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.
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
The History Channel’s presentation on the history of zombies provided a wealth of information that was both informative and entertaining. The origin of the zombie is far more than a simple fictitious story about shambling ghouls that pose little threat. Everything from the creation of zombies by viruses to the concept of a relentless horde that threatens the destruction of civilization has a basis in historic events (Zombies: A living History, 2011).
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 a certain social group was viewed during a certain time period, zombies in Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” aimed to create a situation whereby a group of people had to survive a night together, despite their racial tensions between one another. Being the founder of all subsequent zombie films, “Night of the Living Dead” provided a guideline for zombie behavior. As time passed, more and more versions of the zombie came out, whereby zombies stopped being a plot device and turned into the focus of the film itself. The Walking Dead, currently standing as the fourth most popular TV series, took a turn from this progression and decided to imitate Romero’s take on zombies. By including zombies which simply aimed to sustain themselves by consuming the flesh of the “live,” the creators of The Walking Dead caused the remaining survivors to gather together and rely on primitive human instinct to survive. Even though the zombies in this series run rampant, they play a very minimalistic metaphoric role. Instead, by presenting the zombies as a plot device, the characters in this series were able to demonstrate their true prejudiced view on society, ultimately revealing
The film 28 Days Later, go deep into the world of monstrosity and the audience’s perception and understanding of monstrousness. 28 Days Later is a 2002 British post-apocalyptic film, which gives a refreshing take on the “zombie” horror genre. The film follows Jim and a few other survivors as they navigate themselves in a post-apocalyptic world, where the undead is among the living. However, the living is even more dangerous than the undead. The reason 28 Days Later is one of the most critically acclaimed zombie horror movies, is the way it portrays zombies. In all the history of zombie horror movies, zombies were always depicted the same way. They were portrayed as slow, dumb, and inhuman, they were viewed as these disfigured creatures. However, in 28 Days Later, the zombies had the characteristics of most humans. They possessed human-like speed, intelligence, and they were infected with the disease that most humans have, rage. That is what set this film apart from others and made it truly scary. The “monsters” in the film, was just an unhinged version of ourselves. People will often mistreat, kill, and lie to each other, even if it was not necessary, it is just in their nature. The humans are now a new kind of monsters, and that will be portrayed through the theme, music, and editing.
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
Envision a normal Friday night spent surrounded by fifty embodied souls in a dark theatre who are all anxiously awaiting the reveal of the newest horror flick. Whispers circulate throughout the small room before everything suddenly falls quiet as the giant movie screen ahead comes to life. As soon as Zombieland begins, it certainly starts off with a bang; which alerts everyone that they might have perhaps stumbled upon not just any other zombie flick after all. From the twisted beginning to the soft-hearted end, Zombieland brings plenty of action and gore to go around. It also manages to stay incredibly witty and comedic throughout without losing focus on the main objective - zombies. Which that factor alone is easily appreciated by any zombie-fanatic around. However, those particular people are not the only ones that can draw
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.
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
Zombies had a lot to do with tracking the origin of diseases. First, the scene was set for us epidemiologist(students). An unknown agent was causing certain people who visited a carnival to start “disappearing” or turning into zombie-like creatures. After the scene had been set, it was our objective to interview bystanders who knew people who had disappeared
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 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.
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.
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