Driving A Zombie Apocalypse

Although the zombies are not as complex of monsters, they are still representative of fears in the

The article “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead,” written by Chuck Klosterman, discusses the reasons behind zombies becoming so popular. Klosterman writes that rise of popularity of zombies is different than that of vampires. He states that most monsters are initially created as representations of fear. Similar to that of Frankenstein or vampires, Klosterman explains that zombies could be viewed in the same light; however, zombies are better explained as an allegory for our day to day existence. Rather than some innate fear, Klosterman highlights this fact to be why zombies have risen to such high popularity.

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.

The article “Dead man still walking: Explaining the zombie renaissance” by Kyle Bishop is about the revitalization of the zombie genre. The article talks about the inception in the late 1960’s, the category of zombie films has had its roller coaster ride of ups and downs, starting with its decline in the early 1980’s with the release of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video. Furthermore, during 1990’s, due to the shift in the cultural consciousness that came with the Clinton Administration and the countries isolation from global tragedies, the popularity of these films continued to decline. Cultural consciousness refers to the understanding and awareness a shift in feelings, sensations, thoughts, of not only our own culture, but adjoining cultures.

Zombies today are more popular than any other movie or television show. Zombies are popular today because most people can relate to them and it ties into our everyday modern life. In the article “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead,” Chuck Klosterman offers insightful commentary on why zombies are so popular.

There has been a resurgence of zombie films in the last decade, ranging from Danny Boyles 28 Days Later to Paul W.S. Andersons Resident Evil. This renaissance of zombie cinema has resurfaced in response to the cultural, political, and social volatility experienced in today’s society, much like its predecessors. A zombie film, unlike other monster movies, plays more with the real-world fears and anxieties, presenting the audience with inescapable realities. However, to understand why this subgenre has been brought back into the mainstream cinema, a comparison is needed across generations of film. This paper will focus on the comparison between George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and Danny Boyles 28 Days Later; in an attempt to show how zombie cinema is a reaction to cultural shocks.

There are many movies and TV shows about zombies that make people want to fear them. This has been an occurrence and they now have a web page full of examples of the time zombies ever came. To support my example, "Noneless, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a "Zombie Preparedness Web Page. " This shows how if there is an apocalypse you can be prepared.

A major contributing factor to this great change is the fear and uncertainty that is instilled by the zombies. I believe that Brooks defined fear through people’s reactions to the outbreak. He explains how fear is the most basic emotion and how fear is the reasoning to perform an act. In one of his stories, he writes, “fear is the most valuable commodity in the universe” (Brooks). This is true because we buy products and services based on the fear of not having those products and the results of not having that commodity.

“Looks like you need some motivation privates!” This one line could strike fear into me and my fellow enlistees in the army. It was a favorite line for our drill sergeants, and for good reason. Fear is a strong motivator. It can be used, and to an extent used positively, for anything from keeping a bunch of 18 year old, wannabe soldiers in line to scaring someone into accepting one’s argument. This is the case in Doug Mann’s Pop Matters article “Our insatiable Techno Zombie Love”; in this article Mann tries to manifest fear in the reader in order to make them believe that America’s recent obsession with the monsters known as zombies is rooted in modern society forfeiting its freedom. Through the use of language that feeds into what terrifies today’s youth culture, Mann is able to make a compelling argument for his idea. By using the powerful political, economic, and social fears adopted by current young adults, Mann works to convince his audience that they are becoming mindless zombies.

Dating back to hundreds of years ago, we feared humans coming back to life. Why do we dig a hole six feet deep, why do we nail the box close, why do we have wakes and funerals for the dead? Because we fear them coming back to get us, either as zombies or ghosts. We tender to fear zombies more because, if we turn into a zombie, we lost ourselves, unlike vampires or werewolves you can still place as human. One can state, Jeffrey Cohen is right, zombies are taboo ad also not individualities. They only have one goal that is to eat. Then looking within us, are we the monsters, are we zombies? We kill zombies because they are not like us anymore, they are robots. Cohen talks about movies like Alien, and how taboo it is. What would the alien done if it killed Ripley, what if The Terminator completed its mission? The Terminator says in the second film that they cannot self-terminate. Would it have live with us? We are looking from the outside because Aliens, The Terminator and even King Kong were never human, they are not

While others, well… not so debunked, but deemed to be anti-government propaganda all the same. After all, when it comes to zombies there can only be one source, right? The corrupt government. And when it comes to the reason the public has been left in the dark about the existence of zombies? Well, that, much like the existence of aliens, would be for our safety. But, as far as any real zombie outbreak was concerned, it never happened. Just a bunch of internet hoaxes produced by pranksters since the birth of the original tale. There was no patient zero, no widespread infection that took over pockets of Massachusetts and the northeastern seaboard, no living dead rose to attack and consume the living. Zombies forever were to remain a figment of Hollywood’s

Zombie movies still representing a common fear that impact people around, and even the fear of today’s media. One thing we all realized that over the last decade the modest zombies began to appear in comic books, video games, and television shows that changed the perspective of this phenomenon. It is particularly an infection not a magic spell that was found by a myth, or a superstation, it is basically understand as a disease. As a society we do have a better understanding of disease and infections, which makes zombie the perfect fit in this template to our understanding of their appearance, and make us obsessed with knowing more about their

First it was vampires, now it seems as though American culture is obsessed with zombies. Countless movies and television shows have premiered centered around these undead beings, but one seems to be the most prevalent. The Walking Dead is based on the ongoing comic book series written by Robert Kirkman. This horror drama plays on AMC, a channel known for it’s darker, and also extremely popular shows such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Killing. The show, which is currently finishing it’s sixth season, is the most popular show on television bringing in over 22 million viewers each week. An in depth look into the content of the show proves that it’s popularity is well deserved, and that it is not just another gory addition to the zombie genre.

Is it possible to kill an idea when it is undead? Classic movie monsters tend to fade in and out of popularity as audiences grow bored and move on to fresher concepts. But there is one that has risen up and does not seem to slow down: zombies. Zombies have gone from being a small subgenre of horror film to a staple of popular culture across various media. This paper will explore the rise of zombies in popular culture and why it continues to remain relevant.

In the modern movie genre, horror movies accounts for very great proportion of the number of followers. Relevantly, the zombie film genre has been developed into a dominant part of mainstream horror, replacing the previous monster such as vampires and werewolves. In Max Brooks’s essay “The Movies That Rose From the Grave”, he offers his opinion that throughout the process of zombie film transformation, it increasingly captivates viewers while gradually generates the modern horror. Brooks’s essay should be an appropriate inclusion of a college textbook which explains the phenomenon of the “undead explosion” in various kinds of media, proving to the audiences with enthusiasm, interest, credibility and specific examples that zombie culture is resurrecting a formerly obsolete genre.