Year after year, day after day, Hollywood continues to produce dozens of zombie movies. What is America's obsession with the living dead? Are we that bored of the horror genre that we rather sit for one hour, and watch a corpse eat someone's brains? What's the big deal, and why are we still watching?
What we know:
Places of Origin
It is no surprise that zombies originated from the grave, and we have gathered the obvious that they are undead. This means a zombie's main hangout spot is the cemetery, so I would stick to cremation people. There is no need to spend money on a nice casket, because apparently it gives zombies back sores.
Food of Choice
Not only are they dead alive, (no oxymoron intended) the need for brains is what fuels these creatures. It feels sort of strange calling them creatures, considering they were once human beings, but who wakes up and has cravings for flesh? (With the exception of Jeffrey Dahmer, Hannibal Lecter, and the people cast in the movie “Alive”. ) If brains and flesh are not available, zombies will walk around aimlessly until they starve to death.
IQ
Zombies are not gifted in the brain department. They like brains, but they don't have one. We know zombies are stupid when all they eat are brains, and they don't get anything out of it. Consuming the main organ of thought and feeling, you would think they would at least grasp the knowledge to go a little bit faster for yet another, well, brain.
Why it works:
A New Genre
In 1968, George A. Romero made “Night of the Living Dead”, pioneering the “zombie” genre for horror fans alike. Not only were they scared of Vietnam, people in 1968 had George Romero scaring the bejesus out of them with walking corpses. In most recent years, Danny Boyle created a new zombie with 2002's “28 Weeks Later”. Instead of the slow reacting flesh eaters we are so used to, “28 Weeks” gave us people infected with a virus, but still flesh eaters. Case in point, it is movies like this that cause us to be cursed with god awful films such as “Flight of the Living Dead”. (No offense to the zombies.)
Gallons of Gore
Zombies are the essentials that make up a horror film, because basically they have bad personal hygiene. Their clothes are always stained with blood, brains, and guts, their flesh is rotting, but I'm sure they smell great. There is no zombie movie without tons of gory madness, because we can't quite figure out if that is what mashed up brains looks like.
What's The Big Deal?
Attention Hollywood, the above caption is the million dollar question. As an avid horror fan, movie makers are urged to stop creating zombie films.
Zombies are a tired subject. They are slow, stupid, and disgusting (with the exception of the break dancing zombies in the music video “Thriller”). There is a lot of other subject matter that can be really scary (clowns, evil dolls, ghosts, Britney Spears), so why not take the time and explore. For those who are still confused on what a zombie's main purpose is, just remember this:
(No pun intended.)
