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Richard Matheson's 1954 post-apocalyptic novel 'I Am Legend' is also considered a pioneer of the modern zombie, despite the creatures being described by the main character as Vampires. Never the less the film deals with isolation, A world wide outbreak of a disease causing the population to turn into weak infected creatures the feed on the blood of the living (unlike Vampires they have no super human strength, are unable to transform into any other animals and have no real intelligence but like vampires they are allergic to sunlight, can be killed by stakes and hate garlic).
Richard Matheson's 1954 post-apocalyptic novel 'I Am Legend' is also considered a pioneer of the modern zombie, despite the creatures being described by the main character as Vampires. Never the less the film deals with isolation, A world wide outbreak of a disease causing the population to turn into weak infected creatures the feed on the blood of the living (unlike Vampires they have no super human strength, are unable to transform into any other animals and have no real intelligence but like vampires they are allergic to sunlight, can be killed by stakes and hate garlic).


Matherson's novel was adapted into 'The Last Man On Earth' in 1964 starring Vincent price. The film was a low budget bleak haunting film that was fairly close to the source material. The Book would be adapted twice more [[The Omega Man]],1971 and [[I Am Legend]],2007.
Matherson's novel was adapted into 'The Last Man On Earth' in 1964 starring [[Vincent Price]]. The film was a low-budget, bleak, haunting film that was fairly close to the source material. The book would be adapted twice more [[The Omega Man]] (1971) and [[I Am Legend]] (2007).


Hammer Horror's [[Plague of the Zombies]],1966 Is another turning stone in the cinematic Zombie, this was the first film to show Zombies as walking corpses. And would set the standard for zombie make-up to come and green rotting flesh as a standard. But they would not be free from their masters until 1967.
Hammer Horror's [[Plague of the Zombies]] (1966) is another turning stone in the cinematic Zombie, this was the first film to show Zombies as walking corpses. And would set the standard for zombie make-up to come and green rotting flesh as a standard. But they would not be free from their masters until 1967.


===Impact of Night of the Living Dead===
===Impact of Night of the Living Dead===
In [[1968 in film|1968]] director [[George Romero]] released the [[independent film|independent]] [[black-and-white]] [[zombie film]] Night of the Living Dead. The story, which was cited as groundbreaking, was the first modern zombie film. Although not the first zombie film, ''Night of the Living Dead'' became the predecessor of many films with the same plot.
In [[1968 in film|1968]] director [[George Romero]] released the [[independent film|independent]] [[black-and-white]] [[zombie film]] ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]''. The story, which was cited as groundbreaking, was the first modern zombie film. Although not the first zombie film, ''Night of the Living Dead'' became the predecessor of many films with the same plot.


The movie ushered in the [[splatter film]] sub-genre. As many film historians have pointed out, horror prior to Romero's film had mostly involved rubber masks and costumes, cardboard sets, or mysterious figures lurking in the shadows. They were set in locations far removed from urban and [[suburban]] America.
The movie ushered in the [[splatter film]] sub-genre. As many film historians have pointed out, horror prior to Romero's film had mostly involved rubber masks and costumes, cardboard sets, or mysterious figures lurking in the shadows. They were set in locations far removed from urban and [[suburban]] America.

Revision as of 08:35, 1 November 2009

For other uses, see Zombie (folklore) (disambiguation).
People dressed as zombies for Halloween

A zombie is a creature that appears in folklore and popular culture typically as a reanimated corpse or a mindless human being. Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodou, which told of the people being controlled as laborers by a powerful sorcerer. Zombies became a popular device in modern horror fiction, largely because of the success of George A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead.[1]


Voodoo Magic

See also: History of Haiti

According to the tenets of Voodoo, a dead person can be revived by a bokor, or sorcerer. Zombies remain under the control of the bokor since they have no will of their own. "Zombi" is also another name of the Vodou snake lwa Damballah Wedo, of Niger-Congo origin; it is akin to the Kikongo word nzambi, which means "god". There also exists within the voudon tradition the zombi astral which is a part of the human soul that is captured by a bokor and used to enhance the bokor's power. The zombi astral is typically kept inside a bottle which the bokor can sell to clients for luck, healing or business success. It is understood that after a time God will take the soul back and so the zombi is a temporary spiritual entity.[2]

