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Confessional: I don't like zombies.


On 05/04/2013 at 02:02 AM by Caesar

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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.


 

Comments

Super Step Contributing Writer

05/04/2013 at 03:03 AM

I don't care about zombies either, but I can't complain, because superheroes are getting milked to high heaven as well, have been for at least the past decade, and I eat it up just as much as zombie fans eat up their tropes and whatnot.

Honestly, if you're talking about 90s nostalgia, which is all over the internet ... I'm kind of from the exact generation that makes that so pervasive, and don't really mind it, though it has gotten very stale.

So I'll just thank you for the Troll 2 reference and leave you with this hilarious (I thought) Youtube clip, and maybe come back tomorrow with a more intellectual reason I agree with you on zombies, but like the arguably stale genre I do enjoy. Maybe. 

Caesar

05/04/2013 at 04:03 AM

Heh.  That video series has some pretty good moments.  Glad you enjoyed the Troll 2 clip; I couldn't not put it in for that part.

Just because x happens and it's bad/wrong/questionable/annoying/etc., doesn't necessarily y is or should be exempt.  Personally, I've enjoyed the superhero films I've seen (Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Avengers and its tie-in movies), but superheroes haven't quite hit that status of cultural meme that zombies have.  Superman may be all-powerful, Batman may be craftier than all, but both are bound to the superhero universe's greatest limitation: COPYRIGHT!  (At this point, check out the "Figure Not Included" episode of Dexter's Laboratory, or at least just the ending.)

80s/90s nostalgia is extreeeeeeeeeeeeemely grating to me.  There's nothing at all wrong with nostalgia, but it's worn like a damn badge by way too many people.  It's not a special club, and "keeping it real" by caring about ONLY the original 151 Pokemon or because you watched 90s Nickelodeon doesn't make anyone special.  It's crossed the line from "remembering that cool thing from childhood" to banality.

Respond whenever or however much you like!  I'm not going anywhere.

AnonymousJ

05/04/2013 at 03:04 AM

I get that zombies are overdone.  I do call into question though making a statement about World War Z, a book you have not read and a movie nobody has yet watched.  In all fairness, you probably are right, but it buggs me when opinions are made prematurely.

Caesar

05/04/2013 at 03:38 AM

Even though I haven't read the book, I've been told it was quite good.  The Wiki article (forgive me for my weakness) brings up its potential allegorical references to real world problems, as well as its basic synopsis (I read the elevator pitch).  So, the second of those is more egregious, but hearing that a book is good isn't necessarily my opinion.

Having not read the book, I'm even more limited in how to judge what little has been released about the film.  But I've read previously that the it appears to be straying too much from the book, at least to some fans.  Watching the trailer, it also looks like that may be the case as well, not to mention the fact that they've done some pretty extensive reworking of the finished product--re-shooting an ending ain't exactly cheap, and that's not all they've had to patch up.

I don't know how it's going to end up, if it'll be good or bad.  But so far it looks like Big-Budget Zombie Film 2013.  Nothing we haven't seen before.  It's more zombies; and if it screws up in that adaptation (which apparently is a hard task for Hollywood to carry out) by remaking what other films have already done, then I suppose it proves that part of my point.

leeradical42

05/04/2013 at 03:48 AM

Ok who forgot to sign in lol anyway Zombies im not a fan either you have all these fps games that for some ungodly reason thinks that zonbies makes a game look at the diriction alot of fps games went look at world at war a otherwise decent WW2 shooter ruined by a kill a million zombies Mosern Warfare Battlefeild all at least have zombie add ons look at red dead redemption and there zombie add on, i assume the thought of slaughtering a million slow moving flesh eating zombies appeal to people, but like you im not a fan, i dont care for the walking dead movies or games not a resident evil fan, and never could understand this infactuation, i laways assumed it was because im an older gamer, so im glad imnnot the onky one that feels that way.Wink

Caesar

05/04/2013 at 06:33 AM

I've read a few other blogs and articles about being "zombied out," so I know I'm not alone.  But for one, zombies sell.  For two, people like us are kind of in a minority, a pretty non-vocal one at that.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

05/04/2013 at 04:53 AM

I was sick of zombies too, but then I played DayZ and was like "Damn!"  I don't know how zombies became such the fixation they are now and I don't know how they will stop being so big either.  Maybe eventually it will just fade away, I don't know.  It seems like our culture has been completely permeated by zombies. 

I guess I just accept it now, I did like the walking dead video game, and I love DayZ, but otherwise I'm pretty zombied out myself. 

