Zombies : A Brief History Essay

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

Zombies, as we know them today, have mortified movie viewers for the last forty six years. Modern zombies first appeared in George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead in 1968. These zombies were the slow moving, staggering ghouls that one has seen in countless films, but in 1985, Return of the Living Dead featured a new kind of zombie, the first fast moving and talking ghoul. Both Night of the Living dead 1968 and Return of the Living Dead 1985 feature the zombie as its villain, but Return of the living dead’s fast moving, talking zombies are a more modern take on the movie monster.

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

The name of the article is Our Zombies, Ourselves written by James Parker. In this article Parker discusses the historical backdrop of zombies and talks about where it is that they started from. Parker additionally raises exceptionally fascinating point on the notoriety of zombies and a short timeline on zombies. He also talks of different sorts of popular cultures which incorporate zombies and are utilized, for example, the movies Night of the Living Dead, White Zombie, the books The Zen of Zombies, Zombie Haiku, and the television series The Walking Dead.. By utilizing these references Parker helps demonstrate to us how zombies appear to ceaselessly draw our interest. The article additionally educates the reader about how zombies came

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

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

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 monsters that rose from the dead, they are nothing compared to the ones we carry in our hearts” (Brooks 252). Max Brooks, the author of the book World War Z breaks down that there is a possibility for humans to become zombies. In World War Z and Wastelands: The End of the World as We Know It both apocalyptic stories set the setting in extreme and lonely places. The characters in the novels educate themselves to survive the world during an apocalypse. People are constantly running, crying, fighting, or shooting. The authors point out that if we take a closer look there are many possibilities to which an apocalypse could happen, however, the origin of the outbreak is unknown. Zombies are just metaphors used in novels, games,

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.

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

In 1968, in a cemetery about 30 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh, a movie that would change cinematic history forever was being created. George Romero’s classic film Night of the Living Dead, was being filmed. Up until 1968, the word “zombie” had a completely different meaning than it does today. George A. Romero created the horror movie antagonist that many audiences know and fear. The Pre-Romero zombie has many notable differences from the modern zombie. Most notably, it is alive and simply under a voodoo curse. These zombies did not crave flesh or brains, and there were no large-scale outbreaks. Night of the Living Dead changed this all, and paved the way for the zombie to evolve into what it is today.

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 have connections with history with complex origins.

What is scarier zombies or what they represent? Looking at the question superficially many would answer that zombies are scarier. Zombies are monsters that kill and therefore seem the scariest. Taking a deeper look zombies are simply extensions of a variety of human fears. Kim Paffenroth, author of “The Symbolism or Meaning of Zombies”, points out that zombies represent “exaggerated aspects of humanity”( Paffenroth, 11). Zombie films often use zombies as symbolism for bigger societal fears. In particular zombie films help cope with human fears concerning individualism and self-identity.

Zombies are so much a part of our culture because they are complex creatures. Throughout time there have been countless movies, shows, articles and books on the identity of zombies and how they came to be. One thing is for sure that zombies will always intrigue us. They’re a pop culture phenomenon that continues to shock many as overtime they become more monstrous and more deadly. Zombies are one of the closest monsters of a human. They have many human-like characteristics because in fact they were once human themselves. This relates them to our culture because at one point in time they were a part of our culture before being turned into this gruesome monster.

When picturing a zombie the image of a undead person looking for its next human meal comes to mind. While this is the foundation of what the contemporary belief of a zombie is, the actual origin has a far deeper and darker history than what is portrayed today. In the 17th century, Haiti; at the time known as Saint-Domingue, was colonized by France. Slaves were brought in from Africa to work on the sugar plantations. These slaves were subject to such brutal and horrible conditions that many of them died after a few years of service at a rate two to three times higher than any other type of plantation (Berlin 21). A belief rose among the slaves that if they died, they would return to la guinée (Africa) and be free - but there was a catch. If they committed suicide; as many did, they would not be allowed to return to la guinée and instead would spend eternity at the plantation as an undead slave (Mariani).