Ep 53: Zombie Tutorial

Topic: Zombies Tutorial

This week, recorded on April 1st 2020, I decided to have a topic that felt a little too close to home.  We're talking about Zombies, mostly because it's probably as close to a virus outbreak as we are now.  This episode is less to scare us about the COVID-19 concerns, but more or less a metaphor and possible future we can expect ourselves in.  Movies and media have always painted the future to come, so maybe there's something we can learn from Zombies as a whole.

 

Tutorial

What is a Zombie

Zombies are Dead humans who have been reanimated.  Depending on the origin, the reanimation process originally was due to magic: a Sorcerer would reanimate the dead and the death of the Sorcerer would end the reanimation.  More modern telling have the reanimation process involving some kind of science fiction, including carriers, plague, parasite, radiation, pathogens, disease, etc.  Some modern telling never actually go in to the logic or origin, leaving it vaguely defined or undefined.

 

Zombies are typically dead humans that have been reanimated.  Typically, these are only humans with some level of muscle mass, as skeleton Zombies are not common.  Depending on the media, though increasingly, Zombies are described as being pale in color, increasing amounts of decomposition, and inability to form rudimentary logic or communication, often hissing, growling, groaning, or moaning instead.  In the times that they are able to communicate, it often the sole term of “brains…”.

 

Though common, but not consistent, Zombies have a lumbering walk, with an inability to move beyond a slow walking pace, often without moving their knees, and limited motor skills with their arms and hands.  Some telling of zombies have them fully capable of a full sprint, chasing after victims, and full use of their hands and arms, though not the dexterity or skill to be able to items as anything but as a club or blunt object.  Depending on the media, some undead are fully capable complex thoughts and language, basically just a dead human continuing to live as if they weren’t dead.

 

Zombies are typically described by their desire to seek out the living, whether to continue to pass on the disease or to eat humans.  When their origin was magical, the Zombie was a lumbering tool intended to replace farm hands and manual labor.  Zombies can be found roaming in packs due to their mutual desire for humans, or lingering about in locations, shuffling by until a human is sensed.   Zombies are often acting upon instincts or singular desires, in most cases, to get humans and eat them.  Zombies, typically, do not go after animals, though Zombie Animals do exist.

 

A human bitten or scratched by the Zombie will die shortly after the attack and will in turn become a zombie.  In some cases, this process can take a longer period of time, or is instant.  Zombies will pass up dead humans and only focus on live ones, ie if a human just died due to gun shot, most Zombies will continue after the live humans rather than the recently deceased. Known ways to kill Zombies is to either shoot them in the head(Brain), shoot them in the heart, or burn them.  Different media though have expanded on this way to end them.

 

It is important to note that while some depictions of Zombies are noted as Ghouls, they are not exactly the same.  The major difference, in most cases, are that while Ghouls are Dead, they have some semblance of life still, IE, they can still think and interact with others.  Ghouls still desire Flesh like Zombies, but Zombies are mindless creatures acting on instinct, while Ghouls act on self preservation.  The line is blurred dramatically, as there is no common agreement as what differentiates a Zombies from a Ghoul, though it’s expected that Ghouls are a higher status than a Zombie, whether in function or existences.

 

History of Zombies

Zombies themselves, originated from Haitian Culture, as a part of the Voodoo religion and mythology.  The Sorcerer, a “Bokor” would raise the dead via Necromancy, and it was up to a Haitian priest (Houngan) to end the Necromancy.  The belief is based off Haitian slaves, carried over with some Shamanistic beliefs, as the religion of Voodoo evolved over the centuries of enslavement in Haiti.  In some cases, the slave drivers, often slaves themselves, and occasionally priests, would use the threat of becoming a Zombie to avoid suicide of the Slaves.  Only bad people became Zombies, ie, if you were a good worker and died, you returned to Africa, but if not, you were doomed to become a Zombie.

 

Zombies themselves spread to the west during the American occupation of Haiti from 1915-1934.  During this time, American writers were pulling from the Voodoo religion and using it in their books and stories.  The first known mention of Zombies is in William Seabrook's The Magic Island (1929), in which he described the Haitian Zombie and used the term for the first time.  Movies in the 1930s would being using the Haitian Zombies as elements in their film, with the first being White Zombie (1932).  Early uses of Zombies in movies were typically of the magical/voodoo variety, with someone claiming or using magical powers to bring back the dead.  Most of these movies were limited to horror, but were pulled out to action films in some cases, see James Bond in Live and Let Die that uses a Caribbean variation on Voodoo.

