The English wordzombie was first recorded in the 18th century; dictionaries trace its origins toBantu languages, such asKimbundunzumbi'ghost, spirit'.[3] One of the first books to expose Western culture to the concept of the voodoo zombie wasW. B. Seabrook'sThe Magic Island (1929), the account of a narrator who encounters voodoo cults inHaiti and their resurrected thralls.[citation needed]
A new version of the zombie, distinct from that described in Haitian folklore, emerged in popular culture during the latter half of the 20th century. This interpretation of the zombie, as an undead person that attacks and eats the flesh of living people, is drawn largely fromGeorge A. Romero's filmNight of the Living Dead (1968),[1] which was partly inspired byRichard Matheson's novelI Am Legend (1954).[4][5] The wordzombie is not used inNight of the Living Dead, but was applied later by fans.[6] Following the release of suchzombie films asDawn of the Dead (1978) andThe Return of the Living Dead (1985)—the latter of which introduced the concept of zombies that eat brains—as well asMichael Jackson's music videoThriller (1983), the genre waned for some years.
The mid-1990s saw the introduction ofResident Evil andThe House of the Dead, two break-out successes of video games featuring zombie enemies which would later go on to become highly influential and well-known. These games were initially followed by a wave of low-budget Asian zombie films such as thezombie comedyBio Zombie (1998) and action filmVersus (2000), and then a new wave of popular Western zombie films in the early 2000s, theResident Evil andHouse of the Dead films, the 2004Dawn of the Dead remake, and the British zombie comedyShaun of the Dead (2004). The "zombie apocalypse" concept, in which the civilized world is brought low by a global zombie infestation, has since become a staple of modern zombie media, seen in such media asThe Walking Dead franchise.
TheOxford English Dictionary derives the word fromFrench and aFrench Creole language, in turn ultimately fromKimbundunzumbi'ghost, spirit who torments living people'. The dictionary also names the wordnzambi'god', and terms in the relatedKongo language, as potential influences.[3]
How the creatures in contemporary zombie films came to be called "zombies" is not fully clear. The filmNight of the Living Dead (1968) made no spoken reference to its undead antagonists as "zombies", describing them instead as "ghouls" (a term for flesh-eating demons derived from Arabic folklore). AlthoughGeorge A. Romero used the term "ghoul" in his original scripts, in later interviews he used the term "zombie". The word "zombie" is used exclusively by Romero in his script for his sequelDawn of the Dead (1978),[11] including once in dialog. According to Romero, film critics were influential in associating the term "zombie" to his creatures, and especially the French magazineCahiers du Cinéma. He eventually accepted this linkage, even though he remained convinced at the time that "zombies" corresponded to the undead slaves of Haitian voodoo as depicted inWhite Zombie withBela Lugosi.[12]
Zombies are featured widely in Haitian rural folklore as dead persons physically revived by the act ofnecromancy of abokor, a sorcerer or witch. Thebokor is opposed by thehoungan (priest) and themambo (priestess) of the formal voodoo religion. A zombie remains under the control of thebokor as a personal slave, having no will of its own.
The Haitian tradition also includes an incorporeal type of zombie, the "zombieastral", which is a part of the humansoul. Abokor can capture a zombie astral to enhance his spiritual power. A zombie astral can also be sealed inside a specially decorated bottle by abokor and sold to a client to bring luck, healing, or business success. It is believed that God eventually will reclaim the zombie's soul, so the zombie is a temporary spiritual entity.[13]
The zombie belief has its roots in traditions brought to Haiti by enslaved Africans and their subsequent experiences in the New World. It was thought that the voodoo deityBaron Samedi would gather them from their grave to bring them to a heavenly afterlife in Africa ("Guinea"), unless they had offended him in some way, in which case they would be forever a slave after death, as a zombie. A zombie could also be saved byfeeding them salt. English professorAmy Wilentz has written that the modern concept of zombies was strongly influenced byHaitian slavery. Slave drivers on the plantations, who were usually slaves themselves and sometimes voodoo priests, used the fear of zombification to discourage slaves from committing suicide.[17][18]
While most scholars have associated the Haitian zombie with African cultures, a connection has also been suggested to the island's indigenousTaíno people, partly based on an early account of nativeshamanist practices written byRamón Pané [es], a monk of theHieronymite religious order and companion ofChristopher Columbus.[19][20][21]
The Haitian zombie phenomenon first attracted widespread international attention during theUnited States occupation of Haiti (1915–1934), when a number of case histories of purported "zombies" began to emerge. The first popular book covering the topic wasWilliam Seabrook'sThe Magic Island (1929), which includes a purported account of zombies working on a plantation of theHaitian American Sugar Company. Seabrooke cited Article 246 of the Haitiancriminal code related topoisoning, which was passed in 1864, asserting that it was an official recognition of zombies. This passage was later used in promotional materials for the 1932 filmWhite Zombie.[22]
Also shall be qualified as attempted murder the employment which may be made by any person of substances which, without causing actual death, produce a lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the administering of such substances, the person has been buried, the act shall be considered murder no matter what result follows.
