How to Survive a Real ‘walking Dead’ Zombie Apocalypse

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was brought back into normality by Dawn of the Dead (1979)

o The following decade had an average of 6 zombie movies per year (every 8 weeks avg.)

• After coming back into the spotlight, zombie movies focused around an apocalyptic event usually.

o Italy came out with films such as Burial Ground (1980), City of the Walking Dead (1980), The Gates of Hell (1980), and Night of the Zombies (1981).

o Zombie (1979) – started the second wave of popularity

 What is this second wave?

Mid 1980s Spoof Cycle:

• Michael Jackson’s thriller video (1983)

o ALSO: Bloodsuckers from Outer Space (1984), Hard Rock Zombies (1984), I Was a Teenage Zombie (1986), Redneck Zombies (1987), Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (1989)

 Lots of the fame and popularity here came from just applying zombies to unique situations.

• Return of the Living Dead (1985) – Specified that zombies specifically ate brains (ZOMBIE INNOVATION!)

o This was important because brains were the thing that zombies lacked, which is what drew them to it.

• Early 90’s was also when small zombie budget films were a thing. Many direct-to-dvd releases

• Resident Evil video game was being developed

Significance of Zombies:

• Essentially it’s a giant mockery of the ideal: Life after death

• Night of the Living Dead documents middle-class America’s eating of itself and the death of the nuclear family

• Dawn of the Dead exposes the viciousness of contemporary human society (and consumerism).

• More recently many zombie films have reflected plague anxiety.

January 24, 2017

Zombie Politics Reading Notes

Article: McIntosh, “The Evolution of the Zombie” pp. 1-16

• Zombies have embedded themselves in the popular imagination of culture throughout the past century

o This is because of what zombies represent: between control and enslavement, strength and weakness, us and them, and group vs. individual identity.

• Origin of the word Zombie likely comes from West African origin meaning cadaver of the deceased or from Kongo nzambi which means “spirit of a dead person”

In Haitian folklore, there are two types of Zombies:

• Spirit Zombies – less popular, but more powerful according to Haitians

o Souls without bodies

• Body Raised from the dead – the more popular one and what we see today. (physical zombies)

o Bodies without souls

• In Haitian society, turning into a zombie is a social sanction. Happens to those who are greatly disliked in a community.

o Haitians greatly fear being removed from “the many” and becoming “the one”

o Today, this is the opposite – we fear zombies because we lose individuality and go from being “the one” to “the many”

• Zombies are based around the fear of possession

Spoofing cycles of Zombies happened around the late ‘40s and early ‘50s…. There were so many films up to this time about zombies, it became expected and predictable.

Golden age of zombie movies: From 1968-1983 (ended with video of Thriller)

Because zombies evolved in the popular cultural imagination the way they did, they symbolize a monster that can be killed guilt-free. If they were built around the same facets of other monsters, there would be ethical questions when it came to us killing them.

January 26, 2017

Zombie Politics Reading Notes

Article: Wallenstein, “How ‘The Walking Dead’ Breaks Every Rule We Know About TV Hits” (5)

• The series is mainly popular among the 18-49 demographic (also managed to top the Olympics)

• It’s strange that the show is so popular, because it doesn’t fit into any mold like other shows.

o No famous actors, no massive awards

• It’s cable’s highest rated series

o 13M total viewers per episode in the first half of the fourth season (this article was written in 2014)

o Median age of viewers: 33

• Unlike some shows (where people wait until it comes out on Netflix) many people watch the show live overwhelmingly.

Experts think that the reason it’s so popular is because it plays more like a Holocaust drama than a horror pic.

• Many ethical questions are asked in this season (4) when the sickness breaks out.

The show humanized Governor (who was a mass murderer) by focusing a few episodes around him.

• When the show did this, they benched the entire cast for a few episodes

There is nothing sexy about The Walking Dead… ever.

• Rather than being on a broadcast TV network, Walking doesn’t have to follow specific rules that we would have otherwise certainly seen by now…

o The show can go SEASONS without mentioning a cure for the disease.

The article goes on to mention that the show is frequently shunned by critics who don’t give it credit when it’s stacked up against Mad Men or Breaking Bad. 

January 26, 2017

Zombie Politics Reading Notes

Article: Sandefur,