In 1937, while researching folklore in Haiti, Zora Neale Hurston encountered the case of a woman that appeared in a village, and a family claimed she was Felicia Felix-Mentor, a relative who had died and been buried in 1907 at the age of 29. Hurston pursued rumors that the affected persons were given powerful drugs, but she was unable to locate individuals willing to offer much information. She wrote:

What is more, if science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than gestures of ceremony. - Zora Neale Hurston.[3]

Several decades later, Wade Davis, a Harvard ethnobotanist, presented a pharmacological case for zombies in two books, The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988). Davis traveled to Haiti in 1982 and, as a result of his investigations, claimed that a living person can be turned into a zombie by two special powders being entered into the blood stream (usually via a wound). The first, coup de poudre (French: 'powder strike'), includes tetrodotoxin (TTX), the poison found in the pufferfish. The second powder is composed of dissociatives such as datura. Together, these powders were said to induce a death-like state in which the victim's will would be entirely subject to that of the bokor. Davis also popularized the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice.

Davis' claim has been criticized for a number of scientific inaccuracies. One of these is the unlikely suggestion that Haitian witch doctors can keep “zombies” in a state of pharmacologically induced trance for many years.[4] Symptoms of TTX poisoning range from numbness and nausea to paralysis, unconsciousness, and death, but do not include a stiffened gait or a deathlike trance. According to neurologist Terence Hines, the scientific community dismisses tetrodotoxin as the cause of this state, and Davis' assessment of the nature of the reports of Haitian zombies is overly credulous.[5]

Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing further highlighted the link between social and cultural expectations and compulsion, in the context of schizophrenia and other mental illness, suggesting that schizogenesis may account for some of the psychological aspects of zombification.[6]

The Virus

In popular culture, zombies have mainly been referred to have been created by an infectious virus, which passes on via bites and contact with fluids. This theory has been the most commonly accepted out of all the theories. Harvard psychiatrist Steven Schlozman has called the condition of these individuals Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome.

Other theories include radiation from Venus (Night Of The Living Dead) and prions. The humans infected with the Rage virus in 28 Days Later are zombie-like; however, they maintain higher cerebellar function. They exhibit pack and hunting behavior and move too fluidly to be classified as true zombies.[7] The 28 Days Later infected also do not appear to exhibit the enhanced resistance to normal injury, like most zombies in popular culture do.

Real viruses and diseases that have inspired the zombie virus

I Drink Your Blood
Left 4 Dead
The Mad Death
Quarantine
Zombieland
Bubba's Chili Parlor
Dead Meat
I Am Legend (movie version)
Main article: Zombies in popular culture
Zombies from George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, a zombie film

Origin

The flesh-hungry undead, often in the form of ghouls and vampires, have been a fixture of world mythology.[citation needed]One Thousand and One Nights is an early piece of literature to reference ghouls. A prime example is the story "The History of Gherib and His Brother Agib" (from Nights vol. 6), in which Gherib, an outcast prince, fights off a family of ravenous ghouls, enslaves them, and converts them to Islam.[8]

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, while not a zombie novel proper, prefigures many 20th century ideas about zombies in that the resurrection of the dead is portrayed as a scientific process rather than a mystical one, and that the resurrected dead are degraded and more violent than their living selves. Frankenstein, published in 1818, has its roots in European folklore,[9] whose tales of vengeful dead also informed the evolution of the modern conception of vampires as well as zombies. Later notable 19th century stories about the avenging undead included Ambrose Bierce's "The Death of Halpin Frayser", and various Gothic Romanticism tales by Edgar Allan Poe. Though their works couldn't be properly considered zombie fiction, the supernatural tales of Bierce and Poe would prove influential on later writers such as H. P. Lovecraft, by Lovecraft's own admission.[10]

One book to expose more recent western culture to the concept of the zombie was The Magic Island by W.B. Seabrook in 1929. Island is the sensationalized account of a narrator in Haiti who encounters voodoo cults and their resurrected thralls. Time magazine claimed that the book "introduced 'zombi' into U.S. speech".[11]

In the 1920s and early 1930s, the American horror author H. P. Lovecraft wrote several novelettes that explored the undead theme from different angles. "Cool Air," "In the Vault," "The Thing on the Doorstep," "The Outsider," and "Pickman's Model" are all undead related, but the most definitive undead story in Lovecraft's oeuvre was 1921's Herbert West--Reanimator, which "helped define zombies in popular culture".[12] This Frankenstein-inspired series featured Herbert West, a mad scientist who attempts to revive human corpses with mixed results. Notably, the resurrected dead are uncontrollable, mostly mute, primitive and extremely violent; though they are not referred to as zombies, their portrayal was prescient, anticipating the modern conception of zombies by several decades.