In 1937, while researching folklore in Haiti,Zora Neale Hurston encountered the case of a woman who appeared in a village. A family claimed that she was Felicia Felix-Mentor, a relative, who had died and been buried in 1907 at the age of 29. The woman was examined by a doctor; X-rays indicated that she did not have a leg fracture that Felix-Mentor was known to have had.[24] Hurston pursued rumors that affected persons were given a powerfulpsychoactive drug, 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 Vodou 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."[25]
Kongo
ACentral African origin for the Haitian zombie has been postulated based on two etymologies in theKongo language,nzambi ("god") andzumbi ("fetish"). This root helps form the names of several deities, including the Kongo creator deityNzambi Ampungu and the Louisiana serpent deity Li Grand Zombi (a local version of the HaitianDamballa), but it is in fact a generic word for a divine spirit.[26] The common African conception of beings under these names is more similar to the incorporeal "zombie astral",[13] a variant of the KongoNkisi spirits.[27]
A related, but also often incorporeal, undead being is thejumbee of theEnglish-speaking Caribbean, considered to be of the same etymology;[28] in theFrench West Indies also, local "zombies" are recognized, but these are of a more general spirit nature.[29]
South Africa
The idea of physical zombie-like creatures is present in some South African cultures, where they are calledxidachane inSotho/Tsonga andmaduxwane inVenda. In some communities, it is believed that a dead person can be zombified by a small child.[30] It is said that the spell can be broken by a powerful enoughsangoma.[31] It is also believed in some areas of South Africa thatwitches can zombify a person by killing and possessing the victim's body to force it into slave labor.[32] After rail lines were built to transport migrant workers, stories emerged about "witch trains". These trains appeared ordinary, but were staffed by zombified workers controlled by a witch. The trains would abduct a person boarding at night, and the person would then either be zombified or beaten and thrown from the train a distance away from the original location.[32]
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 introduced into the bloodstream (usually through a wound). The first, French:coup de poudre ("powder strike"), includestetrodotoxin (TTX), a powerful and frequently fatalneurotoxin found in the flesh of thepufferfish (family Tetraodontidae). The second powder consists ofdeliriant drugs such asdatura. Together these powders were said to induce a deathlike state, in which the will of the victim would be entirely subjected to that of the bokor. Davis also popularized the story ofClairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice. The most ethically questioned and least scientifically explored ingredient of the powders is part of a recently buried child's brain.[34][35][36][verification needed]
The process described by Davis was an initial state of deathlikesuspended animation, followed by re-awakening – typicallyafter being buried – into a psychotic state. The psychosis induced by the drug andpsychological trauma washypothesised by Davis to reinforce culturally learned beliefs and to cause the individual to reconstruct their identity as that of a zombie, since they "knew" that they were dead and had no other role to play in the Haitian society. Societal reinforcement of the belief was hypothesized by Davis to confirm for the zombie individual the zombie state, and such individuals were known to hang around in graveyards, exhibiting attitudes of lowaffect.
Davis's claim has been criticized, particularly the suggestion that Haitian witch doctors can keep "zombies" in a state of pharmacologically induced trance for many years.[37] Symptoms ofTTX poisoning range from numbness and nausea to paralysis – particularly of the muscles of the diaphragm – unconsciousness, and death, but do not include a stiffened gait or a deathlike trance. According to psychologistTerence Hines, Davis assessment of the nature of the reports of Haitian zombies is 'overly credulous'.[36]
Social
Scottish psychiatristR. D. Laing highlighted the link between social and cultural expectations and compulsion, in the context ofschizophrenia and other mental illness, suggesting that schizogenesis may account for some of the psychological aspects of zombification.[38] Particularly, this suggests cases where schizophrenia manifests a state ofcatatonia.
