(no subject)
Ok So i got to write about zombies for my english class because we had to do a research paper on any pop-culture artifact. Mine is horror, enjoy, critique if you will, this is draft number 2.
Braaaaiiinss!!
It’s a cool October night. You’ve just gotten finished with a 10 hour shift, and now it’s time to go home and get some well deserved sleep. You make your way to your car but you pause and are accosted by a rancid stench billowing from the parking lot. Maybe they didn’t take out the trash you say to yourself. You approach your car and stick the key into the lock and as you open the door to get in, you are greeted with a wet, slow, “Braaaaaiiinss!” You turn around quickly thinking that it couldn’t possibly be what you think it is. They are only in movies. And yet, to your amazement, there stands a decrepit corpse lurching towards you with his gnarled claw outstretched. You scream and back up, but your car blocks your way and the mangy ghoul takes you in a ghastly embrace.
Thankfully, you are abruptly awoken by the shrill pitch of your alarm clock. Now you are the crusty-eyed zombie as you fumble to turn off the screeching and get ready to start the day, already forgetting your nightmare. Everyone has had nightmares. Some are inspired by horror movie icons like vampires, werewolves, or the undead. Others by our deepest fears come to face us in our subconscious. Either way, horror movie monsters have penetrated American society as pop culture icons more than any other classic monster. They can be seen in almost as many places as some famous Shakespearean characters and holiday idols such as Santa. The living dead, or zombies, have seeped into our culture so much so that in certain contexts, we don’t even know they are there. It is the aim of this paper to prove to you that zombies are so deeply ingrained as a pop culture phenomenon.
Zombies originated in folklore and mythology from Haitian witch doctor rituals. The “doctor” would concoct a potion of herbs and chemicals that when ingested would render the victim in a semi-vegetative state. In some cases, this would actually cause the victim to lose consciousness and be actually considered dead for a period of time. Upon applying another potion of herbs and performing ritual-rites, the witch doctor would then revive the victim, telling him of the ordeal he had just been through. Most would be in such shock, and still in a drugged state and would go with this. The doctor could keep the victim in a suggestive state, for quite some time and have them become a sort of slave. Believing that they did not actually have any free will, the victim would do as it was told. The concoction also numbed the victim to pain. The Zombie could lose a limb while performing dangerous tasks for its master and not even notice. It is even actually part of Haiti’s penal code:
“Article 249. It shall also be qualified as attempted murder the employment which may be made against any person of substances which, without causing actual death, produce a lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the person had been buried, the act shall be considered murder no matter what result follows.” (Monstrous.com)
It is from stories such as this that the voodoo zombie originated amongst sailors.
Zombies have arisen in popular culture and folklore for centuries. There is evidence of reanimated corpses in accounts from Europe dating as far back as the middle ages. Many biblical texts cite people being given a second life. They are mentioned in fictional literature in 1929 in a book called The Magic Island by W.B. Seabrook. They have been written about as the thralls of vampires, a curse set upon the land by witches, and even deadly diseases that reanimate the cortex upon death. Some say zombies are experiments done by aliens to test the limits of the human body. Others believe that mummies bodies were preserved so that when the soul returned from the afterlife, its body would still be usable. There are theories of the government making super soldiers that can withstand enormous trauma to the body and keep trudging along. Others believe in demonic possession as the cause to zombification which the tagline for dawn of the dead illustrates, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth." There have been so many works done on the origin and possibility of zombies that it would be quite a thick text that recounts them all. A “book search” on amazon.com alone gives 13,869 results. It would seem that the author’s fervor for zombies matches the fans’.