In 1932, Victor Halperin directed White Zombie, a horror film starring Bela Lugosi. This film, capitalizing on the same voodoo zombie themes as Seabrook's book of three years prior, is often regarded as the first legitimate zombie film ever made.[13] Here zombies are depicted as mindless, unthinking henchmen under the spell of an evil magician. Zombies, often still using this voodoo-inspired rationale, were initially uncommon in cinema, but their appearances continued sporadically through the 1930s to the 1960s, with famous titles such as I Walked With a Zombie (1943) and the infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959).

The 1936 film Things to Come, based on the novel by H.G. Wells, anticipates later zombie films with an apocalyptic scenario surrounding "the wandering sickness", a highly contagious viral plague that causes the infected to wander slowly and insensibly, very much like zombies, infecting others on contact.[14] Though this film's direct influence on later films isn't known, Things to Come is still compared favorably by some critics[15] to modern zombies.

Richard Matheson's 1954 post-apocalyptic novel 'I Am Legend' is also considered a pioneer of the modern zombie, despite the creatures being described by the main character as Vampires. Never the less the film deals with isolation, A world wide outbreak of a disease causing the population to turn into weak infected creatures the feed on the blood of the living (unlike Vampires they have no super human strength, are unable to transform into any other animals and have no real intelligence but like vampires they are allergic to sunlight, can be killed by stakes and hate garlic).

Matherson's novel was adapted into 'The Last Man On Earth' in 1964 starring Vincent Price. The film was a low-budget, bleak, haunting film that was fairly close to the source material. The book would be adapted twice more The Omega Man (1971) and I Am Legend (2007).

Hammer Horror's Plague of the Zombies (1966) is another turning stone in the cinematic Zombie, this was the first film to show Zombies as walking corpses. And would set the standard for zombie make-up to come and green rotting flesh as a standard. But they would not be free from their masters until 1967.

Impact of Night of the Living Dead

In 1968 director George Romero released the independent black-and-white zombie film Night of the Living Dead. The story, which was cited as groundbreaking, was the first modern zombie film. Although not the first zombie film, Night of the Living Dead became the predecessor of many films with the same plot.

The movie ushered in the splatter film sub-genre. As many film historians have pointed out, horror prior to Romero's film had mostly involved rubber masks and costumes, cardboard sets, or mysterious figures lurking in the shadows. They were set in locations far removed from urban and suburban America.

The film and its successors spawned countless imitators that borrowed elements instituted by Romero: Tombs of the Blind Dead, Zombie, Hell of the Living Dead, The Evil Dead, Night of the Comet, Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Creeps, Braindead, Children of the Living Dead, and the video game series Resident Evil (later adapted as films in 2002, 2004, and 2007), Dead Rising, and House of the Dead. Night of the Living Dead is parodied in films such as Night of the Living Bread and Shaun of the Dead, and in episodes of The Simpsons ("Treehouse of Horror III", 1992), South Park ("Pink Eye", 1997; "Night of the Living Homeless", 2007) and Invader Zim (Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom, 2001;).[16][17][18] The word zombie is never used, but Romero's film introduced the theme of zombies as reanimated, flesh-eating cannibals.

In other media

Modern zombies, as portrayed in books, films, games, and haunted attractions, are different from both voodoo zombies and those of folklore. Modern zombies are typically depicted in popular culture as mindless, unfeeling monsters with a hunger for human flesh. Typically, these creatures can sustain damage far beyond that of a normal, living human. Generally these can only be killed by a wound to the head, or being set on fire, and can pass whatever syndrome that causes their condition onto others through bites or cuts.

