Posted on 03/29/2014 12:00:33 PM PDT by lee martell
I don't have a tv of my own, but I see enough and hear enough to know that for some reason, Zombies are a hot sell on American tv right now. See the popularity of shows such as The Walking Dead. In fact, I heard there is even a new perfume for women coming to the market this spring, based on this show. The Walking Dead Perfume. Really? I'm not necessarily bothered by it, to each his own, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what has brought us to this level of fascination. I have read many, many of Dean Koontz books over the last ten years. I kept reading them, until he spent too much time trying to humanize the Antagonist by giving him/her a 'cool' sense of humor. I like my monsters scary and predominately unappealing, but there are always exceptions.
I tried off and on for years to appreciate Steven King, especially back in the 90's when he was cranking the books out like Wheat Linguine, but a rarely stayed with any of his work till completion. Most of Steven King's books read to me, like a never ending monologue, or as my junior high english teacher; Sister Richardene would say, a run-on sentence; something I still fall into today if not careful. I sampled some Anne Rice books. I never completed any of her stories because I was lost into the minutiae of character analysis, and I have never made the link between love and blood, at least not in the ritualistic manner of Rice. I see cable once in a while, I see the commercials about upcoming programs featuring Cannibalism, The Apocalypse, Tomorrow's Dystopia, Body Parts being ripped off and used as clubs. Is it that the Zombies has become today's most acceptable villian because most people share an energetic fear of the unknown? Is that it? To me, if you;ve seen one Hollywood Zombie with the strawberry jelly for blood and all the neat, symetrically placed spots of gangrene, you've seen them all. Am I wrong?
LOL!
Best line in the entire thread so far!
I share the fascination of the trendy popularity of zombies, werewolves and vampires, particularly since it is driven, apparently, by adolescent girls of all ages.
I'd say that the zombie genre has become associated with certain facets of modern culture, but it didn't start out that way. Sure, the latent barbarity thing has always been there, as is the case with most horror tales. But yes, the "guiltless eradication of enemies" thing is a big selling point these days.
Sir the Zombie Apocalypse is already here.
Just look at the voting public. If you need a more graphic example, check out Wally world or a Grocery store in a major metropolitan area.
Or the man on the street interviews that ask simple questions. The babbling incoherence is stunning.
OMG!
You mean this is all exquisitely disguised (no pun intended) racism?
Wut?
and she also had to be talked into putting the gun down pointing at carol.
yeah, things were not gonna be right with that one.
Another thing all of these post apocalyptic shows have in common is that there are real men acting like real men, protecting, kicking butt and serving up doses of reality.
Its the Zombie apocalypse.
We’re gonna need a redneck.
This. The gun guys on the gun boards and the survivalists use this as an "if you are ready for zombies you are ready for anything" exercise...
Post-apocalyptic and horror films and literature tend to surge during times of immense uncertainty.
The 1950s for horror because of the nuclear and cold war threat, the 1970s for oil / economic / nuclear threats and today in economic and political uncertainty.
Today, the nuclear holocaust is pretty much off the table. Alien invasions are now comical or devoid of serious threat. Vampires are an embodiment of death, immortality and immorality and have been co-opted as a sexy liberal ideal.
So for horror and post-apocalyptic, you are down to plague, climate change, oppressive government and zombies. Plague has been done many ways, from the Masque of the Red Death to Survivors (both BBC editions). Oppressive governments are big news movies today, from Hunger Games to Divergent. But there are liberals who don’t want to do that trope, while others are afraid of being told it is a 1948 remake. That leaves zombies.
And zombie movies, unlike a lot of other horror movies, can be done cheaply. Run around in an abandoned city block, rural area that is run down or even a neighborhood in the early states and you’ve got a zombie movie. All you need is a few extras in affordable makeup and minimal acting.
In summary:
Political and economic uncertainty beget anxiety.
People vent it and sublimate it by making / watching / writing / reading horror.
Zombies are one of the remaining acceptable threats that are low cost to shoot.
Hence, a lot of zombie movies.
ZombieMax ammo commercial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQWb-5nblx4
Real life zombie situation.
