Skip to main content

What’s the Deal with Zombies?




I have never really been much into zombies. I mean what are they really? Dead people brought back to life who can infect more dead people to bring them back to life. In other words, sort of like vampires, except way less sexy and with way fewer powers. Who would you rather watch, sexy vampires who can fly and perform mind control, or a half-decomposed creature who can’t walk very fast, let alone run, let alone fly? Zombies have to be some of the most uninspired horror creatures ever invented. Certainly, they have a creep factor, but if a zombie is coming for you: walk away. You don’t even have to run. Whereas, if a vampire is coming for you, or a velociraptor, or an orc, or a thing from outer space . . . see where I’m going? Yes, when you are dealing with massive numbers of zombies it can be a problem, but still, monsters with brains are far more interesting to me than monsters without brains. Yet zombie films and TV shows continue to be popular. I am not sure why.

The origin of zombies is to be found in Hattian voodoo folklore. The existence of zombies in the Hattian world is part mythology and part chemically induced by witch-doctors (see pufferfish toxin and/or hallucinogenic drugs). But even before the Haitians invented the word (possibly with a West African root) many other cultures had folklore about the undead of one form or another. So perhaps it touches all our subconscious back brains. 

Probably the first landmark piece of literature dealing with zombies (as we think of them today) is Richard Matheson’s novel I am Legend, which has been made into at least three movies: The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price, The Omega Man with Charlton Heston, and I am Legend with Will Smith.  There was a smattering of B-movie Zombie flicks in the 1950’s and 60’s. But I think the one that really set off the zombie craze was the 1968 George Romero movie Night of the Living Dead. It seems odd that this little shoestring-budget film should have had such an influence. I think it had a budget of like $3.25 and a box of Rolaids. It was shot in black and white with local actors and crew from the Pittsburg area. Some of the actors were pretty good, some were not. I think where the film was ground breaking, was in its shock value. It didn’t pull any punches unlike most films of the time. The gore and violence were of a scale that had never been seen before. All kidding aside, the film actually cost $114,000 and it grossed $18 million. Executives in Hollywood, if nothing else, can read a balance sheet. And somebody must have said, “hey, there’s money to be had in this zombie stuff.” So, the zombie became an enduring trope. You can find zombies that are metaphorical. You can find zombies that are humorous. You can find zombies set in Jane Austen’s world. I even came upon an anthology of short stories that all had “zombie erotica” as a theme (Why? To each his own I guess, but really . . . why?)

We have an innate fear of the dead. But in the horror genre, the dead can take many forms: ghosts, zombies, vampires, mummies, or the reanimated creations of a mad scientist.  Everything is personal preference. If you like zombie shows or books, more power to you. Follow your bliss. But zombies (and mummies) just don’t do it for me. Like I said, just walk away.

(My novel Star Liner, is now available in paperback or as an e-book through Amazon and other online sources)
Star Liner

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove

  Despite both of us having science backgrounds, my wife and I share a leaning toward the artistic, though we may express it in different ways. In her life, my wife has been a painter, a poet, a singer, an actor, and a fiction writer. Not to mention a mother. I don’t remember what precipitated this event, but my wife, my son, and I were at home in the front room. My wife was responding to something my son said. She said, “remember, you get half your brains from me. If it wasn’t for me, you’d be a complete idiot.” To which my son started howling with laughter and said to me,” I think you have just been insulted.” Sometimes I feel like Rodney Dangerfield. I get no respect. But that is not an uncommon state of affairs for fatherhood. When my son was going to middle school and high school, my wife was always the one to go in with him to get him registered for classes. One time she was unable to go and I had to be the one to get him registered. “Ugh,” he said. “why can’t Mama do i...
1 comment
Read more

A Child of the . . .

  What was it like to grow up as a child in the 90s? How about the 1940’s? Thinking about a child growing up in each different decade, conjures up images in my mind. But that is all they are: images. I was a child in the 1960’s. I can tell you what it felt like to be growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, but what it felt like to me is not what the history books remember. History will tell you the 60’s was about the Viet Nam War, civil rights, and the space race. The 70’s was Disco and Watergate. I remember being aware of all of those things, but to me this era was about finding time to play with my friends, something I probably share with a child of any decade. It was about navigating the social intricacies of school.   It was about the Beatles, Three Dog Night, The Moody Blues, The Animals, Jefferson Airplane. It was Bullwinkle, the Wonderful World of Color, and Ed Sullivan. There are things that a kid pays attention to that the grown-ups don’t. Then there are things the adults ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Telephonicus domesticus

Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone from 1877 bears about as much similarity to the modern smart phone as an abacus bears to a PC or Mac. There are just about as many leaps in technology in both cases. It’s funny how a major jump in technology happens (like the actual invention of the phone). Then there are some refinements over a few years or decades until it gets to a useful stable form. Then it stays virtually the same for many years with only minor innovations. The telephone was virtually unchanged from sometime before I was born until I was about forty. Push-buttons were replacing the rotary dial, but that was about it. (Isn’t it interesting though that when we call someone, we still call it “dialing?” I have never seen a dial on a cell phone.) Cell phones were introduced and (once they became cheap enough) they changed the way we phone each other. New advancements followed soon after, texting and then smart phones. Personal computers were also becoming commonplace and wer...
Post a Comment
Read more