Zombies in Popular Culture
Zombies are so widely known about mostly because of their influence on popular culture. Although there are certain types of zombies that are thought to be real by some people, most images of zombies are make believe and have been made popular through movies such as Night of the Living Dead. Popular culture is where we get most of our ideas of zombies including what they eat, how they attack, and how to protect yourself against them. Some of the traits that zombies in popular culture have are very similar to real zombies, such as the zombies in Haiti, there are also very subtle differences.
The term “zombie” was actually created in 1929 with the book Magic Island by William B. Seabrook. The book actually spoke of Haitian voodoo and its practices. Before the book was written however, there were movies in the previous decade that referred to zombies, though they didn’t bear the actual term “zombies.” The movie Das Kabinet des Doktor Caligari is a story in which Dr. Caligari creates a zombie who can carry out his predictions of the future. The movie White Zombie was released in 1932 and it was in this classic horror film that the word “zombie” was first heard in film.
These pioneers of the appearance of zombies in horror films spurred a whole genre of horror films that included zombies including one of the most famous series of horror flicks, Night of the Living Dead. In this series of films, zombies are often as we picture them today. They are very limited in mobility, have no mind, and feel very little pain when they become wounded. The way in which these zombies come back to life differs from movie to movie and zombie to zombie. Some have been raised through acts of God, some from a virus, and others from chemicals or radiation.
In addition to movies and books, zombies have also found their way into video games. The player of the game usually has to defend themselves from these zombies and their attacks. Some of these games include Zombie Surf, Divine Intervention, the Zombie Horde series of games, Zombie Grinder, and the Boxhead series of games.
By looking at the number of times that zombies appear in popular culture, it’s easy to see that people are clearly fascinated with these creatures that have died and have been brought back to life. Although the living dead do appear in many types of popular culture, it’s important to remember that other creatures found in pop culture, such as Frankenstein, are not zombies. To be a zombie, one must have already died and then have been brought back to life.
