I was a late bloomer when it came to knowledge of zombies. Well, late in the sense that I hadn’t noticed zombies in pop culture, not late in the sense that zombies had taken over. At least I hope the movies didn’t have real zombies acting like zombies, or else the world as we know it would be in a whole lot of trouble.
The undead are everywhere in popular culture. Zombies appear in video games such as Doom, Zelda and Left 4 Dead. They are in movies like 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, and Zombieland. They are in books like those of Max Brooks. However, I am no expert when it comes to everything that zombies are in, just what has caught my attention.
Zombies in popular culture first caught my attention when I saw Zombieland on opening night. Zombieland is a movie based in a post-apocalyptic world that has been torn apart by the undead. The story follows a college student who follows a list of rules in order to survive. He meets three other survivors, and they stick together in order to survive. Each of them find something that they have been looking for, Columbus, the main character, found love, Tallahassee finds a new family, Wichita and Little Rock find people they can trust.
Before Zombieland, I hadn’t really thought about the importance of zombie survival in a humorous yet informative way. Sure, while there was Shaun of the Dead, it didn’t have much information on how to survive a zombie attack. Zombieland has raised awareness in popular culture of the need for a zombie survival plan. What if zombies threatened the well being of humanity, and what if I wasn’t prepared? Well, luckily there happens to be a list of things that I need to keep in mind, and I will be better off.
With the simple to follow r...
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...onds. Jim followed these rules, and him and two others survived until the end.
In Shaun of the Dead, there is a group of seven survivors that try going to a safe place. On the television, a broadcaster said two rules, “the assailants can be stopped by removing the head or destroying the brain,” and “the home office issued a statement urging people to stay in their homes” However, Shaun and his group ignore the second rule and in the end the group boiled down to two survivors. But if they followed the rules, more from the group may have survived.
Zombieland, when compared to the movies before its time, has a lot of simple rules that are easy to remember in a desperate time. These rules have been absorbed in to the minds of normal people who wouldn’t normally read a survival hand guide. But these rules are important and they can keep you alive if followed properly.
Torie Boschs “First eat all the lawyers” appeared in Slate october 2011. Her piece was to reach out to horror fans and to explain to them why zombies are a great monsters in current media. Zombie fanatics who read this short essay will love her vast knowledge of zombies while others who still do not understand why zombies are horribly terrifying can get behind her argument. Bosch explains that the current zombie craze has to do with our current society and how white-collar workers would be left defenceless in a world over run with a rampant horde of zombies. While blue-collar workers can flourish in this current state as they have more skills suited for survival.
In the article "Movies that Rose from the Grave" by Max Brooks, he delves deeper into the reasoning of where, why, and when zombie horror flicks
Max Brooks explains in his article ‘’The Movies That Rose From The Grave’’ [2006], that zombies and the supernatural forces have impacted and have become popular in the world today. The first main idea that Brooks points out is the way society has changed the meaning and glimpse for the supernatural creatures like zombies causing them to become increasingly popular. To support this zombie movies have changed from darkness and mystery to violent and bloodier scenes therefore making them more prevailing. The second main idea that is discussed by Brooks is how the media has helped to increase the popularity of zombies, vampires, ghosts. Highlighted by the author particularity both ‘’resident evil,
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
As said in the previous discussion regarding the second chapter of Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human, zombies and their culture are examined and broken down in order to understand their motives for the progression of zombies globally. Through different perspectives from individuals based around the world, the discussion of the zombie culture debates over the idea that zombies have not just evolved within the narratives that have brought them to life, but they have evolved in such a way that ultimately transforms the narrative itself. However, in this specific chapter, “They are not men.they are dead bodies!” : From Cannibal to Zombie and Back Again, Chera Kee breaks down the introduction of zombies into mainstream consciousness, and eventually cinema.
Stop! Do not head for the road It is safer to stay in your houses because no matter what the dead will be coming and there is no escaping. Try to be as close as you can to a town so you can get supplies. Zombie proofing your home is the first thing you should do. When Zombie proofing your home, the ideal item would be wood. Board up every window and set traps outside and inside your home. The traps would trap the dead and tell you if they are coming. The absolute safest place to be is in an abandoned prison. Although prison is designed to keep the living inside it is the ideal to keep the dead out. It already have top notch security and a kitchen. Wherever you are try to stay safe and not draw attention to
Do you ever wonder what you would do if you were being chased by a zombie? Last October on the weekend before Halloween, I got to find out the answer to that very important question. My friends Ashley, Anna, Vikram, and I decided to go to the Great America Fright Fest. It’s a very unique event where the whole park is decorated for halloween and filled with lots of scary attractions for the entire month. It had been a sweltering day for late October filled with lots of cotton candy and rollercoasters, and as the sun sank lower into the sky the real fun began.
