Research - Zombies in the Media (Part 1)

In modern pop culture, zombies appear in multiple forms of media: movies, video games, comics, music and more. Many critics have suggested that the massive growth in the genre is due to George A. Romero, best known for his zombie series that started with Night of the Living Dead; Romero is responsible for establishing many of the zombie conventions we see today such as 'shooting them in the head'. Additionally he has based his films around the survival of typically average/normal people. In fact his influence can even be seen in other mediums such as music and video games and comics, as indicated below.


Comics, Television and Video Games - The Walking Dead
This franchise originally started as a comic book but soon developed such a large fan-base that the Walking Dead comic became a successful AMC television series. The success of the show even led to the creation of a highly acclaimed video game based around choice, by Telltale Games.

The show focuses on slow moving zombies, just like Romero's series, and it also follows the story of normal people and explores how they adapt to the new world and break down of society. The story focuses on Rick Grimes, a sheriff, but soon includes a varied cast (both of race, gender and professions). Whilst the show focuses on the regular tropes of survival and how difficult it is to survive, the video game acts more like a slow point-and-click game with the narrative being an integral part of its success - the characters and ability to make choices are also very well done. This game treats mortality very maturely too and takes on a different pace, unlike the classic shooting-based games.

Romero himself has been involved in video games too, he featured in the Call of Duty zombie game 'Call of the Dead '. Interestingly Romero has stated that he doesn't necessarily like the Walking Dead, and other modern zombie movies like World War Z - however he seems to mainly dislike the idea of fast-moving zombies, claiming "I don't buy running zombies". The issue he seems to have with the Walking Dead (according to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10436738/George-A-Romero-Why-I-dont-like-The-Walking-Dead.html) is that it's "like a soap opera with zombies sometimes". He has however claimed to believe that the success of the zombie genre is due to video games, saying "I do think the popularity of the creature has come from video games, not film." which makes sense especially since the most successful zombie movies recently have only broken $100 million (Zombieland) and $75 million (Dawn of the Dead in 2004) in box office revenue.


Music - Watsky
In this music video by Watsky we see hipsters being compared to zombies, which is possibly closer akin to Romero's symbolism behind zombies; idea of commercialisation and societal conformity being linked to zombie portrayal. With us becoming 'mindless' due to modern consumerism and society.


This and other parody work - such as Shaun of the Dead - acknowledge the similarities of how we act in public to how zombies act; the idea of being mindless drones and conforming to very mundane tasks in everyday life. Romero's original Dawn of the Dead takes place in a shopping centre and thus acts as a commentary of growing consumerism/capitalism at the time, Romero claiming that this decision was made due to the recent opening of the shopping centre near him, at the time. Interestingly the mundane and trivial values in society which centre around materialism, as presented in Romero's films, are still prevalent today.

Here is an internet image which highlights the similarities, especially in a capitalist/consumerist society as big as the USA:

But why do we have an interest in zombies? Why is the genre so successful?
Jonathan Maberry - author of many award-winning zombie books such as Patient Zero, Rot and Run, and Zombies CSU - has said, "Zombie fiction and movies, when they're good, aren't about zombies. They are about people and how they respond. A zombie is a stand-in for anything we fear: pandemic, racism, societal change... It's the core of a drama and a never-ending blank canvas." which seems to reflect Romero's approach to zombies.
What I can take from this, is that zombies can be used as a symbol for a fear of anything - which I can use to link representation in my final opening. Firstly, I will need to consider what fear I would like to present or what would be most appropriate.