Why Zombies are still so popular Since the beginning of the film industry Zombies have been a prominent figure in the horror genre. The film industry greatly expanded the popularity of Zombies because of their essential visual nature. Zombies do not think or speak, they simply act, relying on purely physical manifestations of terror. People have always been drawn to a thrill, specifically one provided through the means of fear. Zombies remain so popular for many reasons, one being because they are surprisingly malleable creatures. The living dead can represent so many deep seeded societal fears and anxieties, of death, disease, plague, social anarchy, the unknown, and a breakdown of social order. They are also a critique of consumer capitalism and an embodiment of people’s desire to reform society. Death, it’s probably the most logical fear there is. It is the fear of the unknown. A Zombie is a figure of pure liminality, spanning the ideas that we use to define ourselves as human. Zombies are the physical incarnation of death, which is a reason they are called the living dead. They …show more content…
Zombies in some ways are a critique of consumer capitalism. Zombies consume larger and larger amounts of human flesh and their desire for it is never satisfied. Similarly our consumer society mesmerizes workers and thus creating a craving for more and more products of labor. People are feeling the effects of a culture controlled by a mounting need to consume for survival at the expense of their own humanity. People tend to be more interested in zombies when they are dissatisfied with society as a whole. In zombie flicks society falls apart and only small pockets of human resistance remains. These survivors then redefine civilization and society as they see fit leading to survivalist