Zombie Nation

Written November 2008.

One of the defining moments of my life was when I witnessed a man eviscerated by a handful of human-like creatures. They gathered around him and pulled him to the floor, plunged their rotting hands into his torso, tore his skin like sheets of paper, and removed his guts before biting into them. I sat on my couch, wide eyed and amazed. I had never seen such a beautifully grotesque display of violence in my young life and I was both frightened and fascinated. I never looked away. Neither did the camera. It remained centered on the creatures as they tore the man apart and ate him, documenting the unfortunate man’s death in unflinching entirety. This scene is from the movie Day of the Dead, a horror gem about a world overrun with zombies. At the time, I was a fifteen-year-old gore hound who was on the hunt for scary movies notorious for their high levels of blood and guts. I had heard that Day of the Dead was quite the splatter fest and once the credits rolled, I was not disappointed. I had been a casual horror movie fan before but after seeing the man being turned into human lasagna, my love for horror movies, especially the zombie genre, was clenched.

People have often asked me why I am such a zombie enthusiast and I’ve never had an adequate answer. I suppose I have never really thought about it before. It’s like asking someone why they love sunshine or their children. I just do. So, instead of just giving a half mumble the next time someone asks me about my zombie obsession, I decided to examine my love for zombies and come up with a deeper reason for my attachment to the atrophied.

I can trace the source to director George A. Romero’s Dead trilogy, consisting of the movies Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead. I’m not including his latest zombie efforts, Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead because they were not influential in my love for the zombie genre. Plus, I think they are abysmal films and don’t acknowledge them as belonging to Romero. His Dead films are not only famous for redefining what a zombie is but also for the social criticism that is embedded within each film. It all started with the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead, a movie that initially started out as a horror comedy about a group of alien teens. It was a controversial film of its time. Many claim it’s a critique of the turbulent 60s by including such topics as racism and sexism. Romero himself has denied any intentional commentary despite the fact that the themes of race and sex continually occur in each of his films. Many critics panned the film for the explicit violence during the scenes in which zombies feasted on human flesh. While Night of the Living Dead touched on relevant topics of the 60s, Dawn of the Dead dealt with 1970s consumerism. An excellent example of this theme comes from an exchange between two of the main characters, Francine and Stephen.

From the roof of the mall, they observed the zombies down below and Francine asked, “What are they doing? Why do they come here?”

“Some kind of instinct,” Stephen responded. “Memory of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.”

While watching Dawn of the Dead, I started to realize the deeper meaning behind Romero’s films. The image of mindless people shuffling around the food court really stuck with me. I wasn’t sure if I was watching a movie or a documentary. The film also follows up on the previous entries’ theme of race by once again casting a black man in a lead role. While the first film never directly addressed race, the beginning of Dawn throws it in your face with a scene consisting of a group of SWAT members slaughtering the Puerto Rican and black Caribbean residents of an apartment building. It also seems that Romero makes up for his less than positive portrayal of females in Night (the character of Barbara is basically comatose and helpless throughout the entire movie) by making the character of Francine a bit stronger than her predecessor. In fact, the actress who played Francine, Gaylen Ross, refused to scream because she felt it would weaken her character. Day of the Dead, undeniably the most depressing entry in the Dead series (as well as my favorite), focuses on how to deal with the dead from a scientific and military standpoint. Dr. Logan, one of the scientists, wants to cure the zombie plague and domesticate the reanimated dead in the mean time. However, the head of a group of soldiers, Captain Rhodes, would rather exterminate them all and anyone else who gets in his way. Day really examines how cruel humans can be to one another. Dr. Logan feeds Rhodes’ men to the zombies as treats for their good behavior while Rhodes is ten shades of nasty, a completely unredeemable character that becomes more psychopathic and power hungry as the film progresses. The only seemingly sane character is the main female lead, Sarah. She is the definitive answer to Barbara from Night. Sarah is a fellow scientist, strong and not afraid of Captain Rhodes, his slimy advances or his very big gun. While none of the characters in any of the movies are incredibly likeable, the characters in Day are horrid. Admittedly, they have reason to be bitter. Every thing they’ve ever known has collapsed and every one they’ve ever known has died but instead of coming together to support one another, they slowly turn on each other. There is no human compassion, only selfish hatred. In each movie, the handful of survivors end up becoming a danger to each other for no other reason than they each feel they should be dominant and take control of the dire situation. What started out as survival soon turns into a power struggle. It becomes quite apparent who the real evil is in these movies. The deeper the characterization goes, the more the zombies become less of a threat and more of a supernatural backdrop to the real horror found inside the house, the mall, or the underground bunker. The real threat lies in the minds of the people who are still breathing.

