This blog entry is of course referring to zombies. Those creepy, decaying, unthinking beings whose favorite fast food us, the living.
Pop culture has truly been taken over by a zombie outbreak, but instead of running from these flesh eating monsters on our t.v. screens, we embrace them with open arms.
There may be a few reasons for our new found love of the decaying, bitey dead. My own hypothesis reflects on the reason we have names for monsters in the first place; a fear without a name and face is undefeatable and therefor terrifying. So we name our fears and call them monsters, because monsters we can confront, defeat and destroy.
We can not confront death.
We can not defeat the pain of losing our loved ones.
We can not destroy all the diseases that weaken us and take our loved ones.
Right now, some of our biggest fears involve disease, outbreaks, pandemics. That's what scares us right now. Not long ago news of Swine flu had people running to the doctors for flu shots. Before that we dreaded the bird flu, and it seems there's always one more disease or pathogen for us to catch.
So I believe that to quiet these fears, we use zombies.
This wasn't always the case, as zombie movies started out with zombies rising from the dead because of a strange space dust that reanimated the dead. One such movie was Night of the Living Dead, a 1968 black and white American film where the dead came back to life from space dust that came off of a satellite returning from Venus. This is in line with the Space Race going on at the time between the United States and the Soviet Union, where the fears of what lies in space were lurking in the minds of people at the time.
A fun zombie history side note: Zombies get their origins from Haiti, where voodoo witch doctors used specific drugs to make a person seem dead. Their mouths were sewn shut so they could not talk, and they were burried. Then these supposedly dead people were "brought back to life" when the drug wore off. There is one movie, called White Zombie made in 1932. It stars Bela Lugosi (Famous for playing Dracula) and is one of the few movies that reflects on these true origins of zombies.
Zombie movies have evolved and changed from Haitian voodoo, to space dust, to currently having a pandemic cause.
The cause of zombie popularity aside, there are a lot of reasons to enjoy these monsters. They can be slow or fast, they can retain some of their humanity (as we see a little bit of in Shaun of the Dead) or they can become truly monstrous (like the zombies in 28 weeks later). They might be loved ones, who are painful to face and destroy, or they may be those we hated in life, and we finally have justification for giving them their "just due."
It's strangely fun to imagine how we might react in a zombie apocalypse how would you stay alive, where would you go that's "safe" and what weapons you might carry around.
There are Zombie preparedness kits being sold on Amazon.com, websites dedicated to preparing for a zombie apocalypse, and there are even people out there with entire actions plans written out for such an event.
Some top shows and movies I recommend for zombie lovers:
-The Walking Dead (T.V. series)
This show is a little slow moving at first, and some might even say that there's more arguing than zombies. This may be especially true in the second season, but I think the show is addicting and engaging enough to watch despite that. I have also heard many rave reviews for the comic book, and though I have not yet gotten a hold of it myself, it looks like a great read.
-Shaun of the Dead 2004.
This movie takes a more humorous take on the zombie pandemic, but still holds some serious overtones. Being a fan of Simon Pegg I am more biased to like this movie, but even if you are somehow not a fan of his, the movie is still worth watching.
-Fido 2006
This movie seems to be pretty unknown, but it's one of the best zombie movie's I've seen. Despite being a newer movie it uses the old premise of why the dead came back to life; space dust. I think this makes sense because the movie takes place in the town of Willard, which is a reference to the 1968 Night of the Living Dead movie. The movie has a 50's feel, and instead of being chased by zombies, these zombies have been tamed by Zomcom.
-Night of the Living Dead 1968
This black and white movie is a classic, and might be one of the movies that really made zombies popular. The famous line "They're coming to get you, Barbara" is from this movie. Even if you don't like old movies, I still suggest watching this. Watch it with friends and make fun of it if you need to, because it can be a little slow, and the special effects just aren't what they are today...but if you like zombies, at least once in your life you should watch this classic movie.
-Zombieland 2009
This movie is like Shaun of the dead, in having both serious and comedic overtones. I don't think the cause of the dead rising is explained in this movie, but at this point we all know what zombies are and what they want. Brains. Who cares what caused them?
These movies happen to strike a special cord with me, but there are many other good zombie movies worth watching that I haven't mentioned. (I am, admittedly new to the world of zombies).
I recently came across this exceptional short film about a father and his daughter in the zombie apocalypse. It's very emotional so you may have to prepare yourself for tears.
Note: I do not own this short video, I just thought it was amazing and wanted to share!
http://io9.com/one-of-the-most-beautiful-things-was-the-balloon-for-471095083
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