I came to the conclusion that although it is unlikely that there is a single explanation for all cases where zombies are recognised by locals in Haiti, the mistaken identification of a wandering mentally ill stranger by bereaved relatives is the most likely explanation in many cases. People with a chronic schizophrenic illness, brain damage or learning disability are not uncommon in rural Haiti, and they would be particularly likely to be identified as zombies.
If you do not open the gate for me to come in, I shall smash the door and shatter the bolt, I shall smash the doorpost and overturn the doors, I shall raise up the dead and they shall eat the living: And the dead shall outnumber the living!
She repeats this same threat in a slightly modified form in theEpic of Gilgamesh.[45]
One of the first books to expose Western culture to the concept of the voodoo zombie wasThe Magic Island (1929) byW. B. Seabrook. This is the sensationalized account of a narrator who encountersvoodoo cults inHaiti and their resurrected thralls.Time commented that the book "introduced 'zombi' into U.S. speech".[46] Zombies have a complex literary heritage, with antecedents ranging fromRichard Matheson andH. P. Lovecraft toMary Shelley'sFrankenstein drawing on European folklore of the undead.Victor Halperin directedWhite Zombie (1932), a horror film starringBela Lugosi. 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 films includingI Walked with a Zombie (1943) andPlan 9 from Outer Space (1959).
The actorT. P. Cooke as Frankenstein's Monster in an 1823 stage production of the novel
Frankenstein byMary Shelley, while not a zombie novelper se, foreshadows 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, whose tales of the vengeful dead also informed the evolution of the modern conception of thevampire.[47] Later notable 19th century stories about the avenging undead includedAmbrose Bierce's "The Death of Halpin Frayser" and variousGothic Romanticism tales byEdgar Allan Poe. Though their works could not be properly considered zombie fiction, the supernatural tales of Bierce and Poe would prove influential on later writers such asH. P. Lovecraft, by Lovecraft's own admission.[48]
In the 1920s and early 1930s, Lovecraft wrote several novellae that explored the undead theme. "Cool Air", "In the Vault" and "The Outsider" all deal with the undead, but Lovecraft's "Herbert West–Reanimator" (1921) "helped define zombies in popular culture".[49] This series of short stories featuredHerbert West, amad 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.[citation needed]Edgar Rice Burroughs similarly depicted animated corpses in thesecond book of hisVenus series, again without using the terms "zombie" or "undead".
Avenging zombies would feature prominently in the early 1950sEC Comics, whichGeorge A. Romero would later claim as an influence.[50] The comics, includingTales from the Crypt,The Vault of Horror andWeird Science, featured avenging undead in the Gothic tradition quite regularly, including adaptations of Lovecraft's stories, which included "In the Vault", "Cool Air" and "Herbert West–Reanimator".[51]
Richard Matheson's 1954 novelI Am Legend, although classified as a vampire story, had a great impact on the zombie genre by way ofGeorge A. Romero. The novel and its 1964 film adaptation,The Last Man on Earth, which concern a lone human survivor waging war against a world of vampires, would by Romero's own admission greatly influence his 1968 low-budget filmNight of the Living Dead, a work that was more influential on the concept of zombies than any literary or cinematic work before it.[52][53] The monsters in the film and its sequels, such asDawn of the Dead (1978) andDay of the Dead (1985), as well as the manyzombie films it inspired, such asThe Return of the Living Dead (1985) andZombi 2 (1979), are usually hungry for human flesh, althoughReturn of the Living Dead introduced the popular concept of zombies eating human brains.