Although there is never a clear explanation as to why the dead have risen, in Night, it was theorized that radiation was the cause. Others speculated that it could be parasitic in nature. One of the main characters in Dawn, Peter, gave his theory by saying, “My granddad was a priest in Trinidad. He used to tell us, 'When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.'" This statement implies that people are sinful and their evil ways earn them a place in hell. And since hell has suddenly become full, that must mean that a lot of people ended up there. If this is the case, then humans have brought this plague upon themselves. In typical horror movies, death and destruction come upon mostly innocent teens who just want to have a little smoke and a little poke. But with zombies, we deserve the wickedness that reigns down on us because we are wicked ourselves.

The zombie is my all time favorite monster. Zombies themselves aren’t exactly fear inducing. The fact that they are dead is certainly unsettling but physically they are slow and not entirely strong so disposing of them wouldn’t be too difficult. It is only when they are in large numbers that one should start to worry. It is the emotional quality that zombies possess that is bone chilling. What exactly is a zombie? They are not totally separated from humans. They are humans. They are just dead humans. They do not transform into rabid dogs during full moons or become bloodthirsty albinos by swapping bodily fluids with pale Romeos. They are not physically different like a werewolf is and yet they cannot conceal their identities like a vampire can. Physically, they are still like us until they begin to rot. Even then, there is still a semblance of humanity left on their withering faces. This triggers a psychological conundrum within us because we don’t know if we should sympathize or euthanize. It’s one thing to destroy a prehistoric creature from the depths of a cave or a fish monster that’s suddenly come to shore but how easy could it be to shoot a person? Zombies aren’t inherently evil. They are us, only primitive, stripped of all logic and only left with instinct and the most basic physical functions. They are simply trying to live as we try to live. This makes their disposal all the more conflicting because while they commit atrocities, they do not do it out of spite or anger like humans, only out of an instinctual need to survive. It is especially disheartening when you have pre-existing feelings for one of the undead. How easy would it be to destroy a person you know, a person you love? Could you shoot your best friend? A relative? Your mother? Your child? The fact that these zombies are quasi-human makes their destruction hard to comprehend and even harder to execute.

When the dead rise from their graves, no one will be able to help you. In Romero’s Dead trilogy, as well as countless other zombie films, society will eventually break down. The government, military, and other forces that we’ve always assumed would keep us safe will fail. We will be left alone to fend for ourselves. A sense of overwhelming dread comes along with zombie movies. They are horror on a grandiose scale. It is inescapable. This adds a sense of isolated terror because not only is it happening in your own backyard but all the way across the world as well. There is no safety.

In my life, I haven’t had the best experiences with people. Because of this, you could call me cynical. I would probably agree with you. I’ve been hurt by girls and friends and girlfriends and those moments have left an abiding bitterness in my mouth. My negative experiences with certain individuals have shaped the way I see people as a whole. Watching zombie movies has only verified my views of others. Not only are zombies former humans, many times humans act a lot like zombies. I think back to all the times I’ve let people in and they’ve let me down. The people I thought were friends were only using me to get to something better. I’ve been a therapist. I’ve been a placeholder. I’ve been a smorgasbord. I’ve stood around and allowed people to take chunks out of me as they’ve needed. Isn’t that exactly what zombies do? Are we really that different from them? Is the world really that different from them? As I get older, I realize this planet is a cruel place. They say it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and I couldn’t agree more. What some call modish I call mindless. What some call exorbitant I call empty. What some call capitalism I call cannibalism. And I’ve always said that if the world should end, it should end in entrails. I can just picture people clawing at each other, tearing each other apart for their own sustenance, people slowly being converted into mindless beings with no free will of their own. I think a zombie apocalypse would be awesome because, really, would anyone even notice?