Lazy Zombie will eat your brains

Yet another article has been published about the prominance of zombies in popular culture: ‘Zombies emerge when the economy ebbs‘. I was pretty excited when I saw this as I thought it would have something new to say about zombies and linking the undead to the economy.

It refers to a so-called ‘Zombie Index’, stating “when the going gets tough, analysts say, the tough turn to entertainment in which reanimated corpses embody our collective anxiety.” It backs this up with a reference to White Zombie’s release in 1932 during the Great Depression and 1968 (when Night of the Living Dead was released) as an year of economic downturn. Sounds impressive. Unfortunately, this argument is rubbish.

An article from Time from Dec 27 1968 entitled, The economy in 1968: an expansion that would not quit. Hardly a sign of zombies being linked to economic downturn. Also, if memory serves correctly, there weren’t many zombie movies  during the 70s recession or during the early 90s.

If anything, zombies have been a cornerstone of horror (mainstream and niche) for years now, with Shaun of the Dead, Dead of the Dead (remake), 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Land of the Dead & Diary of the Dead, not to mention a legion of bad b-movies all made during ‘good’ economic times.

Zombies emerge when the economy ebbs is not a bad article but in essence it says pretty much the same things as Time (Zombies are the new vampires), the Daily Telegraph (Zombies and vampires: why do we love the undead?) and Arizona Republic (Zombies are a rising trend) have each said in the past 10 days or so.

If there are any lazy journalists out there wanting to fill a column with an article about the undead, I suggest you follow this formula.

• Introduce the article by talking about how popular zombies are the moment (you HAVE to mention that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a bestseller and how there World War Z and Zombieland are coming out soon).
• Talk about the history of zombies. Remember there are only six classic films you can refer to so use them wisely: White Zombie, I Walked with a Zombie, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later. Don’t bother googling any other zombie films. They probably aren’t important anyway.
• Good idea to get some quotes. They can either be academics (Canada.com), authors (Arizona Republic and Time) or  just use that Woody Harrelson quote about thinking a photographer was a zombie (Daily Telegraph)
• Talk about what zombies mean. It is important to trot out the same crap that everyone else says: zombies have been used as a symbol of consumerism in Dawn of the Dead and the Vietnam War in Night of the Living Dead. Remember that they also symbolise the faceless crowd and play on fears of contagion.
• You don’t need to think about a new angle. However, if you’re feeling adventurous, make zombies seem even more current, link them to the economic recession. Don’t worry about little things like facts or doing proper research: it will take far too much effort.
• You might want to make a reference to vampires just for good measure.

Surely I should be happy that mainstream publications are printing articles about zombies. But I’m not: there is so much more they could be saying about zombies that is genuinely new and interesting. What about zombies as social media (Lost Zombies)? What about all the zombie flash mobs? Why’s it always the same consumerism/faceless crowd crap academics and writers have been saying for years now?

Of course, there is always my post about zombies (Help! Zombies are surrounding me!)…

“Zombies connect because they’re lovable menaces, funny, and easy metaphors.” Seth Grahame-Smith (author of ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’)

“In the world of traditional horror, nothing is more popular right now than zombies. The living dead are here to stay.” Katy Hershberger of St. Martin’s Press.

All quotes from the Arizona Republic’s article, Zombies are a Rising Trend.

Zombie Apocalypse by Konami

Normally the words ‘zombie’, ‘apocalypse’ and ‘Xbox 360′ make me weak at the knees but somehow Konami’s forthcoming ‘Zombie Apocalypse‘ for Xbox 360 and PS3 doesn’t excite me much. Not only does it have a crap and unoriginal name but the gameplay is a pretty unashamedly blatent rip-off of Left 4 Dead. ZA is a co-operative game where up to four survivors battle against a ton of zombies. It’s third-person instead of L4D’s first-person but the premise sounds pretty much the same. Zombie Apocalypse will be available on Xbox Live and Playstation Network sometime in the Summer, so at least it should be cheap.

A Texas road sign displays warnings about zombies in January 2009

Zombies are everywhere at the moment: a book mashing up the living dead with Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) is a best-seller, numerous zombie films and games have been recently released or will come out later this year and even Woody Harrelson justified hitting a photographer recently because he thought they were a member of the living dead: “I was startled by a paparazzo,” Harrelson said, “who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie.” So why is there a cultural zombie invasion at the moment? What is it about the living dead that means they are popping up at on every corner?

Contemporary Anxieties

This increased prominance to the living dead has not gone unnoticed by the press. The Daily Telgraph asks in an article published today Zombies and vampires: why do we love the undead?, The Arizona Republic’s article notes that Zombies are a Rising Trend, while Time magazine claims ‘Zombies are the New Vampires‘. If anything, Vampires were staked in the heart by a zombified Van Helsing years ago and in their place have risen up an army of the undead who have plagued our tv screens, games consoles, movie theatres and books.

All monsters play on the fears of their contemporary audiences: vampires depict fears regarding sex and sexuality; Frankenstein’s monster highlights anxieties relating to modern science and Werewolves symbolise man’s fear of its own animal passions. Zombies are very much a reflection of late 20th/early 21st century fears, representing a complex range of contemporary anxieties. However, even though zombies symbolise death, disease, de-humanisation, and the fragility of both ourselves and our society, this is not the reason why they have become so engrained in our culture.

It’s because zombies are fun.

Chainsaws and Shotguns

Zombies are a loveable punchbag to offload our frustrations out on; the zombie apocalypse appealing precisely because the old rules of society have collapsed, thereby allowing us live out survivalist fantasies. Moreover, there is no guilt in dispatching a undead walking corpse with a shotgun or chainsaw, only the pleasure of seeing their blood and brains explode. What isn’t there to love about the living dead?

Lost Zombies is a social media initiative, where contributors send in clips for a community-based documentary about a zombie apocalypse. Elsewehere, zombie flash mobs appear in cities, with people dressing up as blood-splattered undead. This is an alternative reality where zombies are real and the post-apocalyptic world is already happening; the boundaries between real and virtual blurred, with zombies a tool to undermine established society and culture. The axiom of Dawn of the Dead where zombies are us, us them is no more apparent: we want to be the mindless zombie and live through a zombie apocalypse.

Apocalyptic Gallows Humour

The very nature the zombie apocalypse is inherently ambivalent: a preposterous unreality (the dead coming back to life and eating the living) effectively a meta-joke that both shies away from, and at the same time implicitly addresses, more possible apocalypses such as pandemic viruses, environmental disaster, economic collapse or even nuclear holocaust. Nearly all these cataclysms are a product of man’s folly and potential to destroy itself: ultimately they are as ridiculous as the zombies that mock them.

More than comedy-horror escapism, zombies are a form of contemporary surrealism; an apocalyptic gallows-humour that parodies our fears of the future. The complex duality makes the zombie continuingly engaging and relevant for contemporary audiences. There is a winking post-modernism associated with zombies, so instead of openly fearing the living dead, we embrace them as old friends. By laughing at zombies we are literally laughing in the face of death and of the absurdity of humans causing a post-apocalypse sometime in the future.