There has been an evolution in the zombie archetype from supernatural to scientific themes.I Am Legend andNight of the Living Dead began the shift away from Haitian dark magic, though did not give scientific explanations for zombie origins. A more decisive shift towards scientific themes came with theResident Evil video game series in the late 1990s, which gave more realistic scientific explanations for zombie origins while drawing on modern science and technology, such asbiological weaponry,genetic manipulation, andparasiticsymbiosis. This became the standard approach for explaining zombie origins in popular fiction that followedResident Evil.[54]
There has also been shift towards an action approach, which has led to another evolution of the zombie archetype, the "fast zombie" or running zombie. In contrast to Romero's classic slow zombies, "fast zombies" can run, are more aggressive and are often more intelligent. This type of zombie has origins in 1990sJapanese horror video games. In 1996,Capcom'ssurvival horror video gameResident Evil featured zombie dogs that run towards the player. Later the same year,Sega'sarcade shooterThe House of the Dead introduced running human zombies, who run towards the player and can also jump and swim. The running human zombies introduced inThe House of the Dead video games became the basis for the "fast zombies" that became popular in zombie films during the early 21st century, starting with28 Days Later (2002), theResident Evil andHouse of the Dead films and the 2004Dawn of the Dead remake. These films also adopted an action approach to the zombie concept, which was also influenced by theResident Evil andHouse of the Dead video games.[55]
Intimately tied to the concept of the modern zombie is that of the "zombie apocalypse": the breakdown of society as a result of an initial zombie outbreak that spreads quickly. Thisarchetype has emerged as a prolific subgenre ofapocalyptic fiction and has been portrayed in many zombie-related media afterNight of the Living Dead.[56] 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 phenomenon swamps normal military and law-enforcement organizations, leading to the panicked collapse of civilized society until only isolated pockets of survivors remain, scavenging for food and supplies in a world reduced to a pre-industrial hostile wilderness. Possible causes for zombie behavior in a modern population can be attributed to viruses, bacteria or other phenomena that reduce the mental capacity of humans, causing them to behave in a very primitive and destructive fashion.
Subtext
The usual subtext of the zombie apocalypse is that civilization is inherently vulnerable to the unexpected, and that most individuals, if desperate enough, cannot be relied on to comply with the author's ethos. The narrative of a zombie apocalypse carries strong connections to the turbulent social landscape of the United States in the 1960s, whenNight of the Living Dead provided an indirect commentary on the dangers of conformity, a theme also explored in the novelThe Body Snatchers (1954) and associated filmInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).[57][58] Many also feel that zombies allow people to deal with their own anxieties about the end of the world.[59] One scholar concluded that "more than any other monster, zombies are fully and literally apocalyptic ... they signal the end of the world as we have known it".[56] While zombie apocalypse scenarios are secular, they follow a religious pattern based on Christian ideas of an end-times war and messiah.[60]
Simon Pegg, who starred in and co-wrote the 2004 zombie comedy filmShaun of the Dead, wrote that zombies were the "most potent metaphorical monster". According to Pegg, whereasvampires represent sex, zombies represent death: "Slow and steady in their approach, weak, clumsy, often absurd, the zombie relentlessly closes in, unstoppable, intractable." He expressed his dislike for the trend for fast zombies, and argued that they should be slow and inept; just as a healthy diet and exercise can delay death, zombies are easy to avoid, but not forever. He also argued that this was essential for making them "oddly sympathetic... to create tragic anti-heroes... to be pitied, empathised with, even rooted for. The moment they appear angry or petulant, the second they emit furious velociraptor screeches (as opposed to the correct mournful moans of longing), they cease to possess any ambiguity. They are simply mean."[61]
Initial contacts with zombies are extremely dangerous and traumatic, causing shock, panic, disbelief and possibly denial, hampering survivors' ability to deal with hostile encounters.[62]
The response of authorities to the threat is slower than its rate of growth, giving the zombie plague time to expand beyond containment. This results in the collapse of the given society. Zombies take full control, while small groups of the living must fight for their survival.[62]
The stories usually follow a single group of survivors, caught up in the sudden rush of the crisis. The narrative generally progresses from the onset of the zombie plague, then initial attempts to seek the aid of authorities, the failure of those authorities, through to the sudden catastrophic collapse of all large-scale organization and the characters' subsequent attempts to survive on their own. Such stories are often squarely focused on the way their characters react to such an extreme catastrophe, and how their personalities are changed by the stress, often acting on more primal motivations (fear, self-preservation) than they would display in normal life.[62][63]
Voodoo-related zombie themes have also appeared in espionage or adventure-themed works outside the horror genre. For example, the originalJonny Quest series (1964) and theJames Bond novelLive and Let Die as well as itsfilm adaptation both feature Caribbean villains who falsely claim the voodoo power of zombification to keep others in fear of them.
The modern conception of the zombie owes itself almost entirely toGeorge A. Romero's 1968 filmNight of the Living Dead.[1][71][72] In his films, Romero "bred the zombie with the vampire, and what he got was the hybrid vigour of a ghoulish plague monster".[73] This entailed an apocalyptic vision of monsters that have come to be known asRomero zombies.
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times chided theater owners and parents who allowed children access to the film. "I don't think the younger kids really knew what hit them", complained Ebert, "They were used to going to movies, sure, and they'd seen some horror movies before, sure, but this was something else." According to Ebert, the film affected the audience immediately:[74]
The kids in the audience were stunned. There was almost complete silence. The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. There was a little girl across the aisle from me, maybe nine years old, who was sitting very still in her seat and crying.
