Zombies in popular culture - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...

s are fictional undead

Undead

Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...

creatures regularly encountered in horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

and fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

themed works. They are typically depicted as mindless, reanimated corpses with a hunger for human flesh

Cannibalism

Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

, and in some cases, human brain

Human brain

The human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times larger than the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size. Estimates for the number of neurons in the human brain range from 80 to 120 billion...

s in particular. Although they share their name and some superficial similarities with the zombie from Hatain Vodun, their links to such folklore are unclear and many consider George A. Romero

George A. Romero

George Andrew Romero is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and editor, best known for his gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He is nicknamed "Godfather of all Zombies." -Life and career:...

's seminal film The Night of the Living Dead to be the progenitor of these creatures. By 2011 the influence of zombies in popular consciousness had reached far enough that government agencies were using them to garner greater attention in public service messages.

Evolution of the zombie archetype

The flesh-hungry undead

Undead

, often in the form of ghoul

Ghoul

A ghoul is a folkloric monster associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh, often classified as undead. The oldest surviving literature that mention ghouls is likely One Thousand and One Nights...

s and vampire

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

s, have been a fixture of world mythology dating at least since The Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the goddess Ishtar promises:

I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld,

I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat down,

and will let the dead go up to eat the living!

And the dead will outnumber the living!

Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...

by Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...

, while not a zombie novel proper, prefigures many 20th century ideas about zombies in that the resurrection of the dead is portrayed as a scientific process rather than a mystical one, and that the resurrected dead are degraded and more violent than their living selves. Frankenstein, published in 1818, has its roots in European folklore, whose tales of vengeful dead also informed the evolution of the modern conception of vampire

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

s as well as zombies. Later notable 19th century stories about the avenging undead included Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...

's "The Death of Halpin Frayser", and various Gothic Romanticism tales by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

. Though their works couldn't be properly considered zombie fiction, the supernatural tales of Bierce and Poe would prove influential on later undead-themed writers such as H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

, by Lovecraft's own admission.

One book to expose more recent western culture to the concept of the zombie was The Magic Island by W.B. Seabrook in 1929. Island is the sensationalized account of a narrator in Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

who encounters voodoo cults and their resurrected thralls. Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

claimed that the book "introduced 'zombi' into U.S. speech".

In the 1920s and early 1930s, the American horror author H. P. Lovecraft wrote several novelettes that explored the undead theme from different angles. "Cool Air

Cool Air

"Cool Air" is a short story by the American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in March 1926 and published in the March 1928 issue of Tales of Magic and Mystery.-Inspiration:...

", "In the Vault

In the Vault

"In the Vault" is a short story by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written on September 18, 1925 and first published in the November 1925 issue of the amateur press journal Tryout.-Inspiration:...

", and "The Outsider

The Outsider (short story)

"The Outsider" is a short story by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between March and August 1921, it was first published in Weird Tales, April 1926. In this work, a mysterious man who has been living alone in a castle for as long as he can remember decides to break free in search...

" all deal with the undead, but the most definitive "zombie-type" story in Lovecraft's oeuvre was 1921's Herbert West–Reanimator, which "helped define zombies in popular culture". This Frankenstein-inspired series featured Herbert West

Herbert West

Herbert West is a fictional character created by H. P. Lovecraft for his short story "Herbert West—Reanimator", first published in 1922. There have been several adaptations of the story including Herbert West as played by Jeffrey Combs in the 1985 Re-Animator movie and its two sequels, Bride...

, a mad scientist

Mad scientist

A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...

who attempts to revive human corpses with mixed results. Notably, the resurrected dead are uncontrollable, mostly mute, primitive and extremely violent; though they are not referred to as zombies, their portrayal was prescient, anticipating the modern conception of zombies by several decades.

In 1932, Victor Halperin directed White Zombie
White Zombie (film)
White Zombie is a 1932 American independent Pre-Code horror film directed and produced by brothers Victor Halperin and Edward Halperin, respectively. The screenplay by Garnett Weston tells the story of a young woman's transformation into a zombie at the hands of an evil voodoo master. Béla Lugosi...

, a horror film starring Bela Lugosi

Béla Lugosi

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...

. This film, capitalizing on the same voodoo zombie themes as Seabrook's book of three years prior, is often regarded as the first legitimate zombie film ever made. Here zombies are depicted as mindless, unthinking henchmen under the spell of an evil magician. Zombies, often still using this voodoo-inspired rationale, were initially uncommon in cinema, but their appearances continued sporadically through the 1930s to the 1960s, with notable films including I Walked With a Zombie
I Walked with a Zombie
I Walked with a Zombie is a 1943 horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur. It was the second horror film from producer Val Lewton for RKO Pictures; the first was the very successful Cat People, also directed by Tourneur...

(1943) and the infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space
Plan 9 from Outer Space
Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1959 science fiction film written and directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr. The film features Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson and Maila "Vampira" Nurmi...

(1959).

The 1936 film Things to Come
Things to Come
Things to Come is a British science fiction film produced by Alexander Korda and directed by William Cameron Menzies. The screenplay was written by H. G. Wells and is a loose adaptation of his own 1933 novel The Shape of Things to Come and his 1931 non-fiction work, The Work, Wealth and Happiness...

, based on the novel by H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

, anticipates later zombie films with an apocalyptic scenario surrounding "the wandering sickness", a highly contagious viral plague that causes the infected to wander slowly and insensibly, very much like zombies, infecting others on contact. Though this film's direct influence on later films isn't known, Things to Come is still compared favorably by some critics to modern zombie movies.

Avenging zombies would feature prominently in the early 1950s EC Comics

EC Comics

Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...

such as Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt (comic)
Tales from the Crypt, The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror are three bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics in the early 1950s...

, which George A. Romero

George A. Romero

would later claim as an influence. The comics, including Tales, Vault of Horror and Weird Science, featured avenging undead in the Gothic tradition quite regularly, including adaptations of Lovecraft's stories which included "In the Vault", "Cool Air" and Herbert West–Reanimator.

The 1954 publication of I Am Legend, by author Richard Matheson

Richard Matheson

Richard Burton Matheson is an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is perhaps best known as the author of What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return, A Stir of Echoes, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and I Am Legend, all of which have been...

, would further influence the zombie genre. It is the story of a future Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, overrun with undead bloodsucking beings. Notable as influential on the zombie genre is the portrayal of a worldwide apocalypse

Apocalypse

An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...

due to the infestation, in addition to the initial conception of vampirism as a disease

Disease

A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...