Woman explains what happened when roving mass mob of black teens attacked her in Louisville
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3137764/posts
Eventually, some group of morons will become convinced that they are zombies and demand they be re-labeled something like “Dead but ambulatory persons” because the traditional label offends them.
*************
Actually there is a subgenre of short stories and a few novels where the application of politically correct language and privilege is applied to various monsters, some hostile, some hapless. The best ones are gut bustingly funny, as they point up the absurdity of PC spin on life.
I think this may have been one of the very first or the first film having to do with zombies or something similar.
The Last Man On Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price but was based on the book, “I Am Legend.”
https://archive.org/details/TheLastManOnEarth_72
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Man_on_Earth_%281964_film%29
Plot
In the year 1968, every day is the same for Dr. Robert Morgan (Price): he wakes up, gathers his weapons and then goes hunting for vampires. Morgan lives in a world where everyone else has been infected by a plague that has turned them into undead, vampiric creatures that cannot stand sunlight, fear mirrors, and are repelled by garlic. They would kill Morgan if they could, but fortunately, they are weak and unintelligent. At night, Morgan locks himself inside his house; during the day, he kills as many vampires as he can, burning the bodies.
Zombies simply amplify the situation where people are unprepared. Take the zombies away, and you still have people desperate to survive. It does not matter that they are being chased by zombies. The end result is people fighting to survive. In a situation where mass numbers of people want to survive, the same situations occur.
A new book by an NPR reporter who turned into a Vampire expert says the answer to your question is:
“Every society creates the vampire it needs.”
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18090513-out-for-blood
“Out For Blood”
quote
Starting as a meditation on mortality after the illness and death of her husband, Margot Adler read more than 260 vampire novels, from teen to adult, from gothic to modern, from detective to comic. She began wonder why vampires have such appeal in our society now? Why is Hollywood spending billions on vampire films and television series every year?
It led her to explore issues of power, politics, morality, identity, and even the fate of the planet.“Every society creates the vampire it needs,” wrote the scholar Nina Auerbach. Dracula was written in 19th century England when there was fear of outsiders and of disease coming in through England’s large ports. Dracula - An Eastern European monster bringing direct from a foreign land - was the perfect vehicle for those fears. But who are the vampires we need now?
In the last four decades, going back to Dark Shadows, we have created a very different vampire: the conflicted, struggling-to-be-moral-despite-being-predators vampire. Spike and Angel, Stefan and Damon, Bill and Eric, the Cullens - they are all struggling to be moral despite being predators, as are we. Perhaps our blood is oil, perhaps our prey is the planet. Perhaps Vampires are us.
Margot Adler is a long time NPR news correspondent, and the author of Drawing Down the Moon, the classic book on Contemporary Paganism, Wicca and Goddess Spirituality. She is also the author of Heretic’s Heart, a 1960’s memoir.
end quote
I wanted to start an internet rumor and see if it would catch on that ALL zombie movies were code for “melanocyte enhanced individuals with heritage from the mother continent”. Then just sit back and watch all the race hustlers and Hollywood liberals run around saying how zombies aren’t racists/racial metaphors..... it would be a hoot.
My take too. Jamie Fox (or was it Will Smith? They all look so similar...)can get away with saying a movie allowed him to shoot a bunch of white guys - we get to say we like shooting at zombies...
From the Walkind Dead wiki
Definition
"Zombie: A deceased human body that has somehow become reanimated and autonomous, yet no longer has sufficient brain or vital functions to be considered alive or capable of thought."
/quote
There's all the explanation you need: "Somehow".
Coming in late here. I’ve always loved Stephen King’s books, going all the way back to high school. Some are better than others, but the good ones I can read over and over. I’m reading The Talisman right now, in fact.....probably for the fourth time.
The zombie genre as a whole has never done much for me, though I did enjoy the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake with Ving Rhames.
I love The Walking Dead, but the title of that show refers to the human characters, not the zombies. They’re more of a plot device that helps engineer the drama. My horrorphobic sister-in-law recently became as hooked on the show as we are....the drama is that good.
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