“Zombie killings are similar to reading and deleting 400 work e-mails on a Monday morning or filling out paperwork that only generates more paperwork, or following Twitter gossip out of obligation, or performing tedious tasks in which the only true risk is being consumed by avalanche” (41). These are all similar to zombie killings because zombies will never go away unless you turn to really harsh tactics like aiming for one’s brain with a shot gun and repeating this for every zombie you come in contact with. In order to clear those 400 emails after reading them you must repeat the steps for each and every one, which is time consuming and can be very frustrating. Completing paperwork is very tedious, and can sometimes become overwhelming you may begin to feel as if it will never end which is common well it can feel similar to that when it comes to zombie killings as well because there will be one zombie followed by another one and many more to come. “Battling zombies is like battling anything….. Or everything” (42). Never assume the war is over because it is not, there will be one or more zombies hiding out, the war is never over. “The zombies you kill today will merely be replaced by the zombies of tomorrow” (44). Zombies are a “live-stock” they are brain dead but they travel in packs and have no limit as to how far they will go. In the movie Dawn of the Dead the zombies actually
Zombies have become very popular due to their depictions of being easy to kill and being communal. Zombie apocalypses are also very relatable due to the fact that they are set in lives similar to our society and seem easy to overcome. Zombies, themselves, can be identified with because we see ourselves when we look at a zombie. Zombies drudge on through the same task of finding human flesh to consume every day just like we drag ourselves to either class or our job in order to sit through another boring lecture or perform the same menial task every day. Just like the zombie, R, in the book, Warm Bodies, said, “I am Dead, but it’s not so bad. I’ve learned to live with it,” we have learned to succumb to our daily routines and just live with
Kirkman describes zombies as an infectious horror in order to establish a close relationship between zombies and contagions. One of the The Walking Dead’s most brilliant successes has been the characterization of the zombies , and it may be the secret of their popularity. In his book, The Walking Dead, Kirkman
Night of the Living Dead represents more complex issues such as race, politics, and war and Ben was fighting the undead not just for himself, but also for the good of the collective. The 60s sparked a counter-culture that grew and spread throughout the Western world and according to the book by historian Terry Anderson titled “The Movements and the Sixties;” “ [t]he aggregate movement gained momentum as the Civil Rights Movement continued to grow, and would later become revolutionary with the expansion of the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam” (Anderson, 254). The film emerged from the some of the most turbulent years in American history and Night of the Living Dead becomes the embodiment of the cultural revolution of the 1960s. Shaun of the Dead, on the other hand, embodies a more individualistic and narcissistic society. You can even say that characters portrayed in the film are socially unaware. Shaun and his friends do not seem to care about issues such as social injustices, politics or war. They take an active role of ignorance and entitlement and are apathetic towards causes outside the individual. Just as the Vietnam War was happening in 1968, the war in Iraq was happening in 2004, but the government no longer enforces the draft system (which is a positive change), and enlisting to fight for your country has become a voluntary decision of the individual. Our generation’s narcissistic and selfish behavior can perhaps be attributed to the idea that social issues are no longer dire than that of our personal responsibilities such as having a job, raising children, the day-to-day activity that consumes all our energy. Who wants to think about police brutality when a
Brains. Must have brains. There are a lot of far-fetched scenes that horror movies have filled in our heads over the years. Many elements of fiction have created varying degrees of panic, more so since the emergence of the false “Based on a True Story” label. There is one terrifying creature once thought to be fictitious that has recently gained popularity in the media as well as news channels around the world. A situation that would have negative global effects far worse than any other natural disaster previously experienced. But just what is this violent biological phenomenon that has people taking a second look at our understanding of pathogens and the effects of chemicals on biological organisms, you may ask. The simple answer is the very real possibility of a zombie outbreak. Zombies are a misunderstood being. The definition that used to be applied is that of a once living being revived from a posthumous state with a nasty appetite for flesh. However, the new definition of zombie is that which is being evaluated as an eminent fear. Zombies are widely accepted, currently, as a being that has been subjected to a biological change that incites rage, neurological defects and an enormous appetite for meat. Many factors contribute to zombies being considered a realistic threat to life as we know it; including but not limited to chemical products consumed by humans as well as viral infections with effects not previously researched in depth. Biotechnology is our best defense against our closest neighbors.
You don’t want to die alone now do you? Grab a partner or a friend as a meat shield so you can run away while they stand there getting slaughtered. Make sure you find some shelter and a nice secure door so they won’t be able to get in because zombies love breaking the doors down. If you’ve lost your mind because you’re not smart, you might hide in a house and be scared to death. Use your brain and go out there! Your brain might not be the most powerful tool for fighting, but you might’ve been dead before you could even fight with your brain. Fight ‘till every last zombie has died or until you died because your brain probably won’t help you at all with math equations, and writing essays because that’s not the point in the zombie
Mass amounts of people will die, families will be separated, and peaceful ways of life will be long gone. Guard your loved ones, board up your windows and keep your gun under your pillow because you’re gonna need it. I have taught the facts, the opinions, and the theories on the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. I have explained with facts and statistics the ramifications of it if it was to happen, the way and speed at which it can spread, and the cruelty that will follow. You can protect yourself and the ones closest to you, but first you have to believe it.
George A. Romero, the director of Night of the Living Dead accidently created the zombie genre that we are familiar with today. Night of the Living Dead reshaped the entire genre with its bitter realism. Romero established verisimilitude unintentionally by focusing on how people react to crisis. The first zombie movies relied on semi-terrifying dress codes (of their time) and the conventional diegetic scream of a female. Whereas Romero’s film is an interpretation of humankind’s collapse. Romero drew inspiration from the infamous Vietnam War spiralling at the time and the American civil war. The verisimilitude lies within the human condition in dire times, like war. Therefore, in the Night of the Living Dead the zombie/ghoul stands as a symbol for the enemy contriving those dire times. This consequently makes the genre actually terrifying because representations have altered. Zombies are no longer an otherworldly or scientific monster e.g. White Zombie but a