Last week, I described how “zombie” was translated from a Voodoo term – referring to people who’ve been drugged and enslaved by someone called a bokor – into cannibalistic corpses that we’ve seen filling our movies and television shows. Richard Matheson wrote what could be considered the transitional book, but while his monsters were more vampiric, his post-apocalyptic scenario inspired George A. Romero, the Godfather of the Zombie Genre, to create his 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead. When fans altered the names of his monsters from “ghouls” to “zombies,” history was set and the zombies have become the standard totem in post-apocalyptic works ever since.
Now while that’s all good and fun, we can’t simply set aside the zombie flick as mere entertainment. On the contrary, the zombie genre has had a much deeper influence, I maintain, than we even realize. After all, Romero’s first zombie film was eventually inducted into the Library of Congress’s national film registry, an honor that is reserved only for films deemed “culturally or historically significant.” So let us, therefore, begin with the film that started it all.
One thing to notice about Night of the Living Dead is its cast: a group of white people led by one black man, portrayed by actor Duane Jones. While Romero himself denied that race was a factor in the casting, the idea of having a black character leading a cast of whites resonated strongly in a decade of racial turmoil. After all, the movie was released only six months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior. But if we take race a little deeper, we’ll see that relations are critiqued in the film, highlighted by the lead actor’s death at the hand of “rednecks.” I almost wonder if the writers for The Walking Dead had this in mind when they had Merle (a redneck) attack T-Dog (a black man), with the latter taking the more reasonable role.
Indeed, we can see that many zombie films portray social turmoil with a sort of “inner plot” while the zombie-infested post-apocalypse forms a kind of “outer plot.” By this, I mean that most zombie films tend to portray characters barricading themselves in some safe place, then working out their interpersonal issues on the inside of the walls, outside of which the real dangers prowl. Inside that safe place, the inner plot takes the form of personality and culture clashes deeply engrained with racial and gender discussions. Ultimately, the group will find a way to overcome their issues and escape or succumb to them and become overwhelmed by the outer plot of the zombies beyond the walls.
So the inner plot of a zombie film centers on interpersonal relations and how people can get past their prejudices and work together. Outside of this is the outer plot, which is usually more of a social critique, fostering differing views toward the government: either the government is responsible and, hence, not to be trusted; it is ineffective and, hence, not to be trusted; or it ultimately leads the triumph over the zombie horde and is to be trusted with our allegiance. In the overwhelming majority of zombie films, the first two options are taken, and even in the rare occurrences when the third option is taken, the government is often