Probably most famous of all media are the “Zombie movies.” An often action packed and thrilling gore fest that involves a plot in which corpses get up and begin to terrorize the living. Probably even more famous, or infamous of all, would be George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead.” “Romero zombies are the undead creatures who share a set of rules to their actions, covering aspects from locomotion to behavior as well as cause of re-animation. They are the primary antagonists of all four films” (wikipedia). These films have caused such an uproar that literally hundreds of movies have been spawned, low budget and high alike, to pay homage to their masterful design. Zombie movies are great atmospheric movies in the sense that it is often felt that no one is safe in the movie and oftentimes people will have to make drastic and uncharacteristic sacrifices. Audiences love and hate these movies because they like to put themselves in that position and see how they would respond in an emergency situation. According to Romero, zombies can really only be stopped by severing the brainstem, or destroying the brain. If it came right down to it, and we all know this day is coming, could we shoot our neighbor down to ensure our survival? I think that is part of the attraction to survival horror movies like zombie flicks, it is really easy to connect with the people because no matter what their background, be it street punk, cop, lawyer, criminal, black, white, whatever, they will always band together to fend off the impending feeding frenzy. Audiences are easily able to connect with the humans because well, the abominations are so easy to hate. But sometimes, people like to take the side of the zombie and indulge in a little flesh crazed madness. In recent years, macabre parades known as “zombie marches” have been occurring all over the country in many major cities. Cities such as Sioux Falls, South Dakota had as many as 75 people dressing up like zombies and hobbling down a main street moaning all the way.
“This wasn’t the first zombie attack. Last year zombies took over Canada starting in July 2005 with Montreal and then in September 2005 it was Vancouver (Vancouver Zombie Walk 2005), followed by Toronto (Toronto Zombiewalk 2005) in October 2005. After the Montreal invasion, the zombies moved down to the US and in July 2005 they invaded San Francisco. Last Christmas, even Santas became zombies at Zombie Claus in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Michigan.” (Beale 2006)
This cult-like following has been gathering for years. Children have made zombie costumes one of the most popular by demand. Zombie movies have been on the rise as well, illustrated by Roberthood.com, “By my reckoning (and I'm liable to have missed some), a count of specifically zombie-themed films made in 2004, 2005 or currently listed as "in production" comes to 87.” (2005)
Zombies have penetrated other media as well. There is a miniatures project known as the “firebase project” which hopes to gather the single largest collection of zombie miniatures and wage epic scene wars featuring zombies. They currently have 10,000 zombies in their arsenal, and growing. Zombies have also dug their grimy claws into music. Bands ranging from Back Street Boys with their parody of classic horror cinema to a band called From First to Last in which they become pestilent zombies by the end of the video. Horror director and Musician, Rob Zombie has themed his whole band and house around zombies and horror. Even the acclaimed king of pop has his zombie claim to fame in the epic movie/music video for his song “Thriller.” Threadless.com has a whole slew of patron submitted shirts, which feature cartoon caricatures of zombies. The cartoon show “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy” has an episode dedicated to the walking dead. Zombies are in countless video games as antagonists and heroes. They are in card games, they are in board games, they are even in tag games invented by ardent fans, replacing tag with stalking. There are hundreds of publications of zombie comic books which have some of the most devout followings of any comic genre. Zombies have also leaked into more mainstream comics with projects such as “Marvel Zombies” which went off into a “what if” category by asking “What if some of our favorite marvel superheroes and villains were turned into zombies?” It was so hugely successful that it went out of print within a year and was re-released in hardback edition not too much later. And so, if zombies are indeed so popular, what is their appeal? Why Zombies and not vampires and werewolves?
