Dear Zombies,

This has been a long time coming but I think you are awesome.

Whenever I am having a bad day, who is it that I turn to in my head to indulge my violent fantasies?

        Zombies.

Who is it that I immediately reference when I am stuck in conversation with someone who ‘really likes’ Bridget Jones?

        Zombies.

And Halloween. Which unholy creature do I always want my friends to dress up as but am far, far too lazy to put in the necessary effort with the prosthetics?

        Zombies.

So now I think it is time for a little payback. You have given me so much over the years that I need to give something back.

I am going to grow your fan base. And I am going to do this in the most humble way possible; by simply talking about you…

Zombie History

Zombie legends are found all over the world in various forms, they are even mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh:

“I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld, I will smash the doorposts, and leave the doors flat down, and will let the dead go up to eat the living! And the dead will outnumber the living!”

This is all well and good but the modern day fictional zombie owes more (even the word ‘zombi’) to Afro-Caribbean belief than anything else. Clearly nineteenth century racism and fear of anything to do with blacks had a lot to do with it. But Afro-Caribbean spirituality  — especially Haitian Voudou — also provides the most elaborate collection of myths and ‘rules’ about zombies.

Zombie rules?

For a start there are a number of different types. There is the zombi astral, which is the spirit of a dead person trapped by a sorcerer in special clay pots that are sent out to do his/her bidding. These are understandably the most common because they have a less elaborate set up than physical zombies.

Then, of course, there are the traditional ‘animated corpse’ zombies. If such things are possible  — and there have been a number of eyewitness accounts over the last century — then these are created by administering a tetrodotoxin that is found in a number of puffer fish. This brings on a death-like paralysis.

After this you use sorcery and some mind-controlling chemicals like datura. You also need to provide a stimulant to keep them working in the fields, or whatever it is you get your zombies to do. In Cuba, the rumour is that they use cocaine. (Seems like such a waste, to me.)

Why are zombie beliefs so elaborate and pervasive in this part of the world and not in their original African homeland, or indeed, anywhere else? Do zombies like white sand beaches? This had always puzzled me until I found the answer in the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot.

Slavery. Zombies represent unending servitude and total a lack of freedom even beyond death. Where else in the world could such a belief be so terrifying? There is a reason you find shark demons in the Pacific Islands and ice giants in Northern Europe.

But unlike shark demons or ice giants which represent fears of the natural environment, zombies are an inherently political fear.

This is how zombies provoke such visceral terror in so many people. You can avoid the shark demon by staying out of the water but your freedom can be taken from you anywhere and at any time.

And this is also why they are so important. They are a flawless creative device for exploring the modern world.

Zombi Politik

George A. Romero is the Germaine Greer of zombies. He shows us that undeath is political. Dawn Of The Dead, the second in his Dead tetralogy is the most obvious example of this.

It is no accident that he had his brain dead horde shambling through a shopping mall; the high temple of mindless consumerism. Here the zombie as metaphor for slavery and bondage reached its peak. Only this time the master isn’t a rigid political hierarchy but an era of mass consumption.

Although infection is occasionally implied as the cause for a zombie outbreak in his films, he never makes this clear. The fact is, if you die once the outbreak commences, you too will become a zombie. He makes the malaise universal and inescapable. There is no way you can protect yourself from becoming a zombie in this world. We can read this as his take on the politics of consumer culture: you will inevitably succumb.

The excellent 2004 remake of Dawn Of The Dead copped some flack for allegedly abandoning this political message: the zombies are fast moving. That’s scary to be sure, but it’s not horrifying because it isn‘t showing us something about our world.

Bollocks.

The original was made in the mid seventies. The consumer climate is very different now and so must be the message. The survivors and the zombies gravitate to the mall and it is not directly mentioned. It has been normalised. Going to the mall is what we do. The fact that the mall is not commented on is the comment. The zombies have won.

The best execution of zombies as potent political metaphors is also one of the most recent: 28 Weeks Later, the follow-up to 28 Days Later (itself an excellent film). It is the story of a small group of survivors attempting to reclaim England after it has been devastated by a zombie outbreak.

So let‘s see: An American Occupying Force attempting to subdue a hostile local population from a supposedly safe ‘green zone’ on foreign soil which turns out not to be safe at all. Sound familiar? Think they‘ll win?

In fact, the Iraq metaphor ties back in neatly to the ‘zombies as a metaphor for slavery’ seeing as the political rights of the Iraqis are worse than non-existent.

Come to think of it, there is obviously a direct correlation between the current political climate and the resurgence of zombie films.

Romero‘s most recent; Land Of The Dead has wealthy humans living in walled American cities, completely cut off from the rest of the population (zombies). That is, until the zombies stop being distracted by the fireworks and other tricks (Fox News, maybe?) used to subdue them and start to evolve a limited sense of independent thought and overrun the wealthy elite.

So rather than just violent gore-fests zombie films are actually powerful political allegories? Yes.

Except when they’re not.

Zombie Fine Arts

His Holiness Peter Jackson first made a name for himself with Bad Taste and then went on to make Braindead. From memory, Braindead still holds the record for the highest number of dismemberments in a single scene in cinema history (a lawnmower motor was used).

Now, whilst Braindead has a very 1950‘s New Zealand look about it, this style is not a message, per se. It‘s simply a motif: conformity, being different, zombies, etc.

Zombie films like Braindead are not political commentary in the same way Romero‘s films are.

They are giant love letters to visual storytelling itself.

The premises are absurd (being bitten by a Sumatran Rat Monkey), the acting and effects are hilarious but the films themselves are wonderful. Directors like Jackson or Sam Raimi excel at visual storytelling and their delight in the sheer act of presenting a story in moving pictures is visible in every frame. Why have a close up of a paper mache head exploding with goo? Because it will look cool.

There’s no discernable story in a Pollack painting but some of them are incredible. Such is the case with zombie movies. It‘s using the camera for the sheer joy of it.

In the hands of a master, even the silliest zombie film becomes cinema in its purest form. A ride on a moving picture.

Convinced?

Have you been converted or were you already a convert? At the very least you‘ll be able to leap to the defence of the humble zombie whenever some dinner party wanker makes a disparaging remark.

If you are teetering on the brink of being converted then I have one more shell left in my zombie shotgun: A free zombie game! Just check out this link and start taking out the undead.

http://www.codenautics.com/zombies/

If you already love zombies well then… you will probably think this game is awesome. Just like the zombies themselves.

End of love letter.

Gordon White is Business Development Manager for APN Digital Media in New Zealand. He also won a prize for his zombie radio play the other year. The prize was a zombie DVD.

He can be contacted at gordon.white@apn.co.nz