Zombie Horror

I didn't talk about zombies in my post about the archetypes of monsters because I thought that zombies would need their own post to discuss. The Cultural Phenomenon Obviously, zombie horror is huge right now. I thought it was going to be a fad, but it's turned into a fashion. From zombie movies, to zombie comics, to zombie video games, to zombie boardgames, and zombie roleplaying games...there seems to be no limit as to where this trend will end. I guess the resurgence really started with 28 Days Later, which came out in 2002. It's one of my personal favorite horror movies. But hot on the tails of 28 Days was the remake of Dawn of the Dead in 2004 which got great critical acclaim as well as serious dollars at the box office. Also, in 2004 was Shaun of the Dead which not only drew great critical acclaim but also launched Simon Pegg's career as an old-ball character actor. I'm going to also mention The Walking Dead comic book, which came out in 2003, because it is so critically acclaimed and so influential. The Walking Dead is a comic that is read by people who write comics. And - it's pretty damn good. The fact that these really well-done zombie movies were released in such a short period of time really tells us something - the whole zombie genre was simply simmering in the water. The kids who watched the George Romero zombie movies growing up were now finally in positions of power. They were writers, directors, and producers, and so they brought back something from their youth that they enjoyed. And the response was overwhelming on two levels - they got a tremendous response from the people who remembered the old zombie flicks of yore and from a whole new generation who experienced zombie horror for the first time. All I have to say is: Go Gen X. In any case, there can be no denying that zombie horror has become something of a phenomenon. There's a ZombieCon in Manhattan. Watch that here. There's an incredible fansite for zombie fans, and an extensive site based on All Things Zombie which discusses everything you wanted to know about zombies - from movies, to books, to games. There's even something called Revenant Magazine, which is a whole damn magazine on zombies and horror. So, I say again - it's in the water. The Secret Behind the Horror What makes a really good zombie movie interesting is that a truly good zombie movie, in and of itself is not a straight-up horror movie. Most zombie movies are disaster movies disguised as a horror movie. Like all disaster movies, zombie movies usually feature a cast of disparate characters who are thrown together under extraordinary circumstances. The characters are then forced into a situation where they must combat an elemental force (in this case a horde of the walking dead) in order to survive. Just like in a disaster movie, you know going into a zombie movie that everyone's not going to make it, and often the story becomes one of attrition, where characters are lost throughout the story. What makes a zombie or disaster story interesting is that you have a perfect excuse to throw interesting characters together and have them interact with each other. Often times, the characters will turn on each other, because the desperate situation has in turn made the characters in the story desperate. The idea of desperate characters facing a desperate situation is one of the things that makes the zombie movie so interesting to me - it becomes an convenient vehicle to do interesting character studies during the narrative. After all, when faced with a dire situation, often our civilized facades fall away, and our true natures emerge. Going along with the idea of losing our civility...one strong theme zombie movies is the idea of the breakdown of humanity. That when faced with truly desperate situations, humanity turns upon itself. The reason this theme is so compelling is that behind it lies the inexorable message: "The zombies aren't the true monsters. We are." The reason, of course, that this theme is so compelling is that it's very difficult for us to look in the mirror and see that the true horror is us. All for now - I'll be back later with the intricacies of why zombies are scary.