(a scenario comparable to recent zombie media such as Resident Evil). The novel was a success, and would be adapted to film as The Last Man on Earth in 1964, as The Omega Man
The Omega Man
The Omega Man is a 1971 American science fiction film directed by Boris Sagal and starring Charlton Heston. It is based on the novel I Am Legend by American writer Richard Matheson...

in 1971, and again in 2007 as I Am Legend
I Am Legend (film)
I Am Legend is a 2007 post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It is the third feature film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same name, following 1964's The Last Man on Earth and 1971's The Omega Man. Smith plays virologist Robert...

.

Although classified as a vampire story and referred to as "the first modern vampire novel", Legend had definitive impact on the zombie genre by way of George A. Romero. Romero was heavily influenced by the novel and its 1964 adaptation when writing the film Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent black-and-white zombie film and cult film directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a USD$114,000 budget. After decades of cinematic re-releases, it...

, by his own admission. Critics have also noted extensive similarities between Night and Last Man on Earth, indicating further influence.

Night of the Living Dead, a taboo-breaking and genre-defining classic, would prove to be more influential on the concept of zombies than any literary or cinematic work before it.

George A. Romero and the modern zombie film

The modern conception of the zombie owes itself almost entirely to George A. Romero

George A. Romero

's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent black-and-white zombie film and cult film directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a USD$114,000 budget. After decades of cinematic re-releases, it...

. In his films, Romero "bred the zombie with the vampire, and what he got was the hybrid vigour of a ghoulish plague monster". This entailed an apocalyptic vision of monsters that have come to be known as Romero zombies.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...

chided theater owners and parents who allowed children access to the film. "I don't think the younger kids really knew what hit them," complained Ebert. "They were used to going to movies, sure, and they'd seen some horror movies before, sure, but this was something else." According to Ebert, the film affected the audience immediately:

The kids in the audience were stunned. There was almost complete silence. The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. There was a little girl across the aisle from me, maybe nine years old, who was sitting very still in her seat and crying.

Romero's reinvention of zombies is notable in terms of its thematics; he used zombies not just for their own sake, but as a vehicle "to criticize real-world social ills—such as government ineptitude, bioengineering, slavery, greed and exploitation—while indulging our post-apocalyptic fantasies". Night was the first of six films in the Living Dead series.

Innately tied with the conception of the modern zombie is the "zombie apocalypse

Zombie apocalypse

A zombie apocalypse is a particular scenario of apocalyptic literature that customarily has a science fiction/horror rationale. In a zombie apocalypse, a widespread rise of zombies hostile to human life engages in a general assault on civilization....

", the breakdown of society as a result of zombie infestation, portrayed in countless zombie-related media post-Night. Scholar Kim Paffrenroth notes that "more than any other monster, zombies are fully and literally apocalyptic ... they signal the end of the world as we have known it."

Night made no reference to the creatures as "zombies". In the film, they are referred as "ghoul

Ghoul

s" on the TV news reports. However, the word zombie is used continually by Romero in his 1978 script for Dawn of the Dead, including once in dialog. This "retroactively fits (the creatures) with an invisible Haiti

Haiti

an/African prehistory, formally introducing the zombie as a new archetype".

Dawn of the Dead was released under this title just months before the release of Lucio Fulci

Lucio Fulci

Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...

's Zombi II (1979). Fulci's gory epic was filmed at the same time as Romero's Dawn, despite the popular belief that it was made in order to cash in on the success of Dawn. The only reference to Dawn was the title change to Zombi II (Dawn generally went by Zombi or Zombie in other countries.)

The early 1980s was notable for the introduction of zombies into Chinese

Cinema of China

The Chinese-language cinema has three distinct historical threads: Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China, and Cinema of Taiwan. Since 1949 the cinema of mainland China has operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and...

and other Asian films, often martial arts/horror crossover films, that featured zombies as thralls animated by magic for purposes of battle. Though the idea never had large enough appeal to become a sub-genre, zombies are still used as martial-arts villains in some films today.

1981's Hell of the Living Dead
Hell of the Living Dead
Virus: Hell of the Living Dead is a 1980 horror film, specifically a zombie movie, directed by Bruno Mattei.The film is also known as Virus , as well as Night of the Zombies and Zombie Creeping Flesh.-Plot:The film opens at a top secret chemical research facility called Hope Center #1 where a...

was the first film to reference a mutagenic gas as a source of zombie contagion, later echoed by Trioxin in Dan O'Bannon

Dan O'Bannon

Daniel Thomas "Dan" O'Bannon was an American motion picture screenwriter, director and occasional actor, usually in the science fiction and horror genres.-Early life and career:...

's 1985 film, Return of the Living Dead
Return of the Living Dead
The Return of the Living Dead is a 1985 American zombie film that was followed by several sequels. The film was written and directed by Dan O'Bannon and starred Clu Gulager, James Karen and Don Calfa....

. RotLD took a more comedic approach than Romero's films; Return was the first film to feature zombies which hungered specifically for brains instead of all human flesh (this included the vocalization of "Brains!" as a part of zombie vocabulary), and is the source of the now-familiar cliché of brain-devouring zombies seen elsewhere.

The mid-1980s produced few zombie films of note. Perhaps the most notable entry, the Evil Dead series, while highly influential are not technically zombie films but films about demonic possession

Demonic possession

Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...

, despite the presence of the undead. 1985's Re-Animator
Re-Animator
Re-Animator is a 1985 American science fiction horror film based on the H. P. Lovecraft story "Herbert West–Reanimator." Directed by Stuart Gordon, it was the first film in the Re-Animator series. The film has since become a cult film, driven by fans of Jeffrey Combs and H. P...

, loosely based on the Lovecraft story, stood out in the genre, achieving nearly unanimous critical acclaim, and becoming a modest success, nearly outstripping 1985's Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality...

for box office returns. Lovecraft's prescient depiction is notable here; the zombies in the film are consistent with other zombie films of the period, and it may escape the viewer that they are nearly unchanged from the 1921 story.

Also in 1988, the Romero zombies were featured in Waxwork
Waxwork (1988 film)
Waxwork is a 1988 horror comedy film starring Zach Galligan and Deborah Foreman.-Plot:In a small suburban town a wax museum appears, seemingly overnight. The owner invites two college students, Sarah and China, to attend that night with four more guests of their choice...

, where the protagonists are drawn to the world of Night of the Living Dead.

