Zombies are all the rage nowadays. Sure, they've always been around but now it seems like they're in everything. Even Captain America has been zombified [1], is nothing sacred anymore? Actually, it's all pretty cool but I think it's gone a bit too far. Over saturation isn't good for anything, or anyone, unless you're making your living off of this new fad. Herein lies the problem. In our Mountain Dew Gamer Fuel [2] culture, if it isn't EXTREME! then it isn't going to sell, and there isn't a whole lot extreme about zombies... Traditional zombies are slow moving, dim witted and relatively easy to neutralize. Dump a little gamer fuel on your zombies though and you've got Rage infected [3], scheming, juggernauts that keep you on the edge of your seat while the busty survivor does her best to live until the sun comes up. Here are just a few reasons why a zombie fad is a bad thing for the genre.
dead snow, plants vs zombies, marvel zombies
28 Days Later
28 Days Later was a fun movie when it came out because it changed the mechanics of zombies a little. This wasn't the first movie were zombies could run but it certainly popularized the notion. It doesn't seem like much of a paradigm shift but since 2002 it's been the hip thing to have zombies that were all former track stars. The movie was set in Britain and they just don't have as many fat people as in the U.S. but imagine an obese American zombie trying to at run full bore, it'd snap its legs in half or just look down right silly.Sure, fast zombies allow for more "OH SHIT!" moments but it seems like lazy, short cut writing most of the time. In 28 Days Later and its follow up turd, 28 Weeks Later, nearly all of the zombie action revolves around fast paced ambush attacks. It's all about the "Boo!" factor. Classic zombie thrillers with slower zombies are exciting because of the tension and suspense that is building as the zombie hordes amass, knowing that at some point they'll overcome the heroes defenses. If Night of the Living Dead's zombies were infected with Rage the movie would have been exactly two minutes long, including credits.
Less is more
Staying with 28 Days Later for a little longer it's important to note that Rage is probably the dumbest cause of the zombie apocalypse in recent memory. There is nothing worse than a writer or director over explaining their X Factor, the mysterious thing that keeps you reading/watching. In 28 Days Later we learn right off the bat that Rage is a virus that causes monkeys to go ape shit. It also causes zombies to run really fast... If you take Rage out of the equation and leave the cause of the zombie outbreak a mystery, suddenly these fast zombies are a bit more interesting. Instead, 28 Days Later is just one thin AIDS reference away from being uncomfortable... 28 Days Later isn't the only zombie IP to fall victim to this, allow me to introduce you to World War Z.World War Z
World War Z really had everything going for it, it's got a killer title, it's written by Mel Brooks' kid and it covers new ground: the international response to the zombie outbreak. So what's the first thing that happens in this book? We're told some punk Chinese kid is to blame for the zombies you'll be reading about for the next 300+ pages. Great, but there's more... Not only is China to blame, but so is Solanum. "WTF is Solanum?" you might be asking, well it's the virus that causesI really wanted to like World War Z, and for the most part I did. The narrative parts of the book are pretty good, I enjoyed watching the macro reactions from various governments in regard to the spreading zombie plague. The downfall of World War Z is that its author lifts the veil and explains away the zombie menace to the point where they are scientific curiosities rather than flesh starved abominations.
Død Snø (Dead Snow)
What World War Z does right is exactly what Dead Snow does wrong. In World War Z zombies are slow moving and completely lacking of any ability to communicate or cooperate. Dead Snow is a different story... literally. The Dead Snow zombies are able to strategize... Something that makes this less of a zombie movie and more of a boogeyman horror movie. The whole point of using zombies as a plot device is that they're slow moving, dumb and expendable. If your zombies can build traps and communicate with each other in addition to being undead killing machines then it seems like your stacking the deck in favor of your baddies. It doesn't seem fair, not that zombie survival needs to be a fair game but if your protagonist doesn't have a sporting chance to make it out alive then we're just waiting for him to slip up and get himself bit.It really seemed to serve no purpose to have the bad guys in Dead Snow be zombies other than to appeal to horror fans who want to see a movie with zombie Nazis in it. The zombies in this movie really share nothing in common with other zombies except that they're already dead... It'd be like having Nazi vampires in your movie that could walk around in the daylight and never bothered to drink any blood. What's the point?
Plants vs Zombies
Getting away from movies, Plants vs Zombies is a game from PopCap that pits you and your garden against the zombie hordes. Let me preface the rest of this paragraph by saying that I've had a lot of fun playing this game. It isn't meant to be a hardcore survival horror game, Plants vs Zombies is more of a PG rated tower defense game with animated zombies. The reason I want to mention this game is that it is indicative of a broader style of zombie bastardization. Plants vs Zombies does this in a playful way where you encounter zombies that retain little bits of their former lives which coincide with game mechanics. For instance, you'll see zombie Zamboni drivers, football players and Michael Jackson from Thriller. Unfortunately this has gone from playful to marketing with the release of Marvel Zombies.Marvel Zombies is something I just can't come to terms with. On the surface it looks like a way to cash in on the zombie hype rather than an interesting plot twist. In the Marvel Zombie storyline you have a virus that infects superheroes like Captain America and Wolverine who retain their powers, eat Silver Surfer and steal his powers as well. I've never been a fan of super zombies. Maybe I've just always been a zombie purist but I think once you become a zombie you lose your previous identity, abilities, etc. If you're Captain America and you get bitten by a zombie, you become a zombie in a Captain America outfit who may or may not have a shield strapped to him. Either way, zombie Captain America wouldn't know how to use that shield and he wouldn't have any super powers.
Along those same lines, the Resident Evil series has been a mixed bag for me. I like how they handle slow moving retard zombies but I don't like the mutant zombies and zombie animals in the games. Left 4 Dead is the same way, some zombies mutate and have special powers for pretty much no reason. In my world, all zombies were created equal. Mutant zombies seems too much like you're stacking the deck again, let's level the playing field and have a good time.
It's not all so bad...
There are still plenty of things to like about the zombie genre, right? Sure. Not all books and movies are about super zombies or mutant undead pseudo-zombies. While I mentioned Left 4 Dead before as having the occasional mutated zombie, it's still a lot of fun. It does have fast moving zombies which works very well in context. As a video game with dynamic pacing, it just wouldn't play the same with shambling ghouls.If video games aren't your thing then you might want to check out The Walking Dead. This is an ongoing series of comic books and graphic novels that follows a group of survivors as they try to make the best out of the zombie apocalypse. The books stay pretty true to traditional zombie horror themes in the beginning as you have Rick, a former cop, make his way to Atlanta to reunite with his wife and son. Not to spoil too much of the early plot but after meeting up with a group of survivors in Georgia, the plot advances from arc to arc that revolve around the survivors more than the zombies. The zombies are a constant threat but the way the rest of society has changed and devolved becomes the focus of the story as the group scavenges its way around rural Georgia encountering reluctant tag-alongs, hostile camps, cannibals and an overrun prison.
The zombie apocalypse is a great setting for story telling. Unfortunately, not everyone can pull of an intriguing story about zombie survival. If you keep it simple and keep it mysterious you might be able to pull of what so many have failed to do.
How They're Ruining the Zombie Genre - Thanks, very great article.