‘I always wanted to see how the other half lives’: The Contemporary Zombie as Seductive Proselyte

Abstract

Over the past decade audiences have struggled with increasingly ambivalent attitudes towards zombies. What were once horrifying creatures — first pathetic monsters born from imperialistic violence and enslavement, later mobs of flesh-eating corpses drawn from the mind of George A. Romero — are now more complicated figures. The most recent explorations of the zombie have asked audiences to see the walking dead in more empathetic terms, as the tragic and misunderstood victims of an uncontrollable force, infection or evolution. In fact, as some film posters, DVD covers and book jackets indicate, with the outstretched and grasping hands of their featured monsters, the contemporary zombie seems to be reaching out to its human counterparts, inviting them to join their unified and heterogeneous ranks. As the twenty-first-century zombie narrative continues to develop and change, it increasingly challenges the customary definition of ‘monster’, often exploring the potential benefits of being a zombie. These attempts to align audience sympathy with the once-monstrous foes have even transcended the movie screen and the printed page, resulting in a new cultural movement of zombie imitators, from zombie walks to zombie raves to zombie proms. What motivates and explains this recent and seemingly mystifying desire to identify as one of the walking dead? For those tormented by post-9/11 anxieties and the stresses of millennial living, contemporary zombie narratives cast the former monsters as almost redemptive ‘missionaries’, inviting fans to join their masses while promoting an easier, less angst-ridden existence.