James Parker essay “Our Zombies, Ourselves,” informs readers that the zombie has almost outranked the vampire, and why they’re so popular. This undead monster originated from a Caribbean folk nightmare and was adapted over time by, the Halperin brothers, William Seabrook and George Romero and numerous others. Much like the vampire, zombies owe their fame to the progressiveness of technology, allowing them to consistently invade various media forms. The zombie has infested countless tv shows, movies, video games, and books, throughout the 21st century. Zombies themselves are soulless corpses who were regurgitated back into the world of the living. This making them rejects from the underworld, this presents the zombie as rejected yet inexpungable. What makes the zombie so popular, however, is that symbolizes everything that is rejected by humanity. “Much can be made of him, because he makes so little of himself. He comes back, He comes back, feebly but unstoppably” (Parker). The zombie represents humanity itself as well as what is rejected by humanity. Much like individuals today, the zombie is burdened by life’s demands, converting to nothing but a rotting, groaning human shell that stumbles through life without a purpose. The zombie is symbolizer of the real world, and all things irrepressible, whereas the vampire is a symbol of an alternate world and all things
Directors have proposed multiple theories on the origins of the zombie apocalypse throughout zombie history. Such theories range from the traditional Vodoun theory (White Zombie) to the cosmic radiation theory (Dawn of the Dead). In this scenario, zombies originate in China and come to the United States as Barbie Zombies from the Mattel Xin Yi Factory ("Toys of Misery” 2007). Barre Toelken’s Twin Laws of Folklore dissect the dynamic and conservative aspects of the Zombie Barbie. Such aspects include the master versus slave relationship, materialistic/consumerist life styles, subjectivity and the ideal of pleonexia. Films, such as Halperin’s White Zombie, have an obvious slave and master: the exotic natives and bokor, respectively. Conservatively speaking, the concept of master versus slave applies to this scenario. The materialism of the consumers puts them in the position of the slave, with producers acting as their master.
During George Romero’s interview with Steven Mackenzie, Romero was asked for his opinions on why zombies are trending (James, 2013). Romero’s opinions are “they are hot and they have become a huge business, economic engine” (James, 2013). Romero is acknowledged as the “father of zombies” ;therefore, Mackenzie asks his opinion on how he feels about his nickname. Romero answers this question by criticizing Brooks’s film stating, “The walking dead is just a soap opera with the occasional zombie and I did not want any part of it” (James, 2013). Romero states in his interview that in his films he has never called these undead creatures “zombies.” He simply calls zombies people rising from the dead (James, 2013). Romero does not believe zombies are able to run; he says the zombies in World War Z move like “army ants” (James, 2013). Romero’s best known movie, Night of the Living Dead, frustrated many people. Romero responded, “if no...
White Zombie and “Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields” are both works that portray the zombie as a mindless creature, however they both have different reasons for the zombies being there. Both of these works contained social and political references to the time period that they were made in. Both works were meant to scare people, however they did it by playing on different fears.
ur identity is built upon our own memories and with those memories we can construct ourselves. Throughout the Walking Dead, we see that zombies are portrayed as nothing more than hollowed and grotesque version of people that had existed from a different time. They may retain some familiar human appearance such as having hair and clothing, but the part that made them mentally human died when the virus inserted the body. Their memories are gone, their sense of self has faded, and all that remains is the everlasting need to feast on anything that moves.
In recent years, there have been a plethora of film releases that pertain to the central topic of zombies. Typically “zombies thrive in popular culture during times of recession, epidemic and general unhappiness” (Drezner). Zombie films began around the 1920’s, and continue to fill modern day theatres. These films, although dramatized for entertainment, are something that truly could, and have, occurred. These films have been modernized, in order to fit the desires and demands of a modern-day audience, and therefore are tremendously different from their original zombie-film counterparts.
Did you know that the word zombies come from African and Haitian people? From the legends regarding voodoo doctors that they believe used to and might still do. Bring back the dead for a short amount of time and turn the to mindless slaves. That will follow their every order with no hesitation. Which is actually like the walkers are doing in the Walking Dead but they weren't raised from the dead. I mean they were but not literally the virus brought them back, not a person. Same goes for Kitchenette Building the speaker is not a zombie or a walker but she might as well be. The fact that she continues to live a life she doesn't want and doesn’t make changes to fix it. She just continues to do the same thing every day that, I bet anybody
Herbert West – Reanimator explores yet another tale of dead bodies rising from the grave and terrorizing humans mostly in part due to human, scientific interference. For the reanimated, they have no morality so they are awoken with somewhat of an animalistic instinct. Without a soul they do not have feelings and in the case of Herbert West – Reanimator, they knew exactly what they wanted – brains and flesh. "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Herbert West – Reanimator introduces us to the zombie, a monstrous and powerful modern day character that has set the stage for hundreds of stories and movies.
Rising dead who regain their ability to move and have an unquenchable appetite for human flesh have been central characters in successful movies, books and serialized TV shows. Some of the most successful include Dawn of the Dead and World War Z. In World War Z, a pseudo-memoire novel by Max Brooks, several interviews take place in a post-war setting. Brooks perceives a satirical social commentary on consumerism through one of her story protagonists named Mary Jo Miller, an upper middle-class wife and mother of two children residing in Troy, Montana of U.S. This paper will criticize consumerism in an economic sense and how it relates to George Andrew Romero’s work -an American-Canadian film producer best known for his series of satirical horror films about zombie apocalypse- in the ways that his concerns about consumerism can be the most easily persuaded from his Dawn of the Dead. In Dawn of the Dead, a group of middle-class survivors make a stand in the mall and immediately kill and remove all the zombies in it in order to facilitate their way to shop. As addressed in Dead Man Stil...
Romero here is not only criticizing our rampant consumerism (see Figures 1 and 2), but he is also connecting that lifestyle to some kind of cosmic punishment. If hell is full, then a lot of people have been damned for their misdeeds. The zombie plague becomes a kind of punishment for our rampant moral failures, both large and small. This point is driven home through the mimicry of zombies; what they do is not that different from what we do, but we recognize the monstrosity of the action more easily when it is done by a monster.