After the mid-1980s, the subgenre was mostly relegated to the underground. Notable entries include director Peter Jackson's

Peter Jackson

Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...

ultra-gory film Braindead
Braindead (1992 film)
Braindead , released as Dead Alive in North America, is a cult zombie comedy splatstick horror film directed by Peter Jackson. The film is universally regarded as being one of the goriest films of all time...

(1992) (released as Dead Alive in the U.S.), Bob Balaban's

Bob Balaban

Robert Elmer "Bob" Balaban is an American actor, author and director.-Personal life:Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eleanor and Elmer Balaban, who owned several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television...

comic 1993 film My Boyfriend's Back
My Boyfriend's Back (film)
My Boyfriend's Back is a 1993 American romantic black comedy/fantasy/horror film directed by Bob Balaban which tells the story of Johnny Dingle, a teenage boy who returns from the dead as a zombie to meet Missy McCloud, the girl he's in love with, for a date...

where a self-aware high school boy returns to profess his love for a girl and his love for human flesh, and Michele Soavi's Dellamorte Dellamore (1994) (released as Cemetery Man in the U.S.). Several years later, zombies experienced a renaissance in low-budget Asian cinema, with a sudden spate of dissimilar entries including Bio Zombie
Bio Zombie
Bio Zombie is a 1998 Hong Kong zombie-comedy film, starring Jordan Bem Chan. It spoofs George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead and shows many similarities to Peter Jackson's Braindead.- Plot :...

(1998), Wild Zero
Wild Zero
Wild Zero is a 2000 Japanese "Jet rock 'n' roll" zombie horror comedy cult classic directed by Tetsuro Takeuchi, and starring the Japanese garage punk band Guitar Wolf...

(1999), Junk
Junk (film)
is a Japanese Yakuza Zombie movie directed by Atsushi Muroga. Shot in 1999 and produced by Japan Home Video, it is essentially a remake of a Japanese mafia movie called "Score" also directed by Muroga, but this time with zombies getting in the way of being paid for the heist. The movie pays homage...

(1999), Versus
Versus (film)
is a 2000 Japanese action/horror film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura.-Synopsis:After escaping from police custody, Prisoner KSC2-303 and a fellow escapee join with a group of mobsters in a forest that is one of the 666 portals that act as a connection between this world and the next, called "The...

(2000) and Stacy
Stacy (film)
Stacy is a Japanese horror comedy film, released in 2001. It is based on a novel by Kenji Otsuki directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu, in which teenage girls turn into zombies....

(2001).

In Disney's 1993 film Hocus Pocus, a "good zombie", Billy Butcherson played by Doug Jones

Doug Jones (actor)

Doug Jones is an American film and television actor best known to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fans for his various roles playing non-human characters, often in heavy makeup, in films and television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth and Fantastic Four: Rise...

, was introduced, giving yet a new kind of zombie in an intelligent, gentle, kind, and heroic being.

The turn of the millennium coincided with a decade of box office successes in which the zombie sub-genre experienced a resurgence: the Resident Evil
Resident Evil (film)
Resident Evil is a British-German 2002 horror film written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. The film stars Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, and James Purefoy...

movies (2002, 2004, 2007, 2010); the Dawn of the Dead remake

Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)

Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his directorial debut. It is a remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film of the same name and stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, and Jake Weber. The film depict a handful of human survivors living in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin shopping mall...

(2004), the British films 28 Days Later
28 Days Later
28 Days Later is an acclaimed 2002 British horror film directed by Danny Boyle. The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, and the film stars Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston...

and 28 Weeks Later
28 Weeks Later
28 Weeks Later is a 2007 British/Spanish film sequel to the 2002 post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Days Later. 28 Weeks Later was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and released in the United Kingdom and United States on 11 May 2007...

(2002, 2007) and the comedy/homage Shaun of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British zombie comedy directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and written by Pegg and Wright. Pegg plays Shaun, a man attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he deals with his girlfriend, his mother and stepfather...

(2004). The new interest allowed Romero to create the fourth entry in his zombie series: Land of the Dead
Land of the Dead
For the disambiguation page on anything else on this topic, come here to Land of the Dead .Land of the Dead is a 2005 horror film written and directed by George A...

, released in the summer of 2005. Romero has recently returned to the beginning of the series with the films Diary of the Dead
Diary of the Dead
Diary of the Dead is a 2007 American/Canadian horror film by George A. Romero...

(2008) and Survival of the Dead (2010).

The depiction of zombies as biologically infected people has become increasingly popular, likely due to the 28 Days Later and Resident Evil series. 2006's Slither featured zombies infected with alien parasites, and 2007's Planet Terror
Planet Terror
Planet Terror is a 2007 American action horror film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, about a group of people attempting to survive an onslaught of zombie-like creatures as they feud with a military unit, including a go-go dancer searching for a way to use her "useless talents." The film, a...

featured a zombie outbreak caused by a biological weapon. The comedy films Zombie Strippers
Zombie Strippers
Zombie Strippers is a 2008 zombie comedy, written and directed by Jay Lee, starring Robert Englund, Jenna Jameson, and Tito Ortiz and distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film is loosely based on Eugene Ionesco's classic play Rhinoceros....

, Zombieland
Zombieland
Zombieland is a 2009 American zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse...

and Fido
Fido (film)
Fido is a 2006 Canadian zombie comedy film directed by Andrew Currie and written by Robert Chomiak, Currie, and Dennis Heaton from an original story by Heaton...

have also taken this approach.

Zombies in recent popular culture have considerably increased their locomotion, as exampled in recent movies like 28 Days Later
28 Days Later
28 Days Later is an acclaimed 2002 British horror film directed by Danny Boyle. The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, and the film stars Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston...

(and its sequel, 28 Weeks Later
28 Weeks Later
28 Weeks Later is a 2007 British/Spanish film sequel to the 2002 post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Days Later. 28 Weeks Later was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and released in the United Kingdom and United States on 11 May 2007...

), the Dawn of the Dead remake

Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)

, House of the Dead
House of the Dead (film)
House of the Dead is a 2003 action-horror film adaptation of the successful 1996 light gun arcade game of the same name produced by Sega. The film was directed by Uwe Boll. The film was universally panned by critics.-Plot:...

, Zombieland
Zombieland
Zombieland is a 2009 American zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse...

and the video game Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It was developed by Turtle Rock Studios, which was purchased by Valve Corporation during development. The game uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X...

