The Living Dead in Our Culture

Since Romero successfully broke the concept into the mainstream during the late 60s, zombies have invaded popular culture and have only exponentially increased in popularity. Movies, novels, graphic novels, and yes, even music can't escape from their influence. I myself have never really been all to caught up in the craze, but I can't deny how big of an impact the living dead have had in our culture. Why is that?

-Symbolism! Zombies are more than they physically appear. Take a second to think about their aspects. What groups in society can you apply them to? If you answered anything you're right. Consumerism, communism, world religions, they can be used as a metaphor for many things, and it's effective. Dawn of The Dead wasn't set in a mall just because of the size. In that movie Romero wanted the zombies to stand in as the mindless drones you see shuffling in the mall every day.

-Easy enemies. We always need something to hate. Something to blame. Something to satisfy our violent thoughts and intentions (it's human nature. Don't say you've never had them). Zombies fill that need. In media they're killed in various gruesome manners, they're central enemies. That's a universal filler that's hard to find elsewhere!

-Even more symbolism! Our society under the influence of growing technology is something to marvel at and worry about. We do tend to use tech as a crutch in many aspects, and most commonly, to think for us. And it's accessible to a huge number of us. Sounds like zombies. We have no brain of our own, and come in many numbers. Well, to exaggerate.

If there's one thing I love about zombies, all the the rules of civility are thrown out the window. You can imagine the most horrible thing you can do to another human. But when that human is a zombie, it's perfectly acceptable! Think about it, you're basically judge jury and executioner!

I really doubt we'll see much a decrease in media presence from zombies in the future. There always seems to be at least one zombie film for each year. I don't find this good or bad. It's like romantic comedies. They're just going to be with us forever no matter what we do.

But there's one question I do have. We've thrown a lot of ideas with zombies around, and many are just about the same. Where do we go from here to revolutionize the genre?