Zombies Obsession

Humans for centuries have been drawn to vampires. From sitting around the fire in the time before the industrial revolution, to sitting around the table and in modern times watching it on the big screen. The folk tales of the undead that hunt at night, sucking the blood of the innocent has haunted and intrigued the human psyche for as long folklore has been in existence. Being afraid of what is being told to them, yet being unable to pull away. The pull and push affect that these mystical monsters have on the human aura is undeniable. Modern day vampires have a cult like following. When the Twilight series came out, the people where divided between team Jacob and team Edward. Teenage girls would swoon over these monsters, dangerous yet alluring.

Vampires have been around for centuries, they represent the fear of many things such as sexuality, race, gender, etc. and above all, they stand for the fear of diseases. Vampires have once been the symbol of horror due to their terrific depictions and were described as a threat to the humanity. Throughout time, the image of vampire has changed dramatically from a monstrous, inhumanely creature that doesn’t belong to human society to such an attractive and adaptive figure that expresses more of the human side than the evil. They developed human feelings, senses, and live within our society. Modern vampire movies are often more romantic and “sympathetic” comparing to the past. Vampires have abandoned their horror and evolved to a more

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 popularity has been on the rise in pop culture due to the airing of shows that captivate their audiences with their life-like special effects, and these shows inspire fans to recreate these effects for costume purposes. In order to closely recreate these costumes, its best to have an understanding of the makeup processes.

What are vampires and zombies? “Vampires suck the human blood at the time of night. But their brains are pretty much functional. On the other hand, zombies are brain-dead and they feed on human flesh at any time of the day” (ReComparison.com). Vampires are intelligent and cunning, using their wisdom to attract prey. A common behavior of vampires is seduction; this is because vampires are usually attractive. It helps with getting an easy meal; they don’t have to deal with too much of a fight, unlike zombies. Zombies don’t have much wit and must chase after their prey. With their brainless behaviors, zombies don’t have individual personalities. They are all similar and act on the same instinct. Vampires are full of their individual

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.

“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.

Vampires and Zombies are common in today’s modern world through the use of the media. In this essay, I will be talking about how each of these beings say something about society, how vampires have been portrayed across time and how zombies have been portrayed. By doing this, I will use two references from TV shows.

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

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.

As Dracula and various vampiric stories relate, “the undead returns in slightly different clothing, each time to be read against contemporary social movements or a specific, determining event,” (Cohen 5). Vampiric figures are found worldwide, from the ancient Egyptian deserts to “modern Hollywood, each reappearance and its analysis are still bound in a double act of construction and reconstitution.” Vampires in ancient Egypt differ from the modern vampires constructed in Hollywood: modern vampires changed drastically since the ancient times because new societies tend to portray new ideas of vampire structures and the like. Because of this occurring theme dealt with

In today’s society there is a greater than usual detachment from reality. With all the movies and T.V. shows featuring vampires, and how glamorous and wonderful it would be to be one with not a care in the world, and all the wealth you could ever want. Vampire stories have been around since the dawn of man and will continue until the end of mankind and they will continue across the millennium of time, but not in fact based reality

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 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.

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