Chunopo

05/04/2013 at 05:23 AM

Day Z looks pretty cool! makes me wish I was into PC gaming.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

05/04/2013 at 05:25 AM

yeah my PC can barely handle it.  IT's an amazing game though.  I'm planning on getting a new PC, and one of the reasons is to play DayZ when it comes out for real. 

Caesar

05/04/2013 at 06:29 AM

DayZ looked pretty interesting, but I'm actually more drawn to its source material, Arma II.  I'd love to get that, but I don't think that my computer could handle it.  Not to mention that by the time I'd get a "dream computer" which totally could run it, Arma III will have had come out anyway.

Maybe they're on the decline nowadays, I'm not really sure.  I've tuned out zombiemania for the most part, so anytime they get mentioned I automatically put up a kind of mental "not giving a damn" block.

Chunopo

05/04/2013 at 05:22 AM

I love zombies but I'm starting to get bored of them a touch. In gaming my favourite type of online is co-operative gaming, particularly in horder style modes and zombies suit this style of non armed play very well. It doesn't just have to be zombies for this experience to work (I really hope they nail the horde mode for Aliens Colonial Marines for this one) but that slow advancing wave that doesn't fire bullets is particularly enjoyable for me. To be honest I ve always been fascinated by Zombies and the world that they create so this massive influx of games, movies, TV and books has been pretty awesome for me, but when it's done badly my eyes roll. The world War Z film looks terrible and very far away from the book. Any one that saysthat 'the movie isn't relaesed yet so how can we tell' has a point but from the trailers/ released footage it looks like it has very little in common with the book which is based on interviews from dozens of people to build an overall picture. Max Brookes first book 'The Zombie survival guide' is better than World War Z in my opinion, addictive reading with an insight that makes you wonder if Max knows something we don't!

Caesar

05/04/2013 at 06:19 AM

I hate them as a cultural fixation.  They're overused, overdone, played-out.  I hate any media in which the creators/director(s) said, "Y'know what this doesn't have?  Zombies."  If it wasn't there to begin with, it's probably for a reason.

But having said that, I don't think they're bad by design.  I enjoy certain zombie-centric things; even if Left 4 Dead has me mowing down hordes of the undead, it's still a pretty great game.  I flipped through parts of The Zombie Survival Guide and thought it's pretty cool, and it reminds me a lot of The Anarchist's Cookbook (DISCLAIMER: I no longer have that book, I'm not crazy, and I never had any plans on utilizing its instructions).  Even the CDC and some colleges have used zombies as a teaching method for pathology and medicine, and I think FEMA has used them for disaster preparedness drills and exercises.  Surely they can be used to make points about very real social issues like in George Romero's films.  But there are fewer "good" pieces than there are standard, trite, run-of-the-mill things, so even something trying to perhaps state a deeper meaning becomes "just another zombie book/movie/game/etc."

Ranger1

05/04/2013 at 08:35 AM

I am with you on the "meh" zombies front. There have been a few good movies and TV shows, but my first reaction is usually "Oh, great, another zombie movie/show/book/game, etc." I feel almost the same way about vampires, too, by the way.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

05/04/2013 at 08:38 AM

I feel worse about vampires.  I feel like Buffy did it the best and there's no room for vampire stories anymore. But people just can't get enough of them. 

bullet656

05/04/2013 at 08:40 AM

I've never liked zombies themselves, but have always loved zombie-related things.  Yeah, I'm also kind of sick of how popular they are, but then again I always kind of hate when something I love gets taken over and driven into the ground by pop culture.

I like them for the social commentary they can bring.  I also like them because films with them (usually) forces the writer to have small groups of people and actually have them interact and build characterization.  That's my type of horror movie.  I love horror movies but am not a big action fan.

Zombie movies are kind of played out, but there's still lots of good and original ones out there.  The first 3 Romero movies were great.  I also really like when they try something different.  I enjoyed Fido,Zombies Anonymous, Deadgirl, Zombie Honeymoon, [rec], ...even zombie strippers, all for different reasons.

When it comes to video games, I think they are also overused.  But they can bring fun situations.  I love the idea of a fast-paced game that takes place in a mall where you can you into all the stores and make all kinds of weapons.  But without the use of zombies, I'm not sure how a game like Dead Rising could exist.  Sure, I guess you could fight terrorists in a mall or something, but it would have been a completely different type of game.

Anyways, that was a lot of typing, especially since I kind of agree with you.  But, as I've gotten older, I've started not really caring what pop culture does to the things I love.  I just ignore it and find the good stuff that still exists.

Cary Woodham

05/04/2013 at 10:18 AM

You know what I don't like are vampires.  What is so alluring about sucking blood?  Yuck! 

What I think is cool are ghosts!  Ghosts are neat!  They don't get enough attention.

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