. In contrast, zombies have historically been portrayed as slow.

As part of this resurgence, there have been numerous direct-to-video

Direct-to-video

Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

(or DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

) zombie movies made by low-budget filmmakers using digital video

Digital video

Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...

. A proliferation of 'documentary-style' zombie films has resulted, including The Zombie Diaries, American Zombie and Colin
Colin (film)
Colin is a 2008 English zombie film which, after a successful run in a number of film festivals, went on to be shown at Cannes in 2009. Applauded for its success despite its low budget, the total cost of production was reportedly £45...

, each taking distinct approaches to the undead phenomenon.

Zombie apocalypse

The zombie apocalypse is a particular scenario of apocalyptic fiction

Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction

Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural...

that customarily has a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

/horror

Horror fiction

rationale. In a zombie apocalypse, a widespread (usually global) rise of zombies hostile to human life engages in a general assault on civilization. Victims of zombies may become zombies themselves. This causes the outbreak to become an exponentially growing crisis: the spreading "zombie plague/virus" 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 reduced to a pre-industrial hostile wilderness.

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 1960s when the originator of this genre, the film Night of the Living Dead, was first created. Many also feel that zombies allow people to deal with their own anxiety about the end of the world. In fact the breakdown of society as a result of zombie infestation has been portrayed in countless zombie-related media since Night of the Living Dead. One scholar concluded that "more than any other monster, zombies are fully and literally apocalyptic ... they signal the end of the world as we have known it."

Due to a large number of thematic films and video games, the idea of a zombie apocalypse has entered the mainstream and there have been efforts by many fans to prepare for the hypothetical future zombie apocalypse. Efforts include creating weapons and selling posters to inform people on how to survive a zombie outbreak.

In print and literature

Though zombies have appeared in many books prior to and after Night of the Living Dead, it wouldn't be until 1990 that zombie fiction emerged as a distinct literary subgenre, with the publication of Book of the Dead
Book of the Dead (anthology)
Book of the Dead is an anthology of horror stories first published in 1989, edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector. All the stories in the anthology are united by the same premise seen in the apocalyptic films of George A. Romero, depicting a worldwide outbreak of zombies and various reactions to it...

in 1990 and its follow-up Still Dead: Book of the Dead 2 in 1992, both edited by horror authors John Skipp

John Skipp

John Skipp is a splatterpunk horror and fantasy author and anthology editor, as well as a songwriter, screenwriter, film director, and film producer. He collaborated with Craig Spector on the 1989 anthology Book of the Dead, and has also collaborated with Marc Levinthal and Cody Goodfellow...

and Craig Spector

Craig Spector

Craig Spector is a bestselling author and screenwriter whose eleven books have sold millions of copies and are reprinted in nine languages.-Biography:...

. Featuring Romero-inspired stories from the likes of Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

and other famous names, the Book of the Dead compilations are regarded as influential in the horror genre and perhaps the first true "zombie literature".

Recent zombie fiction of note includes Brian Keene

Brian Keene

Brian Keene is an American author, primarily of horror, crime fiction, and comic books. He has won two Bram Stoker Awards.- Background :Keene was born in 1967. He grew up in both Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and many of his books take place in these locales. After graduating high school, he...

's 2005 novel The Rising, followed by its sequel City of the Dead, which deal with a worldwide apocalypse of intelligent zombies, caused by demonic possession. Though the story took many liberties with the zombie concept, The Rising proved itself to be a success in the subgenre, even winning the 2005 Bram Stoker award.

Famed horror novelist Stephen King

Stephen King

has mined the zombie theme, first with 1990's "Home Delivery", written for the aforementioned Book of the Dead compilation and detailing a small town's attempt to defend itself from a classic zombie outbreak. In 2006 King published Cell
Cell (novel)
Cell is an apocalyptic horror novel published by American author Stephen King in 2006. The story follows a New England artist struggling to reunite with his young son after a mysterious signal broadcast over the global cell phone network turns the majority of his fellow humans into mindless vicious...

, which concerns a struggling young artist on a trek from Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

to Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

in hopes of saving his family from a possible worldwide zombie outbreak, created by "The Pulse", a global electromagnetic phenomenon that turns the world's cellular phone users into bloodthirsty, zombie-like maniacs. Cell was a number-one bestseller upon its release

Aside from Cell, the most well-known current work of zombie fiction is 2006's World War Z
World War Z
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is a 2006 post-apocalyptic horror novel by Max Brooks. It is a follow-up to his 2003 book The Zombie Survival Guide. Rather than a grand overview or narrative, World War Z is a collection of individual accounts in the form of first-person anecdote...

by Max Brooks

Max Brooks

Maximillian Michael "Max" Brooks is an American author and screenwriter, with a particular interest in zombies. Brooks is also a television and voice-over actor.- Early life and education :...

, which was an immediate hit upon its release and a New York Times bestseller. Brooks had previously authored the cult hit The Zombie Survival Guide
The Zombie Survival Guide
The Zombie Survival Guide, written by American author Max Brooks and published in 2003, is a survival manual dealing with the fictional potentiality of a zombie attack. It contains detailed plans for the average citizen to survive zombie uprisings of varying intensity and reach, and describes...

, an exhaustively researched, zombie-themed parody of pop-fiction survival guides published in 2003. Brooks has said that zombies are so popular because:
David Wellington's trilogy of zombie novels began in 2004 with Monster Island
Monster Island (novel)
"Zombie Island" redirects here. For the Scooby Doo movie, see Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.Monster Island is a novel of the zombie apocalypse horror sub-genre by David Wellington, published in serial online in August, 2004 and in print in April, 2006....

, followed by two sequels, Monster Nation
Monster Nation (novel)
Monster Nation is a serial novel by David Wellington. It concerns the opening days of a zombie apocalypse and the end of the world.The novel was originally serialized online. It is a prequel to Monster Island.-Plot:...

and Monster Planet
Monster Planet (novel)
Monster Planet is a serial novel by David Wellington. It is the third and final novel in the author's Monster series of zombie apocalypse horror.-Plot introduction:Monster Planet takes place twelve years after the events in Monster Island...

. The Monster Trilogy reveals the flesh-eating urge of the zombie is caused by a desire for life force, a golden energy that is found in living organisms. When pushed, Wellington's zombies will even consume plant matter. The reader is informed of this golden energy via the accounts of Liches, individuals who have voluntarily or involuntarily managed to maintain the flow of oxygen to the brain during death and emerge 'zombified' yet intelligent.

