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The zombie apocalypse is a particular scenario of apocalyptic fiction that customarily has a science fiction/horror rationale. In a zombie apocalypse, a widespread (usually global) rise of zombies (reanimated corpses) hostile to human life engage in a general assault on civilization. Those killed by zombies in turn rise as hostile zombies themselves. This causes the outbreak to become an exponentially growing crisis: the spreading "zombie plague" swamps normal military and law enforcement organizations, leading to the panicked collapse of civilian society until only isolated pockets of survivors remain, scavenging for food and supplies in a world suddenly reduced to a hostile wilderness.
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Genre clichés
There are several common story elements that create a zombie apocalypse. Firstly the context is created by the unprecedented generation of zombies; an event that has never happened before and impossible by any reasonable definition.
Secondly zombies begin attacking the living with those killed or infected also becoming zombies. Surviving characters react with initial disbelief to events until hostile encounters precipitates further action.
Thirdly authorities are slow to respond to the threat giving the zombies time to grow beyond containment. The zombies cannot be controlled despite the broad choice of countermeasures with available technologies. This outcome then results in the collapse of the given society. Zombies take full control while small groups of the living must fight for their survival.
Variations
Zombies apocalypses usually involve 'dead' zombies however the genre also employs other biological vectors that leave the victim alive but not human. For instance a virus created vampires in the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and the infected in the 2002 film 28 Days Later. A parasite was used in David Cronenberg's 1975 film Shivers and it was alien-human copies in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Dead zombies usually show the wounds that killed them. Otherwise physically they remain humanoid in appearance but non-sentient and bestial; only motivated to consume living humans or retransmit an infection to a new victim. Bites and clawing are the standard methods of zombie attack.
Originally non-living zombies would be characterized by slow jerky movements. Only proximity and numbers presented danger to survivors. But in recent years, the genre has seen 'undead' speeds increase as well as their strength. This can be seen in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead or the Resident Evil franchise.
Traditionally only decapitation or the destruction of the brain can stop or destroy a zombie. Story genres usually place survivors within a structure surrounded by zombies. If attacked, the zombies enter en masse swamping all resistance.
Despite the common foundation elements in the zombie apocalypse there are differences. This is because the genre is used to explore all manner of human emotions and social behaviour through extreme conditions. In an early example, the 1960s movie classic Night of the Living Dead, as zombies roamed around a farmhouse, a middle-class white family and some red necks have to rely on black actor Duane Jones for help at a time when the Civil Rights Movement in America was at its peak. Likewise characters that society has stereotyped as 'good' and 'bad' or 'strong' and 'weak' often see their roles reversed as events unfold in a zombie apocalypse. For instance, in the 2008 British TV series Dead Set a young TV runner, who is initially unempowered, becomes the survivors' leader.
Narrative
The stories usually follow a single group of survivors, caught up in the sudden rush of the crisis. The narrative generally progresses from the onset of the zombie plague, then initial attempts to seek the aid of authorities, the failure of those authorities, the sudden catastrophic collapse of all large-scale organization and the characters' subsequent attempts to survive on their own.
Such stories are often squarely focused on the way their characters react to such an extreme catastrophe, and how their personalities are changed by the stress. An example of this is the 2008 release Quarantine in which a virus turn residents in an apartment block into rabid killers. The film uses a TV crewman and his camera to reveal the events that occur as people become infected and begin attacking one another.
Subtext
The literary subtext of a zombie apocalypse is usually that civilization is inherently fragile in the face of truly unprecedented threats and that most individuals cannot be relied upon to support the greater good if the personal cost becomes too high. The narrative of a zombie apocalypse carries strong connections to the turbulent social landscape of the United States in the 1960's when the originator of this genre, the film Night of the Living Dead, was first created.
See also
- List of video games featuring zombies
- List of zombie films
- List of zombie novels
- Xombie, Flash cartoons by James Farr
- Zombie
- Zombie Squad, a non-profit charitable organization that uses an upcoming zombie apocalypse as its shtick
- Zombies in popular culture
- George Romero
External links
- "Zombie Movies from Hell". The Gothic Lilith eZine. Retrieved on 2007-04-27.
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 15 November 2008, at 21:35.
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