Produced by Val Lewton, I Walked with a Zombie is a film directed by Jacques Tourneur in 1943. I Walked with a Zombie, is a tale told in a suspenseful style which incorporates the usage of light and shadow instead of many special effects to portray a scary, compelling, and engaging story. Val Lewton described the film “a West Indian version of Jan Eyre,” with its abnormal first wife, its noble suffering husband, and its selfless nurse who becomes wife number two. The film is similar to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, in which a young Canadian nurse named Betsy Connell heads to the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian to look after the unconscious wife (Jessica Holland) of a major sugar plantation owner named Paul Holland. Betsy’s …show more content…
At the same time, the outbreak of the Second World War threatened to devastate Hollywood’s vital overseas trade. The studios’ exports to the Axis nations (Germany, Italy, and Japan) declined to almost nothing in 1937-38, but still Hollywood borrowed roughly one-third of its total revenues from overseas markets. The primary oversees client was Europe, which supplied about 75 percent if the studio 's foreign income in 1939. However, the European markets were severely disrupted by the outbreak of war in September 1939 and continued to decline as fighting continued in Europe. The war in Europe resulted in the US government to initiate a massive military and defense buildup, which had tremendous effects on the movie industry. Hollywood played it safe by producing a few war-related features in 1940, however, focused mostly on newsreels and documentary shorts of the war. Hollywood, in order to increase demand on top featured films, turned to independent producers in the early 1940s. The most aggressive studio to adopt major independent productions was RKO. RKO had over a dozen independent unit productions under way in 1940.
Val Lewton’s Influence on Horror Films during the 1940s
During the 1940s it was Val Lewton’s unit at RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures which carried the horror
What makes us alive and what makes the zombies dead or undead? Well it all has to with neuroscience and most importantly the brain. The biggest question is what the requirements of life are? The requirements are the process to maintain homeostasis and the ability to adapt to changes. Do zombies maintain homeostasis for the undead couldn’t cause of the decay wouldn’t be able to because it couldn’t respond to change in the environment and don’t the ability to heal or repair. Unlike the livening dead would be able to adjust to the changes also could maintain the in the internal environment.
The zombie argument presents an idea meant to prove that consciousness doesn’t necessarily logically supervene on the physical. In this example there exists a zombie, defined as “someone or something physically identical to me ( or any other conscious being) but lacking conscious experiences altogether.” (Chalmers,94) Zombie world is then defined as “a world physically identical to ours,but in which there are no conscious experiences at all. In such a world, everyone is a zombie.” (Chalmers, 94) In this idea, only “phenomenal zombies” are to be considered meaning zombies that are “physically and functionally identical ( as us) , but which lack experience” (Chalmers 95) There are five main arguments that stand behind this idea, the first two being ideas regarding conceivability, the second two arguments of epistemology and the fifth and argument of analysis.
In 1929, the American stock market crashed. The economy was crushed, leaving millions of Americans hopeless, scared, and vulnerable. The Great Depression had a huge impact on the culture at the time. The fears they faced were usually portrayed through literature, art and movies during that time period. In the 1932 film White Zombie, Halperin uses the metaphor of a monster to show how our biggest fears come from the actions others are capable of.
Zombies have been a pop culture icon for years. Whether it be video games like Call of Duty or making people feel nervous for a potential zombie apocalypse, the zombie has become one of the most recognizable pop culture figures. The rise of zombies as a frightening creature can be related a real-world issue. In this essay I will dispute that zombies have changed over time and that there is a distinct connection between the way zombies are portrayed and the way the world looks at the lower economic class.
The day started like that of any other these last couple of weeks. Mysterious incidents kept popping up in the news, of small groups going mad and becoming savage. Life was like that in Lampeter. Very little going on in town, whilst the whole world around us lives with a constant stream of danger. Some people were getting worried, afraid it was some sort of virus going around, but that happens all the time. One small case of a disease and the world’s in an epidemic. Happened with bird flu, E-coli, and we had just got over the joys of swine flu. Now this. Some people were becoming wary, uneasy around other people, fears of catching this mystery virus afflicting the nation and forcing its way into people’s minds. The unfortunate thing was,
Zombies aren’t supposed to exist. But what if they do, and we interact with them every day? Chuck Klosterman’s essay, “My Zombie, Myself”, compares everyday life to the task of killing zombies. Through elaborate metaphors, quotes from zombie experts, and a strong call to action, he successfully appeals to pathos, ethos and logos to convince his readers. Klosterman argues that even though modern life is monotonous, it is possible to escape the monotony.
