Zombies are taking over the world. The paranormal genre that zombies are featured in has been very busy in the past few years, producing movies and books for every sort of supernatural creature. The focus of the genre changes often, leaving fans constantly scrambling to catch the next new thing.
“People like to learn about things that aren’t real,” said sophomore Asante Jones. “It’s like when one thing big happens, people want to see more of it because it’s new.”
Lately, a new undead creature has risen to America’s spotlight: zombies. The walking, rotting undead have been trudging into Hollywood’s shows, and movies, along with young adult books the past year. The new zombie trend has quickly been replacing the older vampire phase, and zombies can now officially be named America’s New Number One Ghoul.
“Coming back to life is one of the most supernatural events there is,” said junior Brad Dreffer. “I think zombies are cool because they’re dead but they still walk around and eat people.”
The reason for the sudden switch from vampire to zombie is easy to explain; zombies are simply better. With more violence, more brain eating and the whole never stopping factor involved, zombies simply exceed vampires in the paranormal genre; after all, vampires can’t cause an apocalypse the way zombies can. The entertainment world has found their next, far more worthy star: zombies.
The fiendish creatures we all know and love were first featured in the film Night of the Living Dead when the idea of zombies was brought to the big screen in black and white. The movie brought to life a new kind of paranormal entity that had never been seen before, leaving viewers hooked.
When asked about zombies, freshman Ashley Marquez said, “They smell, are gory, very strong, and have no real sense, a dangerous combination.”
Since Night of the Living Dead, zombies have been widely portrayed by entertainment, authors, and video game companies. Zombies have either been depicted traditionally as slow, mindless corpses, or as fast, hungry corpses. The one constant thing that never changes is the fact that zombies are known for feeding on their victims.
Many popular movies play on the zombie craze. Many films such as 28 Days Later, I Am Legend, and Land of the Dead, all have a common theme of brain munching zombies. AMC created a recent show called The Walking Dead, a zombie apocalypse show that became an instantaneous hit. The success of the show has contributed to catching others eyes and furthering the zombie craze.
Authors in America are also catching on to the popularity that zombies have in pop culture recently. A slew of zombie books have been entering the Young Adult book world. The zombies in the books are portrayed like vampires were during the vampire craze, as love interests or friends rather than villains (though some are evil zombies). Popular zombie books are Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Forest of Hands and Teeth, and Generation Dead.
The fad has also affected video games. All too familiar are the new zombie games focusing on zombie apocalypses such as Call of the Dead, Resident Evil 4, and Left 4 Dead 2.
Even America’s Halloween horror enterprises are acknowledging zombies as the far superior undead monster. Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights chose this year’s theme to center around The Walking Dead.
Zombies are taking over the world step by step; there’s no telling what will come next.