Essay 4: Why Is Our Society Fixated on the Idea of Experiencing a “Zombie Apocalypse”
Throughout the years, our society has glamorized the idea of zombies and various zombie apocalypses alike, to the point it has made some people want to experience zombie life themselves. From zombie runs/walks, Halloween costumes, television shows, Hollywood films, living off the grid, to linking crazed cannibalistic drug induced behavior to “zombie-like” behavior, there is no limit to what humans will do to experience the zombie lifestyle. But at what point of time did this happen? Why are we so caught up in zombie culture that we want to mimic and live our lives that way? What is so alluring about zombies and the idea of several versions of a zombie apocalypse that we want to experience that kind of lifestyle? A really good theory to this question is that we come up with this other type of heart racing, mind intriguing reality to escape the drabness and the dullness of our own. Hopefully looking at the various types of submersion of media and other examples our society has gone through, the answer will be more apparent and clear.
To start, AMC’s The Walking Dead has been one of the most recognized and popular zombie themed television shows in a long time. The show started in late 2010 and is still a running television show here in 2018, currently about to go into its ninth season overall. The show itself has developed a sort of “cult following”, similar to fan bases of the Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings, The X Files, and Star Trek series. The show focuses on the fact that the main threats that are occurring are “walkers”, aka “zombies”, “walking dead”, or “living dead” who were originally normal everyday people but have since contracted a virus through a huge outbreak that has caused them to want to eat other humans. If an unfortunate unaffected person is bit by a walker, they themselves would turn into a walker as well. The show is also set in a “end of times” setting, which makes the walker problem seem all that more dangerous, which also puts the ever-recurring theme of survival in a more understandable setting. The fact it is survival themed and placed in a time that is apocalyptic, entices and pulls the viewers in and makes this set of events even more intriguing yet frightening to the viewers watching.
Having accounted for The Walking Dead, there are so many other “zombified” forms of television shows and Hollywood films out there. One of the newest television series to make its debut is Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet, were the main character Sheila, an everyday wife, mother, and real estate agent, has a vomiting episode with that, following a newly acquired taste for human flesh, along with little to non-existent impulse control, and eventually body decay from the inside out. Turns out, it is from a contaminated batch of European, more specifically, Serbian clams, and our main character is not the only one who ate from the extraordinary batch of clams. But, like The Walking Dead’s “walkers” if one of these zombies were to bite someone, the one bitten would eventually transform as well, even if most of the person’s body is gone, as long as the brain remains, you’ll have a zombie nonetheless. This show gives us a different perspective than other zombie tales though, being that this show is presented in the affected person’s point of view instead of the people trying to avoid getting affected or killed.
Another television series that goes into the mind of a female zombie protagonist is CW’s iZombie, a show following quite an odd girl named Liv that is an assistant for a medical examiner. What the show focuses on is that she eats small pieces of people’s brains who wind up on the coroner’s slab under mysterious circumstances, in order to help solve their questionable deaths. What happens when she eats these brains is that her personality basically morphs/changes and mimics that of the person who died, while also getting visions and flashbacks of memories from the victim, eventually solving the mystery of the person’s death. The show also touches on how vaguely she contradicted the virus, having been a normal young woman before a mysterious incident at a boat party, first believed she was deceased out of many partygoers, but after being put in a body bag, she sits upright and has a sudden change of hair color, now a pigment-less white, and occasionally red eyes. It has made apparent throughout the series that she isn’t the only zombie and that the other zombies are a part of this secret evil society.
Now, to dive into the movie category. The first film to look at will be Zombieland, it is set in an alternative reality of an apocalyptic Earth, were yet another zombie virus has swept through the world’s population, leaving few survivors behind, also going with the theme of if you’re bit, you turn into a zombie as well. The movie follows American zombie survivor Columbus, who eventually meets other survivors along the way in search of safe sanctuary from all the zombies. It is set in Columbus’s point of view along where he has set his distinct set of thirty-three rules for zombie survival. Some of the rules include checking your backseat, always travel light, always wear your seatbelt, beware of bathrooms, cardio, and always shoot/hit the zombie in the brain/head twice. Amongst with the other rules, Columbus says that is your best chance of survival. The film really goes into the dynamics of building relationships with other survivors during a life changing setting. Even with its comedic undertones and commentary, this film really gives you a very bleak view of how the world could look during a zombie outbreak/apocalypse, should you be one of the very few people that survives all the chaos.