“Zombies are not uncanny because of their humanistic qualities; they are uncanny because they are, in essence, a grotesque metaphor of humanity itself” (Bishop 201) No one can deny the appeal of zombies when compared to other movie monster classics. Werewolves and beast-men of all types have been around for centuries as well, being one of the classic legendary monsters. In colonial times, an explorer would come back from a strange land and he would bring with him tales of the great and strange creatures he had allegedly seen there to exalt his position for being able to see these horrors and return alive. But where are they now? Not many people can count all of the werewolf movies they know on more than one hand and without research. Mummies have too been seen as a classic horror monster and it can be argued that Boris Karloff played one of his most astounding characters in the 1932 classic “The Mummy.” And while these monsters are staples when it comes to thinking of Halloween costumes or Halloween themed decorations, they just aren’t as prevalent in film or during any time of the year other than Halloween. Vampires would have to be the closest contender for “Biggest movie monster.” With their seductive speech, and romantic style, who could resist? Vampires have been in almost as many movies as zombies with nearly as many b-movie spin offs. They are certainly as prevalent in fiction, with Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles at the forefront of everyone’s mind when it comes to literature. The White Wolf publishers role-playing craze Vampire: The Masquerade has been hugely popular amongst the role-playing crowd because of it’s intricately designed world that is largely based off of actual vampire mythology. When you look at recently made zombie and vampire films such as the 2004 remake of “Dawn of the Dead” and the 2003’s Shakespearean themed “Underworld”, both films earned awards for their filmmaking and were very successful in the box office. These two genres within horror continue to thrive more so than all others, and will probably do so well into the future of film. Zombies and horror in general have been undeniably a gruesome, graphic, and gory part of American culture, and indeed the culture of the world, for a very long time.
So, whether you love to get scared by films which feature the living dead, or like to bring people who would. Whether you love smashing them with your baseball bat in a game, or love to eat the heroes in others. Whether you would like to snuggle up with a good book by the fire featuring tales of the grotesque undead terrorizing villages. Or, whether you are a member of the fictional government group, “The Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency” a.k.a. Vanguard, and dedicate your life to protecting the lives of innocents who would not have their brains munched on. Whether you enjoy the gore, the humor, the folkore. Whether you have a zombie tee-shirt, mug, poster or all 3, all of which are available for purchase. Whether you love dressing up and playing the part of a flesh eating ghoul, for Halloween or for fun. Whether you are attracted to prospect of having rot-fleshed fiends running rampant, or repulsed by it. And finally, whether you like it or not, zombies are here, have been for a while, and don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Remember, you can lock your doors, and you can bolster your windows. You can probably outrun them, and probably outsmart them. But you can’t escape from the grisly grasp of a Zombie, who has clawed his way to the top of horror culture and secured a foothold in American popular culture for as long as there is one. “Mwa ha ha!”
Braaaaiiinss!!
It’s a cool October night. You’ve just gotten finished with a 10 hour shift, and now it’s time to go home and get some well deserved sleep. You make your way to your car but you pause and are accosted by a rancid stench billowing from the parking lot. Maybe they didn’t take out the trash you say to yourself. You approach your car and stick the key into the lock and as you open the door to get in, you are greeted with a wet, slow, “Braaaaaiiinss!” You turn around quickly thinking that it couldn’t possibly be what you think it is. They are only in movies. And yet, to your amazement, there stands a decrepit corpse lurching towards you with his gnarled claw outstretched. You scream and back up, but your car blocks your way and the mangy ghoul takes you in a ghastly embrace.
Thankfully, you are abruptly awoken by the shrill pitch of your alarm clock. Now you are the crusty-eyed zombie as you fumble to turn off the screeching and get ready to start the day, already forgetting your nightmare. Everyone has had nightmares. Some are inspired by horror movie icons like vampires, werewolves, or the undead. Others by our deepest fears come to face us in our subconscious. Either way, horror movie monsters have penetrated American society as pop culture icons more than any other classic monster. They can be seen in almost as many places as some famous Shakespearean characters and holiday idols such as Santa. The living dead, or zombies, have seeped into our culture so much so that in certain contexts, we don’t even know they are there. It is the aim of this paper to prove to you that zombies are so deeply ingrained as a pop culture phenomenon.