Jonathan Maberry

Jonathan Maberry

Jonathan Maberry is the multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Ghost Road Blues, the first of the Pine Deep Trilogy, a series of supernatural horror novels...

's Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead, released in August 2008, interviewed over 250 experts in forensics, medicine, science, law enforcement, the military and similar disciplines to discuss how the real world would react, research and respond to zombies. Maberry has also created a new series, the first being Rot and Ruin, a continuation of a short story he wrote in the anthology The New Dead. Rot and Ruin is succeeded by Death and Decay.

In the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials
His Dark Materials
His Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman comprising Northern Lights , The Subtle Knife , and The Amber Spyglass...

by Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...

, a zombie is described as a human who has been artificially separated from his soul (which, in the alternate world of the novels, takes the form of a visible animal-shaped companion called dæmon
Dæmon (His Dark Materials)
A dæmon is a manifestation of a person's soul in the Philip Pullman trilogy His Dark Materials. Humans in every universe are said to have dæmons, although in some universes they are visible as entities physically separate from their humans, and take the form of animals, while in other universes...

) by means of a process called intercision
Intercision
Intercision is a type of fictional operation in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy that separates an individual from their dæmon. In effect, the operation separates the person from his or her soul, while leaving the person alive, though having the behavioral and cognitive characteristics...

. When the intercision is performed on an adult, the victim is prived of many human characteristics, most notably his free will. Some African tribes traditionally use this process in order to create slaves that will work day and night without ever running away or complaining, and with no fear of death or injury. The novels' main villain, Marisa Coulter

Marisa Coulter

Marisa Coulter is a fictional character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and one of the main antagonists of Northern Lights. As with her lover, Lord Asriel, Mrs. Coulter undergoes several transformations during the series.-Lyra:In the beginning of the book The Northern Lights Marisa...

, also uses intercision to create apathic and obedient servants, bodyguards and soldiers.

J. K. Rowling

J. K. Rowling

Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE , better known as J. K. Rowling, is the British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series...

includes zombies, known as Inferi, in the sixth book

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth and penultimate novel in the Harry Potter series by British author J. K. Rowling...

of her Harry Potter series. The Inferi are dead humans who are re-animated by Dark Magic.

By 2009, zombies became all the rage in literature:
The 2009 mashup novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a 2009 parody novel by Seth Grahame-Smith. It is a mashup combining Jane Austen's classic 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice with elements of modern zombie fiction, crediting Austen as co-author...

by Seth Grahame-Smith

Seth Grahame-Smith

Seth Grahame-Smith is an American best-selling author, screenwriter, and producer of film and television. He is best known as the author of The New York Times best-selling novels Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, both of which are being adapted as feature films...

combines the full text of Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...

by Jane Austen

Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...

with a story about a zombie epidemic within the novel's British Regency period setting. Other pastiche

Pastiche

A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...

s of classic works include Canadian Coscom Entertainment

Coscom Entertainment

Coscom Entertainment is a Canadian publisher. It is mainly known for comic books, although it is now publishing an increasing range of mashup books combining classical public domain literature with zombie fiction. Publications include Ryan C. Thomas's The Summer I Died, works by author and...

's adaptations of War of the Worlds, Huckleberry Finn

Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic Mark Twain novel.Huckleberry Finn may also refer to:*Huckleberry Finn , a fictional character in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer...

, The Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...

, Dracula

Dracula

Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...

, Robin Hood

Robin Hood

Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....

mythos and Alice in Wonderland, now all with added zombie content.

Other zombie appearances have been cataloged in dozens of novels, comics, and webcomics. Like vampires and other famous archetypal creatures, the zombie archetype has spread so far and wide that it is impossible to provide a definitive list of resources, though certain websites keep note of zombie references in detail.

In comics

The fictional Disney cartoon character Bombie the Zombie, created by Carl Barks

Carl Barks

Carl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...

, first appeared in the Voodoo Hoodoo strip in 1949. Bombie had been reanimated by an African voodoo sorcerer, and was sent on a mission to poison Scrooge McDuck

Scrooge McDuck

Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Scrooge is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a red or blue frock coat, top hat, pince-nez glasses, and spats...

. Later on Don Rosa

Don Rosa

Keno Don Hugo Rosa, known simply as Don Rosa, is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck and other characters created by Carl Barks for Disney comics, such as The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.-Early life:Don Rosa's grandfather,...

reused the character in his own McDuck stories.

Robert Kirkman

Robert Kirkman

Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer best known for his work on The Walking Dead and Invincible for Image Comics, and Ultimate X-Men and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt...

, an admirer of Romero, has contributed to the recent popularity of the genre in comics, first by launching his self-published comic book The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead is a monthly black-and-white US comic book series published by Image Comics beginning in 2003. The comic was created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore, who was replaced by Charlie Adlard from issue #7 onward, although Moore continued to do the covers through issue...

, then by writing Marvel Zombies

Marvel Zombies

Marvel Zombies is a five-issue limited series published from December 2005 to April 2006 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Robert Kirkman with art by Sean Phillips and covers by Arthur Suydam. It was the first series in the Marvel Zombies series of related stories...

in 2006. In response to its competitor's popular series, DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

' Geoff Johns

Geoff Johns

Geoff Johns is an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics, where he has been Chief Creative Officer since February 2010, in particular for characters such as Green Lantern, The Flash and Superman...

introduced a revenant-staffed Black Lantern Corps

Black Lantern Corps

The Black Lantern Corps is a fictional organization of revenants appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The group is composed of deceased fictional characters that seek to eliminate all life from the DC Universe.-Publication history:...

, consisting of the maliciously animated corpses of fallen DC metahumans during its current Blackest Night story arc.

DC Comics

DC Comics

continued producing zombie comics on their digital imprint Zuda Comics

Zuda Comics

Zuda Comics was DC Comics' webcomics imprint from 2007 until 2010. It featured comics for Flash player instead of in a web page. Announced in a press release on July 9, 2007 and the first ongoing series and competing comic entries went live October 30, 2007...

. The Black Cherry Bombshells

The Black Cherry Bombshells

The Black Cherry Bombshells is a webcomic from DC imprint Zuda Comics, created by Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, illustrated by Sacha Borisich and colors by John Dallaire. It was selected as winner of Zuda's March 2008 competition.- Synopsis :...

takes place in a world of all where all the men have turned into zombies and women gangs fight with them and each other.

