There are those things which come around and define parts of a generation, be it from the broader political or social influences or from pop culture trends which, as flash in the pan as they may seem, break out of the status of fad to achieve the level of a cultural pillar. For nearly the last decade, the zombie has become a trope of the American entertainment culture, having been resurrected for films, TV shows, comics, and games. I suppose they never actually left, but these undead creatures haven't been such a hallmark of our culture since perhaps when they first hit the scene in the 1960s. Be it the T-Virus, Rage, or any other form or proprietary contagion, everyone's been infected by zombiemania!
I've been immune to it so far, but I'm sick of it.
I'd be lying if I were to say that I've hated any form of media containing the z-word. I like Left 4 Dead and the Resident Evil titles I've gotten my hands on, and enjoyed films like 28 Days Later, Fido, and Shaun of the Dead. I think it can be an interesting vehicle, of sorts, for how it tells a story: how do people interact when so much has been destroyed, when the dead walk the earth, etc. I don't watch a lot of TV, so while I haven't caught up with The Walking Dead, I hear it handles those interpersonal dramas quite well--it's on my "to watch" list.
But I'd also be lying if I were to say that my ignorance of the series didn't stem from an initial hesitance, which itself was caused from a sort of fatigue. For the past decade zombies have been the "hot" thing. We talk about them. We joke about the zombie apocalypse. All the while, someone's marketing them at us, be it with shows, movies, games, ads, apps--you name it. And every time someone utters the z-word, I - along with the zombie concept itself - die a little bit more.
Maybe I'm just a grouchy pop culture curmudgeon who gets annoyed too easily, because not a lot of other people seem to share these kinds of views. But zombiemania has become a staple of our lives, obnoxious and uninspired as it may be; much like nostalgia (a rant I'll save for another day), it's cheap, lazy, and overrated. There's that point where anything even remotely good gets ruined by saturation or overexposure, and I'd say we hit that point quite a while ago. Sure, putting them in a story or whatever isn't itself harmless, but there's a total difference between creating something (making something of your own design and inspiration) and just cashing in on a hot trend. The latter of these lends itself to awkward shoehorning and inserting things just to say, "Hey hip consumer who is totally down with current trends, check THIS out!"
Even from the get-go, the source material isn't all that interesting. Sure, the basic idea is pretty scary ("Holy crap that guy was dead but now he's not, OH MY GAWWWWD") and is ample for dramatic and moral predicaments ("Holy crap my family member/friend/dog got bit, WHAT DO I DOOO"). But all the same the audience is left with the same horde of necrotic, brainless, shuffling mooks we've seen since Dawn of the Dead; even minor changes to the original formula are now parts of the same rehashes. Even as much as I liked the Left 4 Dead games, I came away saying, "They threw in some interesting special enemies...buuut I'm still mowing down a bunch of zombies."
Surely those trendsetters of the entertainment industry will retread the theme somehow, or maybe even retire it so it doesn't get stale, right? (Asked the writer naively). Nah: if it ain't not makin' money, why fix it? The aforementioned shoehorning seemed necessary for Red Dead Redemption (because if there's one thing that that game and/or Wild West settings were missing, it was zombies) and for CoD: Black Ops (if Activision knows one thing, it's innovation with every title!). While I know that the add-ons were completely optional, nothing was really gained from them (with the exception of some good money for the publishers), yet a good amount of other capital was potentially lost. You see, for every moment that is spent building upon an established idea, untold amounts of other ideas are left behind--aborted, delayed, or kept in that limbo appropriately known as "development hell." The concept of the opportunity cost is as applicable to the creative process as it is to its native economics. Every cheap cash-in (especially and most shamefully those from major games companies) represents every new IP that is or could have been, but ultimately wasn't.
Also, take a look at what's happening with the film version of World War Z: from all appearances, it's straying/will have strayed much from the book, to its own detriment. The book's on my to-read list, but from others' accounts I've gathered that it's quite compelling and joins some other zombie-based media in how it uses the post-apocalypse as an allegorical vehicle. So far the film version appears to be...uh, a really expensive zombie film which is only nominally related to the source material. And Brad Pitt's there, too! But really, it's just the same old thing. If what we're seeing is what we'll get, then sticking to the old formula isn't just lazy, it's suicidal.
But maybe all truly is not lost and that the skies aren't as overcast as the post-apocalyptic world would have us believe. Everything ebbs and flows, yins and yangs, salts and peppers. Maybe over the next year or so pop culture will finally move on to another fixation, another rehashing of old material or - maybe, just maybe - will surprise the world with its own new creation, out to capture the hearts and minds of everyone it touches. Yes, a new creation, the most passing mention of which won't make me want to smack the speaker. For certain, though, I think it's in everyone's best interests if we as a people come together and lay the undead to rest.
Or maybe Brad Pitt will do that for us.
Edit: Admittedly this wasn't quite the direction I was expecting for this, and was hoping to direct this a bit better. I'll probably revist this topic again at a later date, but for now I'll clarify stuff through whatever comments I get.
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