Thread: Western Cultures Fixation with Zombies

Vampires (of the Dracula/ Twilight stamp) represent the sensual monster - the one who seduces to conquer. Werewolves represent the beast within.

Zombies represent disease and old age. I came to a clear understanding of this one day when I was working at Arby's. On Sundays we'd get a massive rush after church let out, and then after that the rest of the afternoon it was always elderly people in large groups. One day I was really feeling off - didn't get enough sleep or something or maybe I was still half drunk from the night before, and I was struggling to keep up behind the slicer as hordes of old people came shuffling in. Against the glaring bright light blasting in through the windows they literally looked exactly like zombies, and suddenly it dawned on me clear as day...

This is what we all fear the most. We know it' the fate waiting for us, barring some tragic early death. Either growing old and infirm, or suffering some disabling disease or crippling injury. This is why fast zombies just aren't frightening in the same way as the slow ones... because we don't fear getting faster. Zombies coming at us is a reflection of our own fate. If you've ever visited a relative in a nursing home you know I'm right.

I think it's more like people on the Internet's fixation for zobmies.

Of course everyone on DV who would be fun to play with starts playing L4D as soon as I decide to force myself to stop playing it for a while. It just makes it harder.

Lol I want a zombie Apocalypse. It'd be exciting.
Probably just because its been such an exposed and popular idea from the media

I think our fixation with zombies goes back to our natural fear of death. We are afraid of death, so we create something that comes after it. Many religions do this sort of thing. With zombies, however, it seems to be a form of retaliation. " I DON'T CARE IF I DIE, I'LL COME BACK AS ONE OF A MINDLESS HORDE WHO ENJOYS THE LOVELY TASTE OF CRANIUM"



On another note, I'm tired.

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

Zombies represent disease and old age. I came to a clear understanding of this one day when I was working at Arby's. On Sundays we'd get a massive rush after church let out, and then after that the rest of the afternoon it was always elderly people in large groups. One day I was really feeling off - didn't get enough sleep or something or maybe I was still half drunk from the night before, and I was struggling to keep up behind the slicer as hordes of old people came shuffling in. Against the glaring bright light blasting in through the windows they literally looked exactly like zombies, and suddenly it dawned on me clear as day...

This is what we all fear the most. We know it' the fate waiting for us, barring some tragic early death. Either growing old and infirm, or suffering some disabling disease or crippling injury. This is why fast zombies just aren't frightening in the same way as the slow ones... because we don't fear getting faster. Zombies coming at us is a reflection of our own fate. If you've ever visited a relative in a nursing home you know I'm right.

Wow this is an intensely insightful explanation that really gets to the heart of the psychology behind our zombie fixation. I never really thought of it that way. I am indeed terrified of old age and have always been frightened by the elderly. Although fast zombies scare the shit out of me.

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

This is why fast zombies just aren't frightening in the same way as the slow ones...

K let me stop you there pops, you've obviously never played half life 2 and had the misfortune of passing through Ravenholm.


And have you ever seen 28 Days Later?

*chimes in*
28 days/weeks later are great movies, yo.

Originally Posted by Erii

Lol I want a zombie Apocalypse. It'd be exciting.

Ok, I hear you guys - yeah, I understand the fast zombies thing. I HAVE seen 28 Days Later. But that kind of movie can only scare you on the superficial level that a regular "horror" movie can, not on the deep subliminal existential level that something truly terrifying can. It's built on the idea of "Hey, if zombies are scary, then fast zombies will be twice as scary!" derp

I don't remember what movie it was now - was it that fucked up thing with Christina Ricci in it? But the bad guy was some kind of souped up zombie superhero dude who wasn't only fast and super-strong, but did all kinds of Kung Fu and carried knives and swords and stuff too. I mean, what's the point of him even being a zombie? Ok, I know - yeah - it means you can't kill him and you get to see his flesh getting ripped apart and everything... but it defeats the original existential dread at the heart of a real zombie movie. I know that kind of horror is lost these days in all the video game CGI action and stunts and explosions and all, but to those of us who haven't been completely numbed by too many blockbuster movies and video games, that stuff is powerful in a subtle and far more frightening way.

Ok, now that I've made enemies of everybody under 35 or who plays video games...

(And besides, I didn't say it isn't frightening - I just said it isn't frightening in the same way...!)

Return of the Living Dead was a pretty decent zombie movie with the exception that the zombies could talk. Do you have a favorite zombie movie Darkmatters? I can dig the old school movies like night of the living dead where zombies are slow but in left for dead the zombies are insanely fast and there are ones that are superfat and throw up on you and witch zombies and all kinds of great stuff . Ive never really been super into video games but this one is purty neat.

Actually for many years Return of the Living Dead was not only my favorite zombie movie but my favorite movie bar none!!

I guess if I had to pick one that embodies what I was talking about it would have to be the original NotLD. I'm not saying it's the best zombie movie... and I'm not saying movies with slow zombies are even better than fast zombie movies - just that they miss the deep dread aspect of the relentless approach of decay that faces us all.

I loved Day of the Dead - Tom Savini improved his gore effects from the original and it was far better than Dawn of the Ded where they were trapped in the shopping mall. I really like the remake of Dawn from a few years ago, and I also love the 80s remake of the original which was directed by Savini starring Patricia Tallman as a badass redheaded chick taking no prisoners - the complete antithesis of the screaming fainter chick in the first one.