 

 

Modern Zombies

Zombies were changed entirely as we know them thanks to George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968).  Romero’s Zombies were not magical in origin, but vaguely defined scientific reason.  The film was also unique in that it used zombies less as a theme, but more a social commentary on our society.  This was the first Zombie movie as we know it today, and in which all Zombie media is typically based off.  Later films in the 70s would popularize the hunt for Brains and try to rationalize the origin of the Zombie out break. 

 

By the 80s and 90s, few zombie movies saw commercial success, with only a hand full with Zombies, but not necessarily Zombie films.  Early revival of the genre would start in Japan in 1996, where horror video games Resident Evil (BioHazard) and House of the Dead would spark an interest in Japanese culture and movies, with a number of movies coming out by late 90s.  Subsequent sequels to Resident Evil and House of the Dead would reach the west and spark a revival of the genre.  New titles like 28 Days Later(2002) and Shawn of the Dead (2004) would revive an interest in Zombie movies and show a growing interest during the early 2000s.  These newer entries in to Zombie popularized the ‘Running’ or ‘Smart’ Zombie, Zombies that were more aggressive and capable.

 

By 2010s, Zombies had become main stream, with the AMC premier of The Walking Dead in October of 2010 going on to become the most successful Zombie TV show ever, spawning over 11 seasons to date.  World War Z (2013) was one the highest grossing film in 2013, but also the highest grossing Zombie Film of all time.  Zombie movies were also branching out, offering that Zombies were more than just mindless creatures, but were human like.  These Zombies were still dead and craving flesh, but were still logical, rational, and otherwise normal, save for their new dead status and the desire for flesh.  This new take mirrored other supernatural mainstays like Vampires, where instead of being purely villains, they were also becoming more Human and sympathetic.

 

 

Zombies in Pop Culture

Zombies, themselves in media, represent the inherent vulnerability of society to the unexpected.  IE, we were never really prepared for Zombies and their growth is a lack of forethought in that it could happen, OR the ineptitude of our society, or government, to prevent/stop it.  As a subtext, they represent the slow march of Death coming for us, and our inability to stop it; Zombies are avoidable, even able to stave them off, but eventually, Zombies will be the death of us.  Zombies are also a symbolism for what we, or society, will become; themes of how the world changes are common in Zombie Media. 

 

Most narratives about Zombies follow a group attempting to survive the Zombies.  Most stories take place either during the initial wave of Zombie Out Breaks, IE, when the first cases start appearing, and hysteria sets in, or in a fictional Zombie Apocalypse.

• Initial Zombie Out Breaks depict a rapid devolving of society and all out chaos as Zombies over take our surroundings. Protagonists are often fleeing from one location to another, trying to avoid the Zombies by fortifying themselves, or being on move constantly.  These stories rarely end with the Zombies either dying out or a successful plan to halt their growth, but so much that the Protagonist got out and are safe, for now.
• Zombie Apocalypse depicts a world that is already over run by Zombies and survivors are merely the last waves of humans trying to survive. Their stories can revolve around society trying to survive can carry on, with the constant threat of Zombies just within arm’s reach.

 

Most Zombies media revolve around fear and self-preservation, which is manifested in survivors who are trying to grasp or rationalize the events around them.  Often, Zombie media is a character study of how people cope with stress and the situation around them: do they break down under the stress, create delusions about what’s happening, do they step up and become heroes they always knew they were, or do they survive until the next day?  Zombie media is also a breakdown of the world as much as it is their protagonists.  What does the world become once Zombies exist and how do we as society evolve or devolve as a result? 

 

Sometimes, Zombies aren’t called Zombies, but go by other names:

• Infected
• Walkers
• Undead
• Dead
• Lurkers
• Zoms
• Biters
• White Walkers
• Living Dead
• Ghouls
• Walking Dead

 

While most Zombie related media is horror driven, more recent affairs have given Zombies a humanistic side.  Warm Bodies (2013) depicted Zombies as a potential love interest and romantic.  Zombieland (2009) and Shawn of the Dead (2004) gave comedy to Zombies, playing off the tropes of Zombie movies for humor. 

 

Various Japanese media properties have given their own take on the Zombie: 

• Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress re-imagines a steampunk 18th century Japan with Kabane (Japanese for Corpse) as a stand in for Zombie
• High School of the Dead is a bog standard Zombie Break Out series, with plenty of fan service
• Zombie Land Saga imagines if Zombies became a Japanese Idol Group
• School-Live! Depicts a Zombie Apocalypse with cute, moe characters

Other Japanese properties use Zombies interchangeable as heroes.

 

 

Homework:

Shawn of the Death (2004)

ZombieLand (2009)

World War Z (2013)

Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies (2016)

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress  (2016)