Zombies originated in folklore and mythology from Haitian witch doctor rituals. The “doctor” would concoct a potion of herbs and chemicals that when ingested would render the victim in a semi-vegetative state. In some cases, this would actually cause the victim to lose consciousness and be actually considered dead for a period of time. Upon applying another potion of herbs and performing ritual-rites, the witch doctor would then revive the victim, telling him of the ordeal he had just been through. Most would be in such shock, and still in a drugged state and would go with this. The doctor could keep the victim in a suggestive state, for quite some time and have them become a sort of slave. Believing that they did not actually have any free will, the victim would do as it was told. The concoction also numbed the victim to pain. The Zombie could lose a limb while performing dangerous tasks for its master and not even notice. It is even actually part of Haiti’s penal code:
“Article 249. It shall also be qualified as attempted murder the employment which may be made against any person of substances which, without causing actual death, produce a lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the person had been buried, the act shall be considered murder no matter what result follows.” (Monstrous.com)
It is from stories such as this that the voodoo zombie originated amongst sailors.
Zombies have arisen in popular culture and folklore for centuries. There is evidence of reanimated corpses in accounts from Europe dating as far back as the middle ages. Many biblical texts cite people being given a second life. They are mentioned in fictional literature in 1929 in a book called The Magic Island by W.B. Seabrook. They have been written about as the thralls of vampires, a curse set upon the land by witches, and even deadly diseases that reanimate the cortex upon death. Some say zombies are experiments done by aliens to test the limits of the human body. Others believe that mummies bodies were preserved so that when the soul returned from the afterlife, its body would still be usable. There are theories of the government making super soldiers that can withstand enormous trauma to the body and keep trudging along. Others believe in demonic possession as the cause to zombification which the tagline for dawn of the dead illustrates, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth." There have been so many works done on the origin and possibility of zombies that it would be quite a thick text that recounts them all. A “book search” on amazon.com alone gives 13,869 results. It would seem that the author’s fervor for zombies matches the fans’.
Probably most famous of all media are the “Zombie movies.” An often action packed and thrilling gore fest that involves a plot in which corpses get up and begin to terrorize the living. Probably even more famous, or infamous of all, would be George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead.” “Romero zombies are the undead creatures who share a set of rules to their actions, covering aspects from locomotion to behavior as well as cause of re-animation. They are the primary antagonists of all four films” (wikipedia). These films have caused such an uproar that literally hundreds of movies have been spawned, low budget and high alike, to pay homage to their masterful design. Zombie movies are great atmospheric movies in the sense that it is often felt that no one is safe in the movie and oftentimes people will have to make drastic and uncharacteristic sacrifices. Audiences love and hate these movies because they like to put themselves in that position and see how they would respond in an emergency situation. According to Romero, zombies can really only be stopped by severing the brainstem, or destroying the brain. If it came right down to it, and we all know this day is coming, could we shoot our neighbor down to ensure our survival? I think that is part of the attraction to survival horror movies like zombie flicks, it is really easy to connect with the people because no matter what their background, be it street punk, cop, lawyer, criminal, black, white, whatever, they will always band together to fend off the impending feeding frenzy. Audiences are easily able to connect with the humans because well, the abominations are so easy to hate. But sometimes, people like to take the side of the zombie and indulge in a little flesh crazed madness. In recent years, macabre parades known as “zombie marches” have been occurring all over the country in many major cities. Cities such as Sioux Falls, South Dakota had as many as 75 people dressing up like zombies and hobbling down a main street moaning all the way.