Resident Evil games kick ass, and I like the movies too, but not so much as zombie movies.

I think zombies represent the brainwashed mobs behind fascist and pseudo-communist revolution.

I don't get how people are fascinated by zombie's.

I prefer Hellish apocalypses, they're way more epic.

Originally Posted by Erii

Lol I want a zombie Apocalypse. It'd be exciting.
Probably just because its been such an exposed and popular idea from the media

In that case you might need to read this.

Honestly, I think it is just the excitement. People are more and more basically just fed up with their mundane lifestyle. And a zombie apocalypse is just the most exciting thing that would take away all that BS.

I think humans, in some way need that almost constant threat of death to make them feel truly alive. Like back when we were hunter-gatherers.
And this way of life in the developed world is just boring as fuck compared to that.

I completely agree, for myself at least. I don't know about all humans, but I've always fantasized about more exciting things happening. Even while I was playing L4D2 a lot, it will sound stupid and I don't know why I'm embarrassing myself by saying it, but on walks I'd often have extended fantasies about there really being a zombie apocalypse. I'd be stranded somewhere with 3 of the people I often played with, with guns. Like the game but in real life and in my city. And I'd come up with all of these elaborate scenarios about how we save one another and ourselves.

I've been like that for as long as I can remember actually. Sometimes I'll completely make up what I'm imagining and other times it will be based on something like a book. This is the first time it's happened with a game though. I don't know what it is about real life that feels so dull in comparison to pretty much anything else. Even someone else's real life would be nice for a change.

Sorry I kind of went off topic.

While I agree with a lot of what Darkmatters wrote, Tommo's post REALLY hit home for me.

I'm into any sort of end of the world scenario. Zombies and pandemics are the best. For me, they represent beating the ultimate odds; proving ones mettle; rebirth (through the rebuilding of society).

Yeah I think they definitely hit home for a real fear existent in every mind, and you've actually described it most aptly to me. I don't even know how to logically affirm it, but intuitively you're right on the button. It's about the ultimatum of society, the old coming and devouring the new (or perhaps vice versa). Even that attempt at a description is total bullshit. I can't describe the archetype that has spawned the zombie symbol.

Well with zombies you got all the fun survival stuff, added in with the fact that everyone you are killing is already dead so there is no moral objections.

While I agree with Darkmatters somewhat (I think that's one of the reasons for the INITIAL spark in zombie-culture that caused the zombie explosion) I think it's moreso what Tommo said about the excitement. I don't think it's a deep fear of death that makes movie-goers and gamers fascinated with zombies... it's because zombies are (in the words of many of my friends,) "fucking awesome." The film-writers and game creators may have ORIGINALLY connected zombies to fear of death, but now most zombie things are capitalizing on zombie-mania.

Just like most vampire things NOW are capitalizing on vampire-mania, even though the original sparks of the modern vampire culture was the seduction of a young girl by a centuries-old vampire that millions of young girls could relate to.

Originally Posted by ThePreserver

I don't think it's a deep fear of death that makes movie-goers and gamers fascinated with zombies...

Oh I completely agree! What I said above was really more of a philosophical/intellectual observation, and it might have been at the core of Night f the Living Dead and maybe 1 or 2 more zombie films, but the real fascination the public and the filmmakers have with them is something totally different.

In addition to what people have already said above - I can throw out a few half-formed thoughts about it.

For one thing with zombies you don't have to worry at all about killing them or how you do it - nobody is going to care. They're not unreal monsters like Godzilla or anything - they're human in form anyway, but they're freakin' dead... so you can maim and destroy with impunity.

This cuts right throigh the usual inhibitions and rituals associated with real human death. In the real world, death is always a solemn thing, and even if somebody you didn't like dies you'll find yourself saying kind things about them in a hushed voice. Unless you're just a total asshole. But I mean especially at somebody's funeral, or if one of their friends or relatives is near, you have to go into reverential mode. And not only have to, you'll self-censor even.

Even in movies when a bad guy gets killed, unless it's a really bad movie, you can't really get away with just destroying them and everybody cheers. Wait, that did happen, at the end of The Last Boyscout I think, and it felt really weird and inappropriate to me.

But with zombies, they're human, but they have no soul, no connection to living people, even if you see your dead uncle Herbert, he's a freakin zombie and he's gonna eat your brain! So you have to completely smash him to a pulp.

I don't know - maybe it lets us deal with some cultural taboos about death that we otherwise really can't?

Getting sorta intellectual and philosophical again I know but hey somebody's gotta do it!

Every time I think of fast zombies I think of . Slow Zombies happen to add tension a lot better in a movie though. Arms reaching boarded windows, the bulging from doors as they pound away. The fear in the eyes of the people who seem like they're only delaying the inevitable. It's good stuff. The only way people can do this with the quicker, more modern zombies is making sure there is downtime between attacks. Adding things like when someone gets bit, and you don't know when they're going to turn on everyone else, and the only person who knows about it loves that character, so they have to make a choice on weather or not to end it all.

But overall I'd have to agree with tommo there's a lot of visceral excitement that can be had with fight or flight situations. There's also the rush of being able to kill someone in a "them or me" scenario where there isn't any guilt because they're all abominations (opposed to war where they're still people). It's not just the 'internet's fascination' either. There was a news report a year ago how the most popular Halloween costumes were zombies.

Interesting that this coincides with the beginning of season 2 of the Walking Dead today!