An artistic confrontation with the undead within a neo-mythic exploration of the ghoulish. An appropriation of the dead; walking, limping, and shambling, the zombie lurches awkwardly towards artistic commodification.The walking undead have been a topic of debate dating back hundreds of years, even in the Bible which refers to the dead walking the earth in the form of Lazarus; empty shells without soul or spirit.
Shaun of the Dead, 2004
In the traditional sense, the zombie has not changed at all. However,George Romero, the father of the modern zombie , has added many aspects to the mythology, essentially creating a new form of pop culture iconography by departing radically from the mythological base in voodoo, witchcraft and the utilization of occult forces.
”Zombie films got their start in 1932, when Victory Halperin brought us White Zombie. With the help of horror superstar Bela Lugosi, Halperin delicately crafted what we know as the most common zombie archetype, mindlessness. Like many proceeding films, it focused on Caribbean lore, using voodoo as a catalyst for the plot. Essentially, what the viewer saw was a struggle between protagonist characters developing into an archetypical meeting with the witch doctor who would place a curse on an individual. The curse would equal a person losing their humanity in favor of a zombie, trance like state.”( Justin Disandro, Zombie Mythology )
Dead Snow, Tommy Wirkola, 2009
Essentially, Zombies become reanimated after being infected with the zombie virus rather than as a resurrection from the dead. An awakening from a coma.Whether the primal reflex is to eat brains, depends on appetite. Well fed zombies can afford to be discriminating. They will generally eat the more nutritious brains and bone marrow and leave the rest of the corpse untouched. However, a famished zombie will leave only the bones.
Zombie Boyfriend, Delia The Artist
Like vampires, zombies are great opportunists. So it comes as no surprise that zombie outbreaks often happen in the wake of natural disasters. Combine disasters with warm climates and the expectation of the zombie phenomenon will generally be fulfilled apparently, according to Max Brooks. The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks,” the latest in the series of zombie chronicles by author Max Brooks, is a graphic novel that looks at the undead menace throughout history.In the book, illustrated by Brazilian artist Ibraim Roberson, cavemen, the Roman legions and African slaves all battle the undead with varying degrees of success.
Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. From the Stone Age to the Information Age, the undead have threatened to engulf the human race. They’re coming. They’re hungry. Don’t wait for them to come to you!
On the surface, the words “zombie sociology” seem to be the ultimate oxymoron. It was long thought that zombies were incapable of social interaction beyond determining whether or not the person before them was a zombie. To make matters worse, the catatonic state of zombies meant they weren’t able to offer any personal testimony to abet empirical findings.They do possess and are able to access memories, but there is none of the nostalgia, sentimentality or pining for the past often found in vampires.
Using their strong sense of smell to lead the way, newly transformed zombies will instinctively gravitate to other zombies. Solitary zombies are very rare. Zombie packs are typically much larger than vampire packs. While vampires often use their cunning to improve their standing in the pack, zombies are relatively guileless. All zombies possess a chilling single-mindedness when it comes to hunting. There is no such thing as a cowardly zombie. This is not true of vampires, who have been known to succumb to malnutrition because they lacked the stomach for hunting.
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