Romero's reinvention of zombies is notable in terms of its thematics; he used zombies not just for their own sake, but as a vehicle "to criticize real-world social ills—such as government ineptitude, bioengineering, slavery, greed and exploitation—while indulging our post-apocalyptic fantasies".[75]Night was the first of six films in Romero'sLiving Dead series. Its first sequel,Dawn of the Dead, was released in 1978.
Lucio Fulci'sZombi 2 was released just months afterDawn of the Dead as an ersatz sequel (Dawn of the Dead was released in several other countries asZombi orZombie).[1]Dawn of the Dead was the most commercially successful zombie film for decades, up until the zombie revival of the 2000s.[76] The 1981 filmHell of the Living Dead referenced a mutagenic gas as a source of zombie contagion: an idea also used inDan O'Bannon's 1985 filmReturn of the Living Dead.Return of the Living Dead featured zombies that hungered specifically for human brains.
Relative Western decline (1985–1995)
A young zombie (Kyra Schon) feeding on human flesh, fromNight of the Living Dead (1968)
Zombie films in the 1980s and 1990s were not as commercially successful asDawn of the Dead in the late 1970s.[76] The mid-1980s produced few zombie films of note. Perhaps the most notable entry, theEvil Dead trilogy, while highly influential, are not technically zombie films, but films aboutdemonic possession, despite the presence of the undead. 1985'sRe-Animator, loosely based on the Lovecraft story, stood out in the genre, achieving nearly unanimous critical acclaim[77] and becoming a modest success, nearly outstripping Romero'sDay of the Dead for box office returns.
After the mid-1980s, the subgenre was mostly relegated to the underground. Notable entries include directorPeter Jackson's ultra-gory filmBraindead (1992) (released asDead Alive in the U.S.),Bob Balaban's comic 1993 filmMy Boyfriend's Back, where a self-aware high-school boy returns to profess his love for a girl and his love for human flesh, and Michele Soavi'sDellamorte Dellamore (1994) (released asCemetery Man in the U.S.).
Early Asian films (1985–1995)
In 1980sHong Kong cinema, the Chinesejiangshi, a zombie-like creature dating back toQing dynasty erajiangshi fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, were featured in a wave ofjiangshi films, popularised byMr. Vampire (1985). Hong Kong jiangshi films were popular in the Far East from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.
Prior to the 1990s, there were not manyJapanese films related to what may be considered in the West as a zombie film.[78] Early films such asThe Discarnates (1988) feature little gore and no cannibalism, but it is about the dead returning to life looking for love rather than a story of apocalyptic destruction.[78] One of the earliest Japanese zombie films with considerable gore and violence wasBattle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay (1991).[79]
According toKim Newman in the bookNightmare Movies (2011), the "zombie revival began in the Far East" during the late 1990s, largely inspired by two Japanese zombie games released in 1996:[79]Capcom'sResident Evil, which started theResident Evil video game series that went on to sell 24 million copies worldwide by 2006,[78] andSega's arcade shooterHouse of the Dead. The success of these two 1996 zombie games inspired a wave of Asian zombie films.[79] From the late 1990s, zombies experienced a renaissance in low-budgetAsian cinema, with a sudden spate of dissimilar entries, includingBio Zombie (1998),Wild Zero (1999),Junk (1999),Versus (2000) andStacy (2001).
