The Walking Dead: The Archetype of the Zombie in the Modern Epoch

Abstract

Based on a comic book of the same name, The Walking Dead is a TV series which depicts the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, in which a group of survivors try to navigate the remnants of a ravaged world. Led by police officer Rick Grimes, they band together for protection against the threat of the ‘walkers’: the undead creatures perpetually trudging across the broken landscape, looking for survivors to gorge on and ‘turn’ — that is, transform into fellow zombies. The series has drawn both critical and popular acclaim, and is very much the epicentre of a zombie renaissance that has flourished over the last few years. This renaissance has seen everything from the zombie popping up as the central love interest (Warm Bodies) to the more deathly proposition of a team of extremist right-winger zombies with a penchant for the Prussian goose step (Dead Snow).