Imagine, if you will, a brisk night wind coming fast across a lake carrying a pungent smell, something you can’t quite identify, but is nonetheless familiar enough to send a shiver up your spine. As it hits the trees, they creak out a somber call in the still night air. Or was that groan something more…human? You notice, for the first time, the absence of tires humming on pavement and you wonder if it’s that late, or maybe just a slow night. The soft tapping of your shoes on the sidewalk is the only accompaniment your slow breathing has as you move towards the warmth of your home, holding thoughts of a warm bed in the palm of your hand to keep the chill away. You don’t notice at first, perhaps because the reality of what you’re hearing is
From video games like Fortnite, to social media apps like Instagram, to search engines like Google, modern day technology has become readily accessible to people of all ages. By relying on technology every day for the smallest of reasons, people have become brain dead and unable to think for themselves. In response to this growth of technology, Chuck Klosterman in My Zombie, Myself attempts to convince his audience that to fight against the wave of technology, just how one would fight against a wave of zombies. Klosterman claims that the reason why zombies are attracting so much attention is because of how relatable they are to modern day lives, where killing hordes of zombies is similar to deleting hundreds of emails or following social media
In “vampires never die” Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan use technology advancement to explain the creation of vampires, also using mixed vocabulary and expressions to explain a more serious tone. On the other hand, James Parker uses the development of the modern zombie to explain the stereotype of these creatures in his article “Our Zombies, Ourselves,” while using more playful expressions to show his tone. These three authors seem to have the same concepts while writing about these monsters, but still disagreeing on some points. While there are some key differences in these two articles, they are similar in many ways also. All three authors agree and disagree on several points, such as they both appeal to more intellectual audiences, and they both write about conformity with the want to fit in, while disagreeing on what they use to explain their monster’s general idea.
AHHHHhhhhhh........! Imagine being awakened by a soft, distance scream. Wide awake, the world returns to being silent except for a racing heartbeat. Suddenly, a soft resonating moan starts to fill the empty air of the bedroom. Looking out the window, the world is an eerie grey with nothing moving but the occasional garbage blowing in the wind. Suddenly the horizon begins to change as a crowd of people begin to emerge. Watching nervously, the figures get closer and turn into something much more menacing. They are all disease-invested, flesh-rotted, brain-hungry zombies! Where did these undead monsters come from? How do they survive? What
When analyzing this piece of writing it is clear that the purpose is not to entertain or persuade. The purpose, instead, is to inform and give a new perspective on zombie movies in a simple way that an audience of all ages can understand. In Andrew Cooper and Brandy Blake’s, “George Romero Zombie Films: A Plague of Meaning,” the authors walk the reader through how as time changed zombie movies changed with it. The authors further explain how zombies in many movies represent the time and culture. The writers inform the reader through their use of information from past zombie movies and analysis of the events of the times they were made.
Rodney Clapp, writer, editor for Wipf and Stock Publishers and expert in topics such as theology and culture, in the article, “Attack of the Zombies”, argues that many things in life are beginning to resemble zombies. Clapp assumes that the audience also views zombies as lifeless creatures that go around spreading their disease. The author’s purpose is to persuade the audience to believe that many things they see today are starting to resemble zombies. The author writes in a challenging tone for people who question the similarity of zombies to every day life. Clapp supports his argument by comparing and contrasting, and exemplification.
In the modern world, media outlets and pop culture constantly revive the idea of zombies taking over human society. From The Walking Dead to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” zombies are portrayed as slow-moving living-dead creatures shown in mass amounts to create the idea of consumption. While this monster as it is depicted in movies and television shows is nonexistent, there are living zombies walking the surface every day. They hide in the shadows of town and often only wear the clothes on their back. They spend every day trying to survive with the little amount of money they can scavenge. Money to them acts as the cure to help them get the necessary resources they need. Many people in this nation and across the world are categorized as living under the poverty line. The spectrum of people ranges from homeless and sleeping on the streets to large families settling in garage-sized apartments. Even when taking out of consideration the similarities in physical appearance, zombies are an accurate representation of the major issue of poverty in today’s society due to the instant eeriness that the stereotypes of both subjects represent and the idea that the poor are unable to receive the necessary health treatments.
The zombie was a human some time in its life, which makes them closer to humans, and creates a less lethal view among them. The zombie does not have the same intelligence or agility as a human, but they have the ability to transit anywhere a human can transit, without daylight being a problem. Once people are converted into zombies they lose all their affection towards family members. They turn into a different creature, making them lethal. Sunlight will not affect a zombie compared to a vampire but that does not make the zombie more lethal. Vampires on the opposite side they only have the human corporal shape similar to that of a human. The only resemblance that a vampire has with a human is that humans are the prey and vampires the predator in the food chain. They do not have anything in common with humans, which makes vampires feel no remorse when killing a human. Overall vampire and humans do not sympathize. That makes the vampire a more lethal monster than the zombie, seemed from the relationship that they have with
The year is 1977 in El Salvador, a time of deep public and political unrest, where injustices are high among the people and there exists a great divide between the rich and the poor, it is during this time that the Vatican elevated Oscar Romero to the position of Arch Bishop of San Salvador. Romero is elevated in hopes that with his quite, passive demurer and diminishing health that he would accept the status quo and not cause a military dispute; however, much to everyone’s surprise, Romero became the voice of the poor and took a stand against the exiguous government and hostile military, which begin to target priests. Romero was passive at first, afraid of government’s hostility, but over time, he did not give up on his people and was