Most Japanese zombie films emerged in the wake ofResident Evil, such asVersus,Wild Zero, andJunk, all from 2000.[78] The zombie films released afterResident Evil behaved similarly to the zombie films of the 1970s,[80] except that they were influenced by zombie video games, which inspired them to dwell more on the action compared to the older Romero films.[81]
Global film revival (2001–2008)
The zombie revival, which began in the Far East, eventually went global, following the worldwide success of the Japanese zombie gamesResident Evil andThe House of the Dead.[79]Resident Evil in particular sparked a revival of the zombie genre in popular culture, leading to a renewed global interest in zombie films during the early 2000s.[82] In addition to being adapted into theResident Evil andHouse of the Dead films from 2002 onwards, the original video games themselves also inspired zombie films such as28 Days Later (2002),[83]Planet Terror (2007) andShaun of the Dead (2004).[84] This led to the revival of zombie films in global popular culture.[82][83][85]
The turn of the millennium coincided with a decade of box office successes in which the zombie subgenre experienced a resurgence: theResident Evil movies (2002–2016), the British films28 Days Later and28 Weeks Later (2007),[86][87] theDawn of the Dead remake (2004),[1] and the comediesShaun of the Dead andDance of the Dead (2008). The new interest allowed Romero to create the fourth entry in his zombie series:Land of the Dead, released in the summer of 2005. Romero returned to the series with the filmsDiary of the Dead (2008) andSurvival of the Dead (2010).[1] Generally, the zombies in these shows are theslow, lumbering and unintelligent kind, first made popular inNight of the Living Dead.[88] TheResident Evil films,28 Days Later and theDawn of the Dead remake all set box office records for the zombie genre, reaching levels of commercial success not seen since the originalDawn of the Dead in 1978.[76]
Motion pictures created in the 2000s, like28 Days Later, theHouse of the Dead andResident Evil films, and theDawn of the Dead remake,[55] have featured zombies that are more agile, vicious, intelligent, and stronger than the traditional zombie.[89] These new type of zombies, the fast zombie or running zombie, have origins in video games, withResident Evil's running zombie dogs and especiallyThe House of the Dead game's running human zombies.[55]
Spillover to television (2008–2015)
The success ofShaun of the Dead led to more successful zombie comedies during the late 2000s to early 2010s, such asZombieland (2009) andCockneys vs Zombies (2012).[82] By 2011, theResident Evil film adaptations had also become the highest-grossingfilm series based on video games, after they grossed more than$1 billion worldwide.[90] In 2013, theAMC seriesThe Walking Dead had the highest audience ratings in the United States for any show on broadcast or cable with an average of 5.6 million viewers in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic.[91] The filmWorld War Z became the highest-grossing zombie film, and one of the highest-grossing films of 2013.[82]
At the same time, starting from the mid-2000s, a new type of zombie film has been growing in popularity: the one in which zombies are portrayed as humanlike in appearance and behavior, retaining the personality traits they had in life, and becoming friends or even romantic partners for humans rather than a threat to humanity. Notable examples of human–zombie romance include the stop-motion animated movieCorpse Bride, live-action moviesWarm Bodies,Camille,Life After Beth,Burying the Ex, andNina Forever, and TV seriesPushing Daisies andBabylon Fields.[7][92] According to zombie scholar Scott Rogers, "what we are seeing inPushing Daisies,Warm Bodies, andiZombie is in many ways the same transformation [of the zombies] that we have witnessed with vampires since the 1931Dracula represented Dracula as essentially human—a significant departure from the monstrous representation in the 1922 filmNosferatu". Rogers also notes the accompanying visual transformation of the living dead: while the "traditional" zombies are marked by noticeable disfigurement and decomposition, the "romantic" zombies show little or no such traits.[7]
Return to decline (2015–present)
In the late 2010s, zombie films began declining in popularity, withelevated horror films gradually taking their place, such asThe Witch (2015),Get Out (2017),A Quiet Place (2018) andHereditary (2018).[85] An exception is the low-budget Japanese zombie comedyOne Cut of the Dead (2017), which became a sleeper hit in Japan, and it made box office history by earning over a thousand times its budget.[93]One Cut of the Dead also received worldwide acclaim, withRotten Tomatoes stating that it "reanimates the moribund zombie genre with a refreshing blend of formal daring and clever satire".[94] Other examples of this exception for the genre would include the Korean zombie film seriesTrain to Busan andAlive (2020).The "romantic zombie" angle still remains popular, however: the late 2010s and early 2020s saw the release of the TV seriesAmerican Gods,iZombie, andSanta Clarita Diet, as well as the 2018Disney Channel Original MovieZombies and sequelsZombies 2 (2020),Zombies 3 (2022) andZombies 4 (2025). The zombie apocalypse film genre is seen as having undergone a bit of renewal in popularity worldwide in recent years thanks to the success of zombie-related media likeHBO's The Last of Us and28 Years Later.[95]
