Zombies, a staple of traditionally horribly cheesy horror movies. In the last decade zombies and associated media have seen quite a resurgence in popularity. Most zombie movies fall pretty clearly into a few categories. Category 1: Zombie movies that are meant to be serious horror flicks (and pull it off). Category 2: Zombie movies that are meant to be serious horror flicks (and don't pull it off). Category 3: Zombie movies that make fun of zombie horror movies.
Category one includes movies like the Resident Evil series, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, and The Rage. Category two includes movies like I Am Omega (which was an attempt to capitalize on hype surrounding the big budget I Am Legend) and Wicked Little Things. Category three is movies like Shaun of the Dead and Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.
Zombies have also featured prominently in games such as the Resident Evil series and the new Call of Duty: World at War as well as books like The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z.
Why does America seem to like zombie movies so much? According to Max Brooks:
"First, I think the survival element is VERY strong in American culture. We are a nation of individualists. We beleive with the right tools and talent that we can survive anything. And sometimes that's right, but not always.
Second, I think we are, at our core, a moderate country. It scares most of us to think of our calm, rational society degenerating into anarchy" (2006).
I also think that as time has passed people have gradually become more accustomed to seeing the gore associated with such movies and it has become more acceptable to society. Parents don't try to shield their children from horror and gore as much as they did a few decades ago. People that grew up playing horror and survival games as kids are also now enjoying movies on similar topics.
Why so many spoofs recently? People like their comedy as well as their horror and if they can get both with zombies then why not? Spoofs have always made fun of what was popular and if zombies are the new popular thing then people will write spoofs about them.
Brooks, M. (2006, October 6). Zombie Wars - washingtonpost.com. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/10/03/DI2006100300686.html.
(All films discussed here can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_zombie_films)
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I loved your analogy about the three types of zombies! - And you are absolutely right, they are everywhere. My teenage son plays the game Left for Dead online for days at a time, and all they do is kill zombies.
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