Zombies

Where can I possibly start with zombies? They have such a storied history in folklore, film, literature, video games, comics, and even music. Most people credit George Romero with popularizing zombies with his ground-breaking vision of the "Living Dead". He is without a doubt the man responsible for starting the trend that has become a multi-billion (trillion?) dollar concept: surviving the zombie apocalypse. A group of people banding together to fight impossible-odds in an impossible situation. I've been flamed for this in the past, but I truly feel that Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of "Dawn of the Dead" best conveys the situation of fighting the undead. It all comes down to personal preference.

Again, we see the word diversity come into play. Zombies - like vampires - have such a storied history throughout the generations that they've been portrayed. The original concept of a zombie was that a Voodoo priest could bring a man back to life with no soul or will of his own (just like Ann Coulter). George Romero took this story and gave it a firm kick to the guts. In the original "Night of the Living Dead", radiation from a destroyed space probe brought the dead back to life and gave them a hunger for brains and the ability to pass on the zombification through their bites.

The zombie was truly given a facelift in the 2002 masterpiece "28 Days Later". The film take the zombie horde to a new locale: London. What could be better than seeing a grand city like London empty of anything but the mobs of infected? The undead were truly revisioned in this film. These killers weren't the living dead. They technically weren't even zombies at all (but close enough to earn the film a paragraph), rather diseased citizens infected with the "rage". To put it clearly, rage is like rabies.... on steroids. The movie was followed up with an equally impressive sequel, "28 Weeks Later". It can be said that this film inspired the cinematic return to zombies. The "Dawn of the Dead" remake followed in 2004 and George Romero made a return to his films with "Land of the Dead" and "Diary of the Dead". Zombies were only further popularized by the recent video game hit "Left 4 Dead"; a game which I encourage gamers who haven't already played (why wouldn't they have) to play.

In closing, zombies own. I've been working on my own plans for a zombie mini-series, but that's a whole other blog post. Be sure to vote in my poll: Zombies or Vampires?