Usually, zombies are not depicted as thralls to masters, as in the film White Zombie or the spirit-cult myths. Rather, modern zombies are depicted in mobs, flocks or waves, seeking either flesh to eat or people to kill, and are typically rendered to exhibit signs of physical decomposition such as rotting flesh, discolored eyes, and open wounds, and moving with a slow, shambling gait. They are generally incapable of communication and show no signs of personality or rationality, though George Romero's zombies appear capable of learning and very basic levels of speech as seen in the films Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead.[19][19]

Zombies are a popular theme for video games, particularly of the first-person shooter and role-playing genre. Some important titles in this area include the Resident Evil series, Dead Rising, House of the Dead and Left 4 Dead.[20] The popular, multiplayer online role-playing game Urban Dead, a free grid-based browser game where zombies and survivors fight for control of a ruined city, is one of the most popular games of its type. Some games even allow the gamer to play as a zombie such as Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse". Commonly in these games, Zombies are impervious to most attacks, except trauma to the head (which would instantly "kill" the zombie).

There are still significant differences among the depictions of zombies by various media; for one comparison see the contrasts between zombies by Night of the Living Dead authors George A. Romero and John A. Russo as they evolved in the two separate film series that followed. In some zombie apocalypse narratives, such as The Return of the Living Dead and Dead Set, zombies are depicted as being as quick and nimble as the living, a further departure from the established genre stereotype.

Another departure may consist of the image of zombies as loveable creatures, "being tamed, Disneyfied and made suitable for children", as featured in "zom-coms" (derived from the abbreviation of situation comedies, sit-coms) such as Fido, starring comic actor Billy Connolly as a boy's pet zombie [21].

The zombie theme has also emerged for the first time in the erotica and romance genres, as evidenced by recent books such as Hungry For Your Love: A Zombie Romance Anthology.[22][23] The love in zombie romance tales may exist between a human and one of the living dead (such as the characters Phoebe and Tommy in Daniel Waters’ novel Generation Dead[24]), or even between two zombies (like the undead couple in Vanessa Vaughn’s short story "Some New Blood"[25]).

Zombie Apocalypse

Main article: zombie apocalypse

The zombie apocalypse is a particular scenario of apocalyptic fiction that customarily has a science fiction/horror rationale. In a zombie apocalypse, a widespread (usually global) rise of zombies hostile to human life engages in a general assault on civilization. Victims of zombies may become zombies themselves. This causes the outbreak to become an exponentially growing crisis: the spreading "zombie plague" swamps normal military and law enforcement organizations, leading to the panicked collapse of civilian society until only isolated pockets of survivors remain, scavenging for food and supplies in a world reduced to a pre-industrial hostile wilderness.

The literary subtext of a zombie apocalypse is usually that civilization is inherently fragile in the face of truly unprecedented threats and that most individuals cannot be relied upon to support the greater good if the personal cost becomes too high.[20] The narrative of a zombie apocalypse carries strong connections to the turbulent social landscape of the United States in the 1960s when the originator of this genre, the film Night of the Living Dead, was first created.[26][27] Many also feel that zombies allow people to deal with their own anxiety about the end of the world.[28] In fact the breakdown of society as a result of zombie infestation has been portrayed in countless zombie-related media since Night of the Living Dead.[29] Kim Paffrenroth notes that "more than any other monster, zombies are fully and literally apocalyptic ... they signal the end of the world as we have known it."[29]

Thanks to large number of films and video games, the idea of a zombie apocalypse has entered the mainstream and there have been efforts by many fans to prepare for the hypothetical future zombie apocalypse. Efforts include creating weapons,[30] selling posters to inform people on how to survive a zombie outbreak,[31]

Philosophical zombie

Main article: Philosophical zombie

A philosophical zombie is a concept used in the philosophy of mind, a field of research which examines the association between conscious thought and the physical world. A philosophical zombie is a hypothetical person who lacks full consciousness but has the biology or behavior of a normal human being; it is used as a null hypothesis in debates regarding the identity of the mind and the brain. The term was coined by philosopher David Chalmers.[32]

Social activism

A zombie walk in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Main article: Zombie walk

Some zombie fans continue the George A. Romero tradition of using zombies as a social commentary. Organized zombie walks, which are primarily promoted through word of mouth, are regularly staged in some countries. Usually they are arranged as a sort of surrealist performance art but they are occasionally put on as part of a unique political protest.[33][34][35][36][37]