In 1973, Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

launched a black and white magazine series entitled Tales of the Zombie featuring the adventures of Simon William Garth aka the Zombie

Zombie (comics)

The Zombie is a fictional supernatural character appearing in books published by Marvel Comics, in particular starred in the black-and-white, horror-comic magazine series Tales of the Zombie , usually in stories by Steve Gerber and Pablo Marcos...

. After the series ended in 1975, the character was resurrected in 1993 and has appeared a few times in Spider-Man

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...

-related comic book series.

The Amazing Joy Buzzards

Amazing Joy Buzzards

The Amazing Joy Buzzards is a comic book series created by Mark Andrew Smith and Dan Hipp. The Amazing Joy Buzzards was first published in January 2005 by Image Comics.The Amazing Joy Buzzards ran as two limited series...

from Image Comics

Image Comics

Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...

presents Hollywood Zombies who have been zombified by the villain Hypno who are attacking the band.

The manga and anime series Highschool of the Dead

Highschool of the Dead

is a manga series written by Daisuke Satō and illustrated by Shōji Satō. The story follows a group of high school students caught in the middle of a zombie apocalypse...

, which was released in 2006 for manga and anime in July 2010. The series follows a group of high school students who were caught in a middle of a pandemic attack throughout Japan and around the world. The survivors are now currently trying to live through the pandemic attack, wandering throughout Japan to find refuge.

In television

One of the most famous zombie-themed television appearances was 1983's Thriller
Thriller (music video)
Michael Jackson's Thriller is a 14-minute music video for the song of the same name released on December 2, 1983 and directed by John Landis, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jackson....

, a Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

featuring choreographed zombies dancing with the singer. Many pop culture media have paid tribute to this scene alone, including zombie films such as Return of the Living Dead 2.

Romero-styled zombie outbreaks are often featured in animated shows, such as in the Halloween episodes of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

, South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...

, and Invader Zim
Invader Zim
Invader Zim is an American animated television series created by Jhonen Vasquez. It was produced by and subsequently aired on Nickelodeon. The series revolves around an extraterrestrial named Zim from the planet Irk, and his ongoing mission to conquer and destroy Earth...

. In the far east, zombies also often appear in anime, such as Samurai Champloo
Samurai Champloo
is a Japanese anime series created and directed by Shinichirō Watanabe. It was broadcast in Japan from May 20, 2004 through March 19, 2005 on Fuji TV. Samurai Champloo has earned Watanabe a renowned title in the anime and Japanese television communities...

, Highschool Of the Dead
Highschool of the Dead
is a manga series written by Daisuke Satō and illustrated by Shōji Satō. The story follows a group of high school students caught in the middle of a zombie apocalypse...

, Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, known in Japan as , is an anime spin-off and sequel of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime. It aired in Japan on TV Tokyo between October 6, 2004 and March 26, 2008, and was succeeded by Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's...

(Duel Ghouls), YuYu Hakusho
YuYu Hakusho
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. The name of the series is spelled YuYu Hakusho in the Viz Media manga and Yu Yu Hakusho in other English distributions of the franchise. The series tells the story of Yusuke Urameshi, a teenage delinquent who is struck and...

, Zombie-Loan
Zombie-Loan
is a Japanese manga series created by Peach-Pit: Banri Sendo and Shibuko Ebara. It is published by Square Enix and is serialized in the Japanese shōnen manga magazine GFantasy. The series is licensed in the United States by Yen Press....

and many others both within and beyond the horror genre.

In 2008, journalist/writer Charlie Brooker

Charlie Brooker

Charlton "Charlie" Brooker is a British journalist, comic writer and broadcaster. His style of humour is savage and profane, with surreal elements and a consistent satirical pessimism...

created Dead Set
Dead Set (TV series)
Dead Set is a critically acclaimed BAFTA-nominated horror drama created by English writer Charlie Brooker.The series takes place primarily on the set of a fictional season of the real television show Big Brother...

, a television miniseries wholly centered around the zombie apocalypse. The satire/horror storyline follows fictional Big Brother
Big Brother (UK)
Big Brother UK is the British version of the Dutch Big Brother television format, which takes its name from the character in George Orwell's 1948 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four...

contestants and studio employees, trapped within the Big Brother house as zombies rampage outside.

On October 28, 2010 NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

aired the 6th episode of the TV series Community

Community (TV series)

Community is an American television comedy series created by Dan Harmon that airs on NBC. The series is about a group of students at a community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado. The series heavily uses meta-humor and pop culture references, often parodying film and television...

titled Epidemiology

Epidemiology (Community)

"Epidemiology" is the sixth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series Community, and the 31st episode of the series overall...

, which had a zombie theme.

In 2010, AMC premiered The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead (TV series)
The Walking Dead is an American post-apocalyptic horror television series developed for television by Frank Darabont and based on the ongoing comic book series, The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard...

, the first US television program about zombies.

In August 2011, MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

premiered Death Valley

Death Valley (TV series)

Death Valley is an American horror, black comedy mockumentary television series broadcast on MTV. The series premiered on August 29, 2011. The series follows the Undead Task Force , a newly formed division of the LAPD, as they are filmed by a camera news crew documentary-style, as they capture the...

, spoof horror series about the Undead Task Force that capture the monsters, including zombies, that infest San Fernando Valley.

On September 14, 2011 Spike TV aired the third season finale of Deadliest Warrior
Deadliest Warrior
Deadliest Warrior is a television program in which information on historical or modern warriors and their weapons are used to determine which of them is the "deadliest" based upon tests performed during each episode...

in which the two combatants were zombies versus vampires.

In gaming

Zombies are a popular theme for video games, particularly of but not limited to the first-person shooter

First-person shooter

First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...

and role-playing

Role-playing

Role-playing refers to the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role...

genre. Some important titles in this area include the Resident Evil series, Half Life series (1 and 2), S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, Dead Rising
Dead Rising
is an action-adventure, survivor horror video game, developed by Capcom and produced by Keiji Inafune. It was released on August 8, 2006 exclusively for the Xbox 360 video game console. The game was a commercial success. It has been introduced into the Xbox 360 "Platinum Hits" lineup, and a cell...

, House of the Dead
The House of the Dead (series)
The House of the Dead is a video game franchise published by Sega and created by in-house designer Atsushi Seimiya of AM1....

and Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It was developed by Turtle Rock Studios, which was purchased by Valve Corporation during development. The game uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X...