“This wasn’t the first zombie attack. Last year zombies took over Canada starting in July 2005 with Montreal and then in September 2005 it was Vancouver (Vancouver Zombie Walk 2005), followed by Toronto (Toronto Zombiewalk 2005) in October 2005. After the Montreal invasion, the zombies moved down to the US and in July 2005 they invaded San Francisco. Last Christmas, even Santas became zombies at Zombie Claus in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Michigan.” (Beale 2006)
This cult-like following has been gathering for years. Children have made zombie costumes one of the most popular by demand. Zombie movies have been on the rise as well, illustrated by Roberthood.com, “By my reckoning (and I'm liable to have missed some), a count of specifically zombie-themed films made in 2004, 2005 or currently listed as "in production" comes to 87.” (2005)
Zombies have penetrated other media as well. There is a miniatures project known as the “firebase project” which hopes to gather the single largest collection of zombie miniatures and wage epic scene wars featuring zombies. They currently have 10,000 zombies in their arsenal, and growing. Zombies have also dug their grimy claws into music. Bands ranging from Back Street Boys with their parody of classic horror cinema to a band called From First to Last in which they become pestilent zombies by the end of the video. Horror director and Musician, Rob Zombie has themed his whole band and house around zombies and horror. Even the acclaimed king of pop has his zombie claim to fame in the epic movie/music video for his song “Thriller.” Threadless.com has a whole slew of patron submitted shirts, which feature cartoon caricatures of zombies. The cartoon show “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy” has an episode dedicated to the walking dead. Zombies are in countless video games as antagonists and heroes. They are in card games, they are in board games, they are even in tag games invented by ardent fans, replacing tag with stalking. There are hundreds of publications of zombie comic books which have some of the most devout followings of any comic genre. Zombies have also leaked into more mainstream comics with projects such as “Marvel Zombies” which went off into a “what if” category by asking “What if some of our favorite marvel superheroes and villains were turned into zombies?” It was so hugely successful that it went out of print within a year and was re-released in hardback edition not too much later. And so, if zombies are indeed so popular, what is their appeal? Why Zombies and not vampires and werewolves?
“Zombies are not uncanny because of their humanistic qualities; they are uncanny because they are, in essence, a grotesque metaphor of humanity itself” (Bishop 201) No one can deny the appeal of zombies when compared to other movie monster classics. Werewolves and beast-men of all types have been around for centuries as well, being one of the classic legendary monsters. In colonial times, an explorer would come back from a strange land and he would bring with him tales of the great and strange creatures he had allegedly seen there to exalt his position for being able to see these horrors and return alive. But where are they now? Not many people can count all of the werewolf movies they know on more than one hand and without research. Mummies have too been seen as a classic horror monster and it can be argued that Boris Karloff played one of his most astounding characters in the 1932 classic “The Mummy.” And while these monsters are staples when it comes to thinking of Halloween costumes or Halloween themed decorations, they just aren’t as prevalent in film or during any time of the year other than Halloween. Vampires would have to be the closest contender for “Biggest movie monster.” With their seductive speech, and romantic style, who could resist? Vampires have been in almost as many movies as zombies with nearly as many b-movie spin offs. They are certainly as prevalent in fiction, with Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles at the forefront of everyone’s mind when it comes to literature. The White Wolf publishers role-playing craze Vampire: The Masquerade has been hugely popular amongst the role-playing crowd because of it’s intricately designed world that is largely based off of actual vampire mythology. When you look at recently made zombie and vampire films such as the 2004 remake of “Dawn of the Dead” and the 2003’s Shakespearean themed “Underworld”, both films earned awards for their filmmaking and were very successful in the box office. These two genres within horror continue to thrive more so than all others, and will probably do so well into the future of film. Zombies and horror in general have been undeniably a gruesome, graphic, and gory part of American culture, and indeed the culture of the world, for a very long time.
So, whether you love to get scared by films which feature the living dead, or like to bring people who would. Whether you love smashing them with your baseball bat in a game, or love to eat the heroes in others. Whether you would like to snuggle up with a good book by the fire featuring tales of the grotesque undead terrorizing villages. Or, whether you are a member of the fictional government group, “The Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency” a.k.a. Vanguard, and dedicate your life to protecting the lives of innocents who would not have their brains munched on. Whether you enjoy the gore, the humor, the folkore. Whether you have a zombie tee-shirt, mug, poster or all 3, all of which are available for purchase. Whether you love dressing up and playing the part of a flesh eating ghoul, for Halloween or for fun. Whether you are attracted to prospect of having rot-fleshed fiends running rampant, or repulsed by it. And finally, whether you like it or not, zombies are here, have been for a while, and don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Remember, you can lock your doors, and you can bolster your windows. You can probably outrun them, and probably outsmart them. But you can’t escape from the grisly grasp of a Zombie, who has clawed his way to the top of horror culture and secured a foothold in American popular culture for as long as there is one. “Mwa ha ha!”