The midnight hour is close at hand.
Creatures crawl in search of blood,
To terrorize yall’s neighborhood.
The zombie invasion is here. It’s a ghoul infestation and there is nowhere to turn. They are everywhere and rapidly increasing in numbers. It is almost overwhelming to see this many closing in on everyone. They’re restless and they’re hungry for our brains. These films jump onto our screens displaying a gruesome and disturbing image of the dead coming back to life to destroy mankind. The world turns into a crazy frenzy just trying to survive this epidemic. Typically, an explanation is given to us of why this terrible tragedy is happening. But why are these invasions happening? What do they mean? Why are we the monsters that are coming to destroy our own kind? These questions are very intriguing. Some of the possible answers are eye opening.
We have seen zombies in our films ever since the ground breaking film by George A. Romero, Night of the Living Dead (1968), which began a sub genre of flesh eating villains. There were other tales of zombies before it but Romero’s film put these creatures on the map of popular culture. The origins of the concept of zombies all together are still very vague. Some say that the concept came from voodoo descent from the Caribbean region, where those practices are alive. Others think of zombies to be a sign of the apocalypse. When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth with the living, with a lust for flesh. Other films and books like Max Brooks The Zombie Survival Guide, often originate zombie invasions from the likes of some scientific alteration to humans, whether it be radiation or some sort of virus that changes them into ghouls. No matter the origin, these creatures are here for some reason that goes deeper than just to feast on the buffet that is the human race for them.
Like most films, movies are thought of as a way of an expression from the director’s point of view. They also have a theme or themes about what they want to portray to the audience. This is no exception for the zombie invasion that we are and have been experiencing since the late sixties. These invasions have many political and social topics that are touched or based on. At first it is hard to see with meat hungry ghouls and action packed scenes with big guns and many deaths, which come back to life. But if you pay attention to some of the scenes it is very easy to catch the signs that these creatures portray.
One of the first things that I noticed was something about the survivors, or the protagonists of the movie. These survivors were always a diverse group. Racially, physically, gender wise, and even age differences are apparent in the set group of protagonists. It could mean a coming together of all kinds of people. And that it takes an apocalyptic epidemic for connections to come together between which has conflicts. I guess when there is a common cause to survive, people come together.
But I also recognized something else about these who fight for their lives. As much diversity that comes together in these groups, conflict always sneaks its way through the barricades. These people never agree on anything in such dangerous situations. In Night of the Living Dead, two of the protagonists argued about where to hold up in the house. One suggested the cellar because there was only one door and if they barricaded it then nothing could get in and they would be safe. The other brave and more sensible man said to stay on the first floor so they could see what was going on outside and if the ghouls did break through the group could have a means of escape instead of being trapped in a cellar. They spent a good amount of time arguing and the conflict didn’t help the odds of survival.
I believe this to be a portrayal of a war theme. Obviously, the people that are still alive are at war with the great living dead nemesis, but it shows a lot when the living who must stick together to stay alive cannot even do that, and then die a painful death. It’s a shot to division of political views in society. Political parties argue and with each other just to see the other side fail, with no question of what is morally or practically good. This reoccurring theme may or may not portray the corrupt nature of the political world, but knowing this pattern certainly makes it more likely.
Piggy banking off of that idea, morals and values are a great factor during these zombie invasions. People show their true colors when they are put to the test. When it comes to zombie infestations, people are going to do whatever they can to get what they want. In this case, survival. In Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978), two of the survivors are fighting of a herd of bikers that are trying to infiltrate their domain. One of them mutters to himself, “It’s ours……they took it,” and then angrily shoots at these bikers and potential enemies. Instead of trying to reason with these people, he instantly becomes selfish and tries to front their effort. Greed will imprison us all. That same survivor changed his status to the living dead later on in the film. Morally and emotionally stable people always seem to survive in these films, or at least last longer. It’s probably an important part in our lives to have good morals and values.
Finally, one of the greatest themes that people see in these walking dead is the consumerism. We are consumers in everything and everyday of our lives. We are constantly taking and buying things that are of no use to us. It is only to have the simple pleasure of possessing something that adds value to our lives, so we think.
Zombies eat us.
That is their form of consumerism. They are dead and have no reason to eat. It is not known if they have a sense of taste or a natural preference for human flesh because of taste, but whether they do or not, they would still eat us. That is what they do. They have known how to consume things from their lives and now that they are dead, they will continue this trend because it is their instinct.
There were many examples and hints at this in two of George A. Romero’s movies. In his famed Night of the Living Dead, one of the scenes in the first half of the movie shows one of the main characters, Barbara, running into a house trying to get away from a mysterious man. In this supposedly abandoned house, she finds a room decorated with the heads of hunted game all over the walls. Romero took close up shots of these animal heads, I think for emphasis on what he was trying to show the audience. To go and kill animals isn’t considered consumerism, unless you don’t use the animals for any use except for a room of mounted heads. As a prime example of consumerism, it only added to the zombie consuming of man example.
Another great example was in Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978). This movie has two SWAT team members, as well as a television reporter and her boyfriend that fly in a helicopter to an enormous shopping mall to hold a post. They find that this mall was no exception for the spreading of this creature hysteria. They figured that these living dead came here often because, “This was an important place in their lives.” David Emge, Dawn of the Dead (1978).
Looking at these films in great detail made it easier to understand the certain messages that the director’s are trying to portray, instead of just watching a horror film like a mindless brain-dead figure. With consumerism, war, and morals, it is easy to see that the zombie invasion is a way of looking at our true selves. War is always dwelling in the shadows in today societies, waiting to for many lives and ideals to be put at stake for different and possibly less important reasons. Morals and emotions impacts everybody in the world and it’ll only be a matter of time before those are thrown out the window and we do whatever it is we can do to stay safe. Even at the expense of others. And with all the materials we consume, it won’t be long till we turn to each other for consumption. The zombie invasion is here as a means of entertainment, but they rise to us to demonstrate that we will be the end of ourselves. We somehow created these ghouls during our time of life and now, they are back to show us the true nature of our beings.
The brain is the most important organ to a reanimated figure.
The zombie invasion will always come in more and more waves of zombies. Even though the human race is more intelligent than the creatures that seek our flesh, humans always up in demise.
The only way to kill a zombie is a shot or disposal of the head or brain.
Knowledge will lead us to victory, so we think. The shot to the brain is destroying the knowledge that led us to this undead epidemic. Unfortunately, we will be the end of ourselves, creatures or no creatures. The zombie invasion is here and ready for us to learn and listen. We just need to stop being zombies ourselves. Destroy the zombies.
And who so ever shall be found,
Without the soul for getting down,
Must stand and face the hounds of hell,
And rot inside a corpse’s shell.
No comments:
Post a Comment