Zombie Genre - Appeal?

[CDaBruce]

I am a huge fan of the zombie genre. Probably started in the 1970s being horrified by the black and white Night of the Living Dead as a kid on TV. I remember being horrified by the 1970's Dawn of the Dead teaser poster. R-rated movies weren't part of my universe yet and that looked to be the scariest movie ever made.

 

Today, I am a huge fan of The Walking Dead. Loved Shaun of the Dead. Looking forward to reading World War Z. Marvel Zombies are fun. Romero's films rule!

Recently saw 28 Weeks Later and 28 Days Later; loved them both. Although they are technically not about zombies (they are too fast and called "the infected"); they seem to fall into a sub-group of the zombie movie genre.

 

Some friends and I were talking about our appreciation of the genre and all of us agreed on a rather disturbing idea. All of us agreed that a world becoming overrun by zombies would be a desirable outcome. This is a rather surprising shared viewpoint held by 4 relatively normal guys living pretty great lives. Each of us had different takes on why we would want this apocalyptic scenario. Each of us also agreed that we would be able to survive in our own way.

 

So, I have two questions for the board:

 

1. Does the idea of a zombie overrun world appeal to you? If so, why? (If not, you don't have to explain your obvious reasons.)

 

2. Why the recent fascination with zombies? Why are they so popular? What is going on in our culture that makes this a commercially successful genre?

 

My guess on #2 is that we (as Romero did in Dawn of the Dead) see a large amount of our society as zombies. Zombies symbolize the mass thinking consumerists with very little conscience; unaware of the destruction they are causing. We fear this.

[VintageComics]

Just my 2 cents...I have a hard time seeing what is so great about Zombi-ism. Don't see it's appeal or glitter. In fact I think it's kind of disgusting as the premise is that they eat live people. Where is the appeal in that?

 

Can someone please explain how this is fun and entertaining?

 

[jonjesper]

Impending doom is what always gets me...

really...

[nik]

Go through a divorce, same thing but more reality then make believe

[slackjawcomics]

What comic started the Zombie craze? Walking Dead?

[binarysunrise]

1. Does the idea of a zombie overrun world appeal to you? If so, why? (If not, you don't have to explain your obvious reasons.)

 

I sort of thought this had already happened? How else do you explain the past few elections?

[whetteon]

1. Does the idea of a zombie overrun world appeal to you? If so, why? (If not, you don't have to explain your obvious reasons.)

 

Our whole society has pretty much already become zombitized. We all go to work at the same time, eat at the same time and go home to that suburban neighborhood with 2.5 children and overly green grass which needs mowing on the weekend at about the same time.

 

2. Why the recent fascination with zombies? Why are they so popular? What is going on in our culture that makes this a commercially successful genre?

 

Besides how our cultures loves all things gore on the big screen, I say the popularity lies not with the zombies themselves but those who dare to do what it takes to avoid becoming zombies. We like to cheer for that guy or gal who somehow didn't become a zombie. Who represents what we all wish we ourselves could/would do.

 

As for zombies being a more desirable world to live in... I disagree. The whole point of zombies is that they eat through their food supplies in days (maybe a few years tops), quickly rot away to nothing and are little use to anybody. The only thing I can see a zombie plague being good for is to thin the herd so to speak.

[Pirate]

Go through a divorce, same thing but more reality then make believe

 

aye and then get back together, life, death, living dead

[Shadow]

The "zombie" thing never has done much for me. I do find some of the movies scary. I saw "Night Of The Living Dead" on late night TV back in 1980 and was pretty scared at age 14. Movies with a lot of "gore" don't appeal to me, so I don't gravitate towards the zombie movies as much. To each their own.

[arexcrooke]

Go through a divorce, same thing but more reality then make believe

 

aye and then get back together, life, death, living dead

[Darthdiesel]

I was huge into Playstation and preferred RPG games. Resident Evil kicked it off for me. add some cool movies like Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days later, 28 weeks later, etc., I'm just into that type of senseless gory horror. I think it's how the story portrays the survivor's fight to not suffer the same fate that has befallen everyone else that appeals to me most, the struggle against the almost certain inevitability that captures my interest

[blutobc]

Okay, I'll take a stab - poke - lunge - gouge - rip - tear - bite at your questions.

 

#1) Good god no!!! to living in any fantasy world especially an undead one. The only fantasy world I'd want to see become reality would be those "nice" dreams that include a playboy bunny and such.

 

#2) Horror movies generally reflect the fears of the time period that they were made. In the 1950s everything was about the Bomb, and we got all kinds of mutated creatures.

 

The 1960s and 70s were about anti-establishment and we got psychological thrillers that tried to get into the head of killers and monsters and wonder why society made them the creatures that they were.

 

The 1980s was the excess or overindulgent "me" decade. Movies kept trying to one up each other in figuring out the many different ways that a person could die. Plus the unstoppable villains that defied all logic. Add in sequel-itis and you can see the numbness of the moviegoers.

 

1990s - same as 80s just more gore.

 

Current - Zombies....a combination of all the previous decades. You get the scientific angle with the creation of zombies....You can explore the psychological angle with the interaction of the survivors...Now you don't have to see the same bad guy get resurrected numerous times as the protaganist can off zombie after zombie, and the living still get picked off too...yep, there's gore there too...and finally, nothing scares more than the thought of being on your own - wondering about loved ones in a world turned hostile to all living humans. That's the stuff of modern day nightmares.

 

[Raphael]

"When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth."

[jordanscott]

I loved the first 3 original Romero movies...that's what got me into zombies.

 

They're slow, unstopable and there is no end...they were a great metaphor for their times and some of the few movies that I found truly scary. These are the zombie overrun planet movies because despite how well one or two of the protagonists survive at the end...ultimately you know it's only short term...the world is over.

 

speed zombies like the rezevil movies don't do much for me. nor do the speed zombie Romero remakes...these give too much hope at the end or don't bring anything new in the case of the remakes.

 

as for the comics, i got a kick out of MZ but as with all things that catch the public...Marvel has pushed it beyond amusing to annoyingly everywhere. i'm sure the movie will be released next week.

 

so in short...slow, depressingly dark zombies are good...speed zombies are silly...Marvel Zombies are annoying.

 

[Monstro]

for me i'm not some zombi fanatic or anything. but if you read walking dead you will get it.

it's a modern book that is actually readable. really good stuff.

[VintageComics]

Do all of you mean to tell me that the main reason Zombies appeal to such a wide audience is because the are a symbolic of modern society?

 

[jordanscott]

Do all of you mean to tell me that the main reason Zombies appeal to such a wide audience is because the are a symbolic of modern society?

 

 

no...that's just a bonus.

 

[Monstro]

Do all of you mean to tell me that the main reason Zombies appeal to such a wide audience is because the are a symbolic of modern society?

 

 

na, mainly just for the blood and gutz

[justin]

I've always wanted to cut a zombies head off with my samurai sword!

[Monstro]

then bash it with a sledge hammer. course i'd ware gogles.