. PopCap Games

PopCap Games

PopCap Games is an American video game developer and publisher, based in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka, and currently employs about 400 people...

Plants vs. Zombies
Plants vs. Zombies
Plants vs. Zombies is a tower defense action video game developed and originally published by PopCap Games for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game involves a homeowner using many varieties of plants to repel an army of zombies from "eating their brains". It was first released on May 5, 2009,...

- a humorous tower defense

Tower defense

Tower defense is a subgenre of real-time strategy computer games.The goal of tower defense games is to try to stop enemies from crossing a map by building towers which shoot at them as they pass. Enemies and towers usually have varied abilities, costs, and ability costs...

game - was an indie

Independent video game development

Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...

hit in 2009, featuring in several best-of lists at the end of that year. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....

Urban Dead
Urban Dead
Urban Dead is a Free To Play HTML/text-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by Kevan Davis. Set in a quarantined region of the fictional city of Malton, it deals with the aftermath of a zombie outbreak. Players enter the game either as a survivor or a zombie, each with...

, a free grid-based browser game where zombies and survivors fight for control of a ruined city, is one of the most popular games of its type, with an estimated 30,680 visits per day. Some games even allow the gamer to play as a zombie. In the game Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse", zombies are impervious to most attacks, except trauma to the head (which would instantly "kill" the zombie). The game Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It was developed by Turtle Rock Studios, which was purchased by Valve Corporation during development. The game uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X...

and its sequel Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation's award-winning Left 4 Dead. The game launched on November 17, 2009, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in the United States and November 20 in Europe; in 2010, Left 4 Dead 2 was made available to...

pit two teams against each other, one team consists of humans attempting to make it to a safe room while the other team consists of "specialized" zombies attempting to stop them. Early platforms to feature zombie games included the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, which featured a game entitled Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Zombies Ate My Neighbors, released as Zombies in Europe and Australia, is a run and gun video game for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo consoles. The game was developed, distributed and produced by LucasArts and published by Konami.-Gameplay:The player chooses between two...

that was produced in 1993.

Outside of video games, zombies frequently appear in trading card games

Collectible card game

thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...

such as Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...

, as well as in role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

and tabletop wargames such as Warhammer Fantasy

Warhammer Fantasy Battle

Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy Battles is a tabletop wargame created by Games Workshop. It is the origin of the Warhammer Fantasy setting....

and 40K

Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000 is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop, set in a dystopian science fantasy universe. Warhammer 40,000 was created by Rick Priestley in 1987 as the futuristic companion to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, sharing many game mechanics...

. The RPG All Flesh Must Be Eaten
All Flesh Must Be Eaten
All Flesh Must Be Eaten or AFMBE is a multiple Origins Award winning and nominatedsurvival horror role-playing game produced by Eden Studios, Inc. using the Unisystem game system....

is premised upon a zombie outbreak and features rules for zombie campaigns in many historical settings.

The award-winning Zombies!!!
Zombies!!!
Zombies!!! is a tile-based strategy board game for two to six players. Zombies!!! won the 2001 Origins Award for Best Graphic Presentation of a Board Game, and Zombies!!! 3: Mall Walkers won 2003's Origins Award for Best Board Game Expansion....

series of board games by Twilight Creations features players attempting to escape from a zombie-infested city. Cheapass Games

Cheapass Games

Cheapass Games is a game company founded and run by game designer James Ernest, based in Seattle, Washington. Cheapass Games operates on the philosophy that most game owners have plenty of dice, counters, play money, etc., so there is no need to bundle all of these components with every game that...

has released five other zombie-themed games, including Give Me the Brain
Give Me the Brain
Give Me the Brain is a discard-style card game designed by James Ernest and released in 1996 by Cheapass Games.The name derives from the theme; players assume the role of zombies attempting to complete their tasks for the day at Friedey's, a "fast food restaurant for the damned", yet they only have...

, The Great Brain Robbery
The Great Brain Robbery
The Great Brain Robbery is a board game designed by James Ernest and released in 2000 by Cheapass Games.It is a wild west-themed sequel to Give Me the Brain, and the fourth in the Friedey's series of games...

, and Lord of the Fries
Lord of the Fries
Lord of the Fries is a card game created by James Ernest and published by Cheapass Games and Steve Jackson Games. In 2008 Steve Jackson Games released a new edition with revised game components....

, which takes place at Friedey's

Friedey's

Friedey's is a fictional fast food franchise which features in several Cheapass Games products. It is described as a "fast food restaurant for the damned" and is generally staffed by zombies in search of brains...

, a fast-food restaurant staffed by minimum wage zombies. Last Night on Earth
Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game
Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game is a survival horror board game. Players can play on the Hero team or as the Zombies. A modular board randomly determines the layout of the town at the start of each game and there are several different scenarios to play.To achieve a horror movie feel, all of...

is a boardgame covering many stereotypes of the zombie movie genre.

The game, Humans vs. Zombies

Humans vs. Zombies

Humans vs. Zombies is a live-action game predominately played at college campuses where players begin as Humans and try to survive in a story where Zombies have begun to rise from the dead. The ultimate goal of the game is for either all Humans to be turned into Zombies, or for the humans to...

, is a popular zombie-themed live-action game

Live-action game

A live-action game is a game where the participants act out their characters' actions. Live action gaming was created in 1978 in Branford, Connecticut, USA, by John Dillon III and Walter Gailey.-Play overview:...

played on many college campuses. The game starts with one "Zombie" and a group of "Humans." The ultimate goal of the game is for either all Humans to be turned into Zombies, or for the humans to survive a set amount of time. Humans defend themselves using socks or dart guns, stunning the Zombie players; Zombies are unarmed and must tag a Human in order to turn him or her into a Zombie. Safe zones are established so that players can eat and sleep in safety.

In music

Zombies and horror have become so popular that many songs and bands have been based on these flesh-eating ghouls; most notably, the musician Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...

has incorporated zombie aesthetics and references into virtually all of his work, while Brain Drill

Brain Drill

Brain Drill is an American death metal band formed in 2005 from Ben Lomond, California. They are signed to Metal Blade Records and released their full length debut album entitled Apocalyptic Feasting on February 5, 2008...

has dealt with the theme in five of their songs to date. Zombie references crop up in every genre from pop to death metal

Death metal

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

and some subgenres such as horror punk

Horror punk

Horror punk is a music genre that mixes Gothic and punk rock sounds with morbid imagery and lyrics, which are often influenced by horror films...

mine the zombie aesthetic extensively. Horror punk has also been linked with the subgenres of deathrock

Deathrock

Deathrock is a term used to identify a sub-genre of punk rock incorporating horror elements and spooky atmospherics, that emerged on the West Coast of the United States in 1979.-Characteristics:...

and psychobilly

Psychobilly

Psychobilly is a fusion genre of rock music that mixes elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and other genres. It is one of several subgenres of rockabilly which also include thrashabilly, trashabilly, punkabilly, surfabilly and gothabilly...