In the 1990s, zombie fiction emerged as a distinct literary subgenre, with the publication ofBook of the Dead (1990) and its follow-upStill Dead: Book of the Dead 2 (1992), both edited by horror authorsJohn Skipp and Craig Spector. Featuring Romero-inspired stories from the likes ofStephen King, theBook of the Dead compilations are regarded as influential in the horror genre and perhaps the first true "zombie literature". Horror novelistStephen King has written about zombies, including his short story "Home Delivery" (1990) and his novelCell (2006), concerning a struggling young artist on a trek from Boston toMaine in hopes of saving his family from a possible worldwide outbreak of zombie-like maniacs.[96]
2000s and 2010s were marked by a decidedly new type of zombie novel, in which zombies retain their humanity and become friends or even romantic partners for humans; critics largely attribute this trend to the influence ofStephenie Meyer's vampire seriesTwilight.[99][100] One of the most prominent examples isGeneration Dead by Daniel Waters, featuring undead teenagers struggling for equality with the living and a human protagonist falling in love with their leader.[9] Other novels of this period involving human–zombie romantic relationships includeBone Song byJohn Meaney,American Gods byNeil Gaiman,Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson, andAmy Plum'sDie for Me series;[100] much earlier examples, dating back to the 1980s, areDragon on a Pedestal byPiers Anthony andConan the Defiant bySteve Perry.[101][102]
Anime and manga
There has been a growth in the number of zombiemanga in the first decade of the 21st century, and in a list of "10 Great Zombie Manga",Anime News Network's Jason Thompson placedI Am a Hero at number 1, considering it "probably the greatest zombie manga ever". In second place wasLiving Corpse, and in third wasBiomega, which he called "the greatest science-fiction virus zombie manga ever".[103] During the late 2000s and early 2010s, there were several manga andanime series that humanized zombies by presenting them as protagonists or love interests, such asSankarea: Undying Love andIs This a Zombie? (both debuted in 2009).
Z ~Zed~ was adapted into a live action film in 2014.[104]
Within fantasy role-playing games, the zombie is a common type of undead creature. InDungeons & Dragons, the zombie, one of the basicundead creature types, combines ideas from contemporary entertainment and traditional folklore.[105] Zombies are generally portrayed as supernatural creations, with variations such as the Ju-ju, Sea Zombie, and Zombie Lord. However, inAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, another creature (called the Yellow Musk Creeper) was also incorporated. The Yellow Musk Creeper is acreeping plant that drains the intelligence of its victims, turning them into "zombies" under the plant's control. Ben Woodard found this to be an expression of the "seemingly endless morphology of fungal creep and toxicological capacity" within the game.[106]
In video games, the release of two 1996 horror gamesCapcom'sResident Evil andSega'sThe House of the Dead sparked an international craze for zombie games.[107][79] In 2013,George A. Romero said that it was the video gamesResident Evil andHouse of the Dead "more than anything else" that popularised zombies in early 21st century popular culture.[108][109] The modern fast-running zombies have origins in these games, withResident Evil's running zombie dogs and especiallyHouse of the Dead's running human zombies, which later became a staple of modern zombie films.[55]
DayZ, a zombie-basedsurvival horrormod forARMA 2, was responsible for over 300,000 unit sales of its parent game within two months of its release.[112] Over a year later, the developers of the mod created astandalone version of the same game, which was in early access onSteam, and so far has sold 3 million copies since its release in December 2013.[113]
Romero would later opine that he believes that much of the 21st century obsessions with zombies can be traced more towards video games than films, noting that it was not until the 2009 filmZombieland that a zombie film was able to gross more than 100 million dollars.[114]
Zombie video games have remained popular in the late 2010s, as seen with the commercial success of theResident Evil 2 remake andDays Gone in 2019.[118] This enduring popularity may be attributed, in part, to the fact that zombie enemies are not expected to exhibit significant levels of intelligence, making them relatively straightforward to program. However, less pragmatic advantages, such as those related to storytelling and representation, are increasingly important.[119]
Music
Michael Jackson's music videoThriller (1983), in which he dances with a troupe of zombies, has been preserved as a cultural treasure by the Library of Congress'National Film Registry.[120][121] Many instances of pop culture media have paid tribute to this video, including a gathering of 14,000 university students dressed as zombies in Mexico City,[120] and 1,500 prisoners in orange jumpsuits recreating the zombie dance ina viral video.[122]
TheBrooklyn hip hop trioFlatbush Zombies incorporate many tropes from zombie fiction and play on the theme of a zombie apocalypse in their music. They portray themselves as "living dead", describing their use ofpsychedelics such asLSD andpsilocybin mushrooms as having caused them to experienceego death and rebirth.
The zombie also appears as a metaphor in protest songs, symbolizing mindless adherence to authority, particularly that of law enforcement and the armed forces. Well-known examples includeFela Kuti's 1976 albumZombie andthe Cranberries' 1994 single "Zombie".