Another movie that is set in the apocalyptic United States is I Am Legend. This film is a little bit different as it didn’t gain a huge following like some of the other examples did. I Am Legend follows virologist Robert Neville, who believes he is the last person to survive a virus that has affected the whole world, but for some reason he is immune to the virus itself, along with his German Shepherd dog named Sam. Robert is trying to find a link between his immune blood and cure to the virus. The people affected by the virus however, don’t appear to be your everyday, run of the mill type zombies, these ones appear to be more vampire-esque in nature as they cannot go out in sunlight, which causes burning pain. And if left in sunlight too long, even death. But besides that, they hold many characteristics with zombies, especially pertaining to the fact that they eat human flesh. These living dead creatures are shown to be more intelligent than similar characters in other forms of media. This film is also one that shows a very depressing outlook for the majority of the movie and how essential survival is for someone that believes he is the sole survivor and has no other humans or human interaction to fall back on in times of devastation and crisis.
The last of the forms of media that will be discussed is the 2013 film, Warm Bodies. The film is yet another taking the point of view of the zombie itself, following R, a zombie that seems to have some sort of coherent thoughts going through his mind, but can’t seem to get them out of his mind and into his mouth. He ends up saving a young woman named Julie from being attacked by other zombies in yet another apocalyptic setting. As the film progresses, R appears to become more human, and Julie wants to help him, as it could help save the rest of the zombie population, and in fact the entire world. They go through great lengths to try to convince government officials that they can cure zombies and save the world as they know it. This film is primarily a romantic comedy with a unique zombified twist.
Now with the various forms of media out of the way, it’s time to touch on an event that shows how fast we are to make things a bigger spectacle than it should be. In the summer of 2012 there was a news report of a man eating another man’s face off in Florida. This story spread like wildfire all over the internet, where it was later found that the man was under the influence of completely different drug, many were quick to claim that it was because of the drug deemed “bath salts” and that bath salts turned normal people into zombies or encouraged zombie like behavior. Then there were all sorts of claims on various places on the web, primarily social media, claiming more zombie like behavior because of bath salts. The waves of gossip soon diminished but it was important to mention in relations to how our society reacts.
Now to mention another occurrence that happens in our society but isn’t a one-time thing like the Florida incident, is the fact people actually put themselves in an apocalyptic mindset to actually live like they are ready for the end of the world, or various types of apocalypses. Some very devoted people have even created underground shelters for themselves, so they could be protected in case a catastrophe has occurred. Some people even live off of the grid, with no electricity, heat, money, running water, and no ties to modern society, they simply live off the land and rely solely on themselves. Others stock pile food, water, and have survival kits handy, and other necessities in order to be prepared just in case anything was to happen. Even more people are preparing themselves just in case the unbelievable were to happen.
There are many ways we as a society have obsessed with the zombie culture. Including popular television/streaming series The Walking Dead’s cult following, The Santa Clarita Diet’s abnormal origin story, as well as iZombie’s unusual story telling. When you include big Hollywood films in the picture for the whole world to see, it’s easy for that to spread easily as a zombie virus itself, especially when you look at films like Zombieland, I Am Legend, and Warm Bodies. Then you have to include moments in society where we actually let the zombie frenzy get the best of us like the Florida bath salts incident, as well as the many people living off the grid and such.
When looking at the various examples of how we as a society have let zombies infiltrated culturally, it’s easy to understand why. It’s because the zombie culture is so fascinating. It’s a way to escape ordinary day-to-day life and experience things differently, with more of an edge and risk, without actually being in harm’s way.