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.
No book has captivated the zombie apocalypse better than World War Z. Max Brooks creatively presents “a worldwide zombie pandemic from outbreak to aftermath” (Boyd, Tristan). His book encompasses many social and political themes in the world today. The book
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
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.
Continuing on, zombies have had a huge pop culture impact on the world. The peak popularity time of zombies every year is undoubtedly the month of October as Halloween approaches. During the Halloween season many zombie movies, books, video games, etc. are released and a lot of them have a major “hype” factor around them. For example, the popular video game series “Call of Duty” tends to
Ever since the first zombie movie was created in 1932, there has been a constant rise of zombie appearances in popular media. Like with all monsters, the majority of zombie media aimed to represent a certain aspect throughout the society in question. Whereas vampires represented romanticism and Dracula represented how
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.
The Life of a Zombie 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.
Are brains connect zombies with the end to modern society. Today in modern times everyone is dependent of technology and are society, that going away is terrifying. It terrifies me thinking about having my life taken away from me. I don't want to to give up my minute rice, 24/7 TV, and double stuff Oreos. And I'm sure everyone feels the same way. How we live is like a old sweater we constantly wear and the dryer is like the zombies, you can picture your sweater being destroyed by the dryer. I know it's a strange metaphor, but for some reason it seems to fit. Zombies represent are ever present fear of destruction and fear of evil taking over the living and the dead. In a way when you kill a zombie it's still technically a human body, so really your afraid of other people and even yourself. If you turn you would hurt other people, become a monster that you were afraid of. Becoming what you fear is a huge them when it comes to zombies, assuming that the zombies are the type that can turn you of course. As I once said before, zombies are associated with destruction which can also be taken as a sign of disapproval of
During the atomic age, the zombie was born, as a new monster that resembled Cold War anxieties. One of the most known fears was the fear of the spread of communism in the United States that would "[turn] citizens into mindless hordes." Nowadays, zombies have developed and are not stupid and slow as shown in the first zombie movies, but they are smart and fast today. The perfect killing machines. Zombies can be compared to "terrorist sects and sleeper cells [...]" (66). The zombie walked represents insecurity in a culture, about "who we are, who the enemy is, and whether s/he is us." The zombie walk helps participants to express their feelings about cultural anxieties related to death and warfare. The destructive force of zombies is detectible in modern anxieties over terrorism and worldwide war. Here, zombies walks have a deep meaning. They "act as a means for working through [...] the structural conditions of a new and violence that so
Zombies or cannibalistic humanoids are popular among the horror genre of myths and legends. As a result, they have became dominant in the pop culture with their appearance in numerous iconic films and shows. Within these legends, stories or films, zombies have been depicted in different versions. They can either be quick and cunningly vicious or slow and mindless. Some stories even portray them having a smart efficient society where they utilize a strange sense of teamwork. Although all of these versions have its comparisons, zombies always end up having a relation to the infamous virus that infects
As we all know most of us find zombies repulsive, ugly, and scary. Zombies can also connect our fears with death. Zombies are looked at as being fictional and created through a reanimation of a human corpse. Zombies are most likely found in horror films and fantasy genres, but can
Introduction 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
The topic of the undead coming back to life to feast on the living has been around since the first zombie movie White Zombies in 1932; however, just in the past few decades has the threat of a zombie apocalypse enter the realm of international politics. The threat of a zombie apocalypse is a very serious concern of the international communities. Many political scientists are not sure how the world leaders would be able to work together if this issue were ever to arise in the world today. In the book “Theories of International Politics and Zombies”, Drezner uses the threat of a zombie apocalypse to show how the different theories of international politics would eliminate the threat; however, are the living dead a real international concern or are they just a brilliant metaphor for something much greater that could happen to the world.