WHY I LOVE ZOMBIES
By Mark Allan Gunnells
I have no shame in
admitting that I love zombies. Romero
films, The Walking Dead, even
horror/comedy hybrids like Shaun of the
Dead and Zombieland—I’m a junkie
for tales of the undead. I don’t often
spend time analyzing why I like the things I like, but I have put a little
thought into what it is that appeals to me about zombie stories. I figured I’d share.
What appeals to me the
most about zombie fiction is that the monster is rarely the star. Vampires have personality and style,
werewolves are people most of the time, but the zombie is just an empty vessel
driven by nothing but hunger and aggression.
Sure, there are the occasional stories that imbue the undead with actual
thought and motivation—Keene’s The Rising,
iZombie, etc.—but for the most part
the zombie is just a mindless monster that wants to eat your flesh.
And why do I find that
appealing? Because by making the zombie
the least interesting part of the story, it opens things up to really delve into
the living characters in the piece. Often
in fiction, especially horror fiction, the villains can overshadow the
protagonists. But in zombie fiction, the
protagonists can shine, becoming all the more interesting and complex because
of it.
Romero had a pretty
simple formula. Put a bunch of disparate
people behind four walls—a farmhouse, a shopping mall, a military bunker—and
watch as personalities clash. The
zombies were just an excuse to trap people who normally may not spend much time
together in a place where they can’t leave, providing a chance to explore
things like group dynamics, prejudice, power struggles, mental instability, the
lengths people will go to in order to survive.
The zombies are fun and provide great grisly action, but the real entertainment
comes from watching the living characters interact, the skirmishes they get
into, the relationships that develop, the allegiances and conflicts that
arise. Stories of the undead can say an
awful lot about the nature of being human.
Zombies can also act as
a blank slate against which the atrocities of man can be reflected in stark relief. A movie like 28 Days Later really illustrates this. The zombies in this film (though not of the
traditional undead variety, introducing the new era of the “infected”) are
intimidating and frightening foes to battle… but in the latter half of the film
you come to see that what they are capable of pales in comparison to what the
human mind can conceive. Zombies act on
instinct with no more malicious intent than a lion taking down a gazelle for
food. Man, on the other hand,
perpetrates heinous evil with forethought and intelligence. Using zombies as a comparison, this type of
fiction has the potential to really highlight just how twisted and cruel humans
can be.
With a story like World War Z (and here I talk of the book
as the movie is a bit more generic and jettisons the novel’s structure which I
think is its strength), you see humans fighting back against the zombies on a
grand scale. Such an epic canvas provides
the opportunity to show a variety of characters battling the undead in a
plethora of ways. The resourcefulness
and perseverance of humankind is celebrated.
Whereas something like 28 Days
Later reveals the depths of depravity of which we as people are capable, World War Z celebrates the heroism and
tenacity of which we are also capable.
That kind of balance is important.
All of these things
combined are why I love zombie tales, and it’s why I love writing them from
time to time. With my new novella FORT
(the shameless self-promotion portion of our blog), I tried to incorporate all
the elements that make zombie fiction so appealing to me. For my tale, I trapped a group of college
kids in a dorm with dwindling school supplies and just sat back and watched
what happened. We had conflict,
aggression, unexpected tenderness and support.
Some character did unspeakable things that put other people in jeopardy,
while others demonstrated surprising selflessness and courage. The story was a joy to write as it was as
much an act of discovery as it was one of creation. I went in with a set-up but no definite game
plan, not knowing for sure who would live or die, but I let the story tell me
what needed to transpire.
I’m not suggesting my
novella belongs in the same category as the movies and books I mentioned in
this blog, but I took all my love for zombie fiction and channeled it into this
piece, and I hope people walk away from it entertained.