Organizedzombie walks have been staged, either as performance art or as part of protests that parody political extremism or apathy.[123][124][125][126][127]
A variation of the zombie walk is the zombie run. Here participants do a5 km run wearing a belt with several flag "lives". If the chasing zombies capture all of the flags, the runner becomes "infected". If he or she reaches the finish line, which may involve wide detours ahead of the zombies, then the participant is a "survivor". In either case, an appropriate participation medal is awarded.[128]
Artworks
ArtistJillian McDonald has made several works of video art involving zombies and exhibited them in her 2006 show "Horror Make-Up", which debuted on 8 September 2006 at Art Moving Projects, a gallery in,Williamsburg, Brooklyn.[129]
Artist Karim Charredib has dedicated his work to the zombie figure. In 2007, he made a video installation at Villa Savoye called "Them !!!", wherein zombies walked in the villa like tourists.[130]
On 18 May 2011, the United States'Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a graphic novel entitledPreparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse, providing tips to survive a zombie invasion as a "fun new way of teaching the importance of emergency preparedness".[131] The CDC used the metaphor of a zombie apocalypse to illustrate the value of laying in water, food, medical supplies, and other necessities in preparation for any and all potentialdisasters, be they hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, or hordes of zombies.[131][132]
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Defense draftedCONPLAN 8888, a training exercise detailing a strategy to defend against a zombie attack.[133]
Theoretical academic studies
Researchers have used theoretical zombie infections to test epidemiology modeling. One study found that all humans end up turned or dead. This is because the main epidemiological risk of zombies, besides the difficulties of neutralizing them, is that their population just keeps increasing; generations of humans merely "surviving" still have a tendency to feed zombie populations, resulting in gross outnumbering. The researchers explain that their methods of modelling may be applicable to the spread of political views or diseases with dormant infection.[134][135]
Adam Chodorow of theSandra Day O'Connor College of Law atArizona State University investigated theestate andincome tax implications of a zombie apocalypse underUnited States federal and state tax codes.[136] Neuroscientists Bradley Voytek and Timothy Verstynen have built a side career in extrapolating how ideas in neuroscience would theoretically apply to zombie brains. Their work has been featured inForbes,New York Magazine, and other publications.[137]
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^Hurston, Zora Neale (1984) [1942].Dust Tracks on a Road (2nd (1942) ed.). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. p. 205).
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^Moore, Brian L. (1995).Cultural Power, Resistance, and Pluralism: Colonial Guyana, 1838–1900. University of California Press. pp. 147–149.
^Dayan, Joan (1998).Haiti, History, and the Gods. University of California Press. p. 37.
^abNiehaus, Isak (June 2005). "Witches and Zombies of the South African Lowveld: Discourse, Accusations and Subjective Reality".The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.11 (2):197–198.doi:10.1111/j.1467-9655.2005.00232.x.
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Flint, David (2008)Zombie Holocaust: How the living dead devoured pop culture Plexus, London,ISBN978-0-85965-397-8
Forget, Thomas (2007)Introducing Zombies Rosen Publishing, New York,ISBN1-4042-0852-6; (juvenile)
Graves, Zachary (2010)Zombies: The complete guide to the world of the living dead Sphere, London,ISBN978-1-84744-415-8
Hurston, Zora Neale (2009)Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica, Harper Perennial.ISBN978-0-06169-513-1
McIntosh, Shawn andLeverette, Marc (editors) (2008)Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland,ISBN0-8108-6043-0.
Moreman, Christopher M., and Cory James Rushton (editors) (2011)Zombies Are Us: Essays on the Humanity of the Walking Dead. McFarland.ISBN978-0-7864-5912-4.
Shaka McGlotten, and Jones, Steve (editors) (2014)Zombies and Sexuality: Essays on Desire and the Living Dead. McFarland.ISBN978-0-7864-7907-8.
Bishop, Kyle William (2015)How Zombies Conquered Popular Culture: The Multifarious Walking Dead in the 21st Century. McFarland.ISBN978-1-4766-2208-8.
Szanter, Ashley, and Richards, Jessica K. (editors) (2017)Romancing the Zombie: Essays on the Undead as Significant "Other". McFarland.ISBN978-1-4766-6742-3.
Russell, Jamie (2005)Book of the dead: the complete history of zombie cinema FAB, Godalming, England,ISBN1-903254-33-7
Waller, Gregory A. (2010)Living and the undead: slaying vampires, exterminating zombies University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Indiana,ISBN978-0-252-07772-2
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