunts, who likes most other science fiction, once told me that she refuses to watch "The Walking Dead" and zombie films because she couldn't stand the idea of people preying on other humans. I hadn't really thought about it that way before since I generally don't think of zombies as still being human.
I believe one of the main reasons a lot of people love zombies isn't so much about the zombies themselves but the strategies people plan to use for survival in case a zombie apocalypse were to occur in real life. I am in the middle of reading "The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead," by Max Brooks. (I'm probably the last zombie enthusiast on the planet to read this book but it's been sitting on my Amazon wish list for the longest time. I finally got around to buying it once I saw that it has a spin-off/sequel/whatever called "World War Z" that is being made into a film starring Brad Pitt.) "The Zombie Survival Guide" is written in the style of a real survival guide that provides information on the best weapons and methods to use when combating or eliminating zombies, the essential items to carry when on the run from zombies, and other topics involved in surviving zombie outbreaks. I'm sure most zombie fans have had the discussion with friends about if, how, or how long they would fare in a zombie apocalypse. An interesting element of the zombie apocalypse is the idea of the breakdown of society. Many zombie stories show how living in an apocalyptic world affects humanity--some people band together during the apocalypse and some turn on others and become as predatory as the zombies that are hungering after them.
In my opinion, the popularity of zombies is at an all time high. "The Walking Dead" is a ratings success going on its third season at the end of this year. Also, several new zombie movies are in production, including another film based on a book titled "Warm Bodies" that actually involves a zombie teen romance in the vein of the "Twilight" series. So no matter what the reasons are for why people adore the undead, society's love of zombie lore clearly isn't going to die down anytime soon.
The most recent zombie craze seems to have begun in the early 2000s and has yet to die down. But zombies have been around for a lot longer, appearing in literature as well as movies such as George A. Romero's Living Dead film series, which are among the most well known zombie fiction. Zombie lore itself originated from West African spiritual and religious practices and the Haitian Voodoo (or Vodou) religion created by African slaves who were brought to Haiti in the 16th century. In the Voodoo religion, zombies were corpses that were mystically reanimated and controlled by a sorcerer or priest known as a bokor.
The 1932 film "White Zombie," considered the first zombie movie, stars Béla Lugosi as a white Haitian Voodoo master that controls a horde of zombies. Redefining zombie lore for modern times, Romero kicked off his previously mentioned Living Dead series when he released "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968. While zombies were previously depicted as creatures that followed the orders of a sorcerer, Romero's breed of zombies had only one goal--devouring human flesh. The 1985 film "The Return of the Living Dead," an offshoot of the Living Dead series not done by Romero, created the popular idea of zombies hungering for human brains.
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| Me with two "zombies" at Baltimore Comic-Con 2011 |
My love of zombie lore didn't begin until spring 2002 when I first saw the horror film "Resident Evil," which would become one of my favorite movies and go on to spawn an awesome franchise (at least in my opinion.) In addition to horror movies, I am also a fan of video games and video game movies so, even though I have yet to play through a "Resident Evil" game, I had to see the movie. "Resident Evil" had serious ghouls that craved flesh, not the silly zombies from my youth that moaned "braaaiiins." Not long after that another movie, "28 Days Later," also brought the scariness back to zombie lore (although the creatures were more like rabid people than zombies, but I won't split hairs.) In both movies the zombie plague--known in extreme cases as a zombie apocalypse--is caused by a viral outbreak, which adds an explanation as to why zombie bites turn a living person into a zombie. Ever since then there has been a constant stream of zombie movies, including the 2004 remake of Romero's "Dawn of the Dead," the "Resident Evil" sequels, [REC], and many others.
I'm not exactly sure why the current obsession with zombies is still going strong (not that I'm complaining.) Vampires, another type of undead, have always been popular but it seems like their popularity waxes and wanes. For instance, vampires became über popular after "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" the series became a success in 1997 and again with the more recent TV series "True Blood" and the horrible "Twilight" books and movies that for some reason are much beloved by many teenage girls. With zombies it seems like there has been an increasing, or at least steady, level of popularity over the past decade.
There are numerous reasons why I love zombies and why I believe others love them as well. One reason is that zombies are known to usually appear in hordes. Even though other fictional creatures may attack in groups at times, none are known for it as much as the walking dead. Zombie movies are thrilling to watch because at some point the characters end up surrounded by an army of undead creatures trying to devour them with escape difficult to nearly impossible. Another reason is that, as previously mentioned, zombie bites (and sometimes scratches) turns a living person into a zombie, which makes combating them extremely dangerous. I believe a bigger reason why zombies are so popular is that zombie stories involve a lot of extreme violence. This society is obsessed with violence, and in a zombie attack someone could justifiably shoot, stab, and bludgeon people. On a side note, one of my aunts, who likes most other science fiction, once told me that she refuses to watch "The Walking Dead" and zombie films because she couldn't stand the idea of people preying on other humans. I hadn't really thought about it that way before since I generally don't think of zombies as still being human.
I believe one of the main reasons a lot of people love zombies isn't so much about the zombies themselves but the strategies people plan to use for survival in case a zombie apocalypse were to occur in real life. I am in the middle of reading "The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead," by Max Brooks. (I'm probably the last zombie enthusiast on the planet to read this book but it's been sitting on my Amazon wish list for the longest time. I finally got around to buying it once I saw that it has a spin-off/sequel/whatever called "World War Z" that is being made into a film starring Brad Pitt.) "The Zombie Survival Guide" is written in the style of a real survival guide that provides information on the best weapons and methods to use when combating or eliminating zombies, the essential items to carry when on the run from zombies, and other topics involved in surviving zombie outbreaks. I'm sure most zombie fans have had the discussion with friends about if, how, or how long they would fare in a zombie apocalypse. An interesting element of the zombie apocalypse is the idea of the breakdown of society. Many zombie stories show how living in an apocalyptic world affects humanity--some people band together during the apocalypse and some turn on others and become as predatory as the zombies that are hungering after them.
In my opinion, the popularity of zombies is at an all time high. "The Walking Dead" is a ratings success going on its third season at the end of this year. Also, several new zombie movies are in production, including another film based on a book titled "Warm Bodies" that actually involves a zombie teen romance in the vein of the "Twilight" series. So no matter what the reasons are for why people adore the undead, society's love of zombie lore clearly isn't going to die down anytime soon.
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