References

  1. ^ Smith, Neil. "Zombie maestro lays down the lore". BBC News. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
  2. ^ *McAlister, Elizabeth. 1995.“A Sorcerer's Bottle: The Visual Art of Magic in Haiti.” In Donald J. Cosentino, ed., Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1995: 304-321.”
  3. ^ Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks on a Road. 2nd Ed. (1942: Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984, p. 205).
  4. ^ Booth, W. (1988), “Voodoo Science”, Science, 240: 274-277.
  5. ^ Hines, Terence; "Zombies and Tetrodotoxin"; Skeptical Inquirer; May/June 2008; Volume 32, Issue 3; Pages 60-62.
  6. ^ Oswald, Hans Peter (2009 (84 pages)). Vodoo. BoD – Books on Demand. p. 39. ISBN 3837059049. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Schlozman, Steven. "A Head-Shrinker Studies The Zombie Brain". NPR.org. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  8. ^ Al-Hakawati. ""The Story of Gherib and his Brother Agib"". Thousand Nights and One Night. Retrieved October 2 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  9. ^ Marina Warner, A forgotten gem: Das Gespensterbuch ('The Book of Ghosts'), An Introduction (book review) http://www.new-books-in-german.com/aut2006/book15a.htm#top
  10. ^ H. P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature (1927, 1933 - 1935) http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/superhor.htm
  11. ^ Time Magazine, Sep. 1940 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,764649,00.html
  12. ^ Underground Online, Our Favorite Zombies http://www.ugo.com/a/zombies-attack/?cur=favorite-zombies&content=reanimator
  13. ^ Lee Roberts, White Zombie is regarded as the first zombie film Nov. 2006 (film review) http://www.best-horror-movies.com/white-zombie.html
  14. ^ Things to Come (film review) http://monsterhunter.coldfusionvideo.com/ThingsToCome.html
  15. ^ Philip French, 28 Days Later, The Observer 3 Nov. 2002 (film review) http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,,824813,00.html
  16. ^ Rockoff, Going to Pieces, p. 36.
  17. ^ "Treehouse of Horror III", episode 64, The Simpsons, October 29, 1992, at the Internet Movie Database; last accessed June 24, 2006.
  18. ^ "Pink Eye", episode 107, South Park, October 29, 1997, on South Park: The Complete First Season (DVD, Warner Bros., 2002)
  19. ^ a b "Character Profile: Suzaku". absoluteanime.com. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
  20. ^ a b Christopher T. Fong (December 2, 2008). "Playing Games: Left 4 Dead". Video game review. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 6 October 2009. Cite error: The named reference "4dead" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  21. ^ The Guardian Weekly of 10 July 2009, p.35
  22. ^ Perkins, Lori, “Hungry For your Love: A Zombie Romance Anthology”, October 2009, Ravenous Romance
  23. ^ Flood, Alison, The Guardian newspaper, "The New Thing In Romantic Fiction: Zombie Love" October 30 2009[1]
  24. ^ Waters, Daniel “Generation Dead”, Hyperion Books
  25. ^ Perkins, L. “Hungry For Your Love: A Zombie Romance Anthology”, October 2009, Ravenous Romance
  26. ^ Adam Rockoff, Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978–1986 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002), p.35, ISBN 0-7864-1227-5.
  27. ^ "Zombie Movies" in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, ed. John Clute and John Grant (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), p.1048, ISBN 0-312-19869-8
  28. ^ Cripps, Charlotte (November 1, 2006). "Preview: Max Brooks' Festival Of The (Living) Dead! Barbican, London". The Independent. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
  29. ^ a b Kim Paffenroth, Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of Hell on Earth. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2006.
  30. ^ Andy Fliege (December 5, 2008). "Daily Distraction: UItimate Zombie Weapon". Windy Citizen. Retrieved 6 December 2008.
  31. ^ Michael Harrison (December 05, 2008). "10 Geeky Gifts for Under $10". Wired. Retrieved 6 December 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ Chalmers, David. 1995. "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness", Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 200-219
  33. ^ Colley, Jenna. "Zombies haunt San Diego streets". signonsandiego.com. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
  34. ^ Kemble, Gary. "They came, they saw, they lurched". abc.net. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
  35. ^ Dalgetty, Greg. "The Dead Walk". Penny Blood Magazine. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
  36. ^ Horgen, Tom. "Nightlife: 'Dead' ahead". StarTribune.com. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
  37. ^ Dudiak, Zandy. "Guinness certifies record for second annual Zombie Walk". yourpenntrafford.com. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
Zombies
In media
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