Critiquing a Critique

In the article, Kyle Bishop starts off by saying that all great literary productions reveal what our cultural anxieties are. He gives examples of this such as movies at the end of World War 2 that show our fear of the use of atomic weapons or the movies made as a result of our fear of the communist threat. Bishop says Zombie cinema is the most revealing of our culture of the recent decade. Zombie cinema has its ups and downs over the years. Recently however there has been a sort of zombie “Renaissance”. There are a bunch of examples of the various movies released in the past few years. The zombie films of the recent decade addresses the social and cultural fears from the terrorist attacks on September 11. Bishop says “Night of the Living Dead” reinvented the zombie from the historical version of a monster of voodoo magic. The frequency of these movies has increased during periods of loss of freedom and autonomy. Starting in the 1980’s zombies became more of a joke and portrayed in comedies. With the peace and stability in the 1990’s the zombie genre declined with movies failing at the box office. The result was few new ideas or stories were produced in the 90’s. Zombies found their way into video games starting in the 90’s. Zombies started showing up in video games, graphic novels, books, and movies. No one recognized this zombie “renaissance” until 2006. The amount of zombies in film, TV and other media makes the genre more complex than mere entertainment. There are reasons why audiences fear these corpses. Zombies cannot be reasoned with, or dissuaded because they have no emotion. They never tire and will kill mercilessly. Zombies are in a state of decay with a human appearance that was once belonged to the living. As a result they personify our own death. The breakdown in the social order in zombies allows the fulfillment of survivalist fantasies. Zombies are animals. The end of the world portray in the zombies film is the greatest fear. Bishop makes comparisons between zombies and terrorists of 9/11. Everyone could be a threat and as a result there is no safety. The zombie is unique because it didn’t start in literature like other monsters but in folklore, drama, and cinema. By forcing viewers to face their fears the zombie narrative is insightful into modern society. 

Link to article on how to survive a zombie attack.

Image from Here.