. The success of these genres has been mainly underground, although psychobilly has reached some mainstream popularity.

The zombie also appears in protest songs, symbolizing mindless adherence to authority, particularly in law enforcement and the armed forces. Well-known examples include Fela Kuti

Fela Kuti

Fela Anikulapo Kuti , or simply Fela , was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.-Biography:...

's 1976 single Zombie
Zombie (album)
Zombie is the 27th full-length album by afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. The album criticised the Nigerian government and resulted in the murder of Kuti's mother and the destruction of his commune by the military.-Controversy and fallout:...

, and The Cranberries

The Cranberries

The Cranberries are an Irish rock band formed in Limerick in 1989 under the name The Cranberry Saw Us, later changed by vocalist Dolores O'Riordan. The band currently consists of O'Riordan, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler...

' 1994 single Zombie
Zombie (song)
"Zombie" is a protest song by the Irish band The Cranberries from the 1994 album No Need to Argue. The song, which laments The Troubles in Northern Ireland and in particular the killing of two children in an IRA bombing in Warrington, England, was written by Dolores O'Riordan, singer of the band...

.

Producers have acquired the rights to Michael Jackson's Thriller for a proposed Broadway musical, "complete with dancing undead."

London based band Brontosaurus Chorus created a zombie themed music video for their song 'Louisiana' in October 2009.

The song "Re: Your Brains" by Jonathan Coulton

Jonathan Coulton

Jonathan Coulton is an American singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans...

is a song from the perspective of an office employee turned zombie. It can be found in the Easter-egg-style jukeboxes in the game Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation's award-winning Left 4 Dead. The game launched on November 17, 2009, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in the United States and November 20 in Europe; in 2010, Left 4 Dead 2 was made available to...

.

American Underground rapper Aesop Rock

Aesop Rock

Ian Matthias Bavitz , better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American hip hop artist and producer. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emerged during the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was signed to El-P's Definitive Jux label until it...

used a Zombie theme for his single "Coffee". The video features Zombies much like that of Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent black-and-white zombie film and cult film directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a USD$114,000 budget. After decades of cinematic re-releases, it...

With Aesop Rock himself becoming a Zombie in the process

Bedfordshire based outfit Undead Pandemic have also themed their music under the self-styled genre 'zombie-themed deathcore horror metal' - basing their debut release 'The Rising' on traditional Romero style zombies and other undead themes.

American metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada (band)

The Devil Wears Prada is an American metalcore band from Dayton, Ohio. Formed in 2005, they are currently signed to Warner Music Group...

base the lyrics on their Zombie EP documenting a zombie apocalypse.

The video for Don Henley's 2000 single "Everything is Different Now" from the album "Inside Job" featured what looked to be the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse.

Send More Paramedics

Send More Paramedics

Send More Paramedics were a horror film-influenced crossover thrash band from Leeds in the north of England.-Biography:The name is a reference to the 1985 horror/comedy Return of the Living Dead...

were a horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

-influenced crossover thrash

Crossover thrash

__FORCETOC__Crossover thrash, often abbreviated to crossover, is a form of thrash metal that contains more hardcore punk elements than standard thrash. The genre lies on a continuum between heavy metal and punk rock...

band from Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

in the north of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The band played in the 1980s crossover style, what they described as "Zombiecore...a fusion of 80s thrash and modern hardcore punk", with lyrics about zombies and cannibalism, and were heavily influenced by zombie movies.

In art

Artist Jillian McDonald

Jillian McDonald

Jillian Mcdonald is a conceptual artist from Canada, living in Brooklyn, New York. Her work is meant to be humorous and features references to popular films. She uses video art, net art, performance art, installations, and photography....

has made several works of video art involving zombies, and exhibited them in her 2006 show, “Horror Make-Up,” which debuted on September 8, 2006 at Art Moving Projects, a gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Others have included “Zombie Loop” and “Zombie Portraits”.

Artist Karim Charredib has dedicated his work to the zombie figure. In 2007, he made a video installation at villa Savoye called "Them !!!" where zombies walked in the villa like tourists. He has also made a serie of collages, inserting zombies in the background of famous movies, like North By Northwest

North by Northwest

North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau...

, 2001

2001: A Space Odyssey (film)

2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...

, Gone With The Wind

Gone with the Wind (film)

Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

or Casablanca

Casablanca (film)

Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...

Consumables

Many companies from around the world have also put strong focus on creating products geared towards the 'zombie' culture. This list includes Kittiwat Unarrom, an artist in Thailand, that bakes/glazes breads to look like human body parts; a company in California , Harcos Labs, that sells bagged Zombie Blood and Zombie Jerky in specimen style pouches; and an array of small companies creating novelty products such as Zombie Mints (which taste like "rotting brains"), Screaming Zombie Energy Drink, and Gummy Brains. These items have been incorporated into cosplay

Cosplay

, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...

during zombie walk

Zombie Walk

A zombie walk is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes...

s around the world. The ammunition manufacturer Hornady

Hornady

Hornady Manufacturing Company is an American manufacturer of ammunition and handloading components, based in Grand Island, Nebraska.The company was founded by Joyce Hornady in 1949 and is currently run by his son Steve Hornady who took over after his father's death in a plane crash in 1981.Hornady...

recently announced a line of ammunition dubbed "Zombie Max" purportedly for use on zombies. The ammunition features a green ballistic tip and stylized packaging.

Social activism

Some zombie fans continue the George A. Romero tradition of using zombies as a social commentary. Organized zombie walk

Zombie Walk

A zombie walk is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes...

s, which are primarily promoted through word of mouth, are regularly staged in some countries. Usually they are arranged as a sort of surrealist performance art but they are occasionally put on as part of a unique political protest.

External links

Columbia College (Chicago)'s university course on zombies

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Evolution of the zombie archetype

George A. Romero and the modern zombie film

Zombie apocalypse

In print and literature

In comics

In television

In gaming

In music

In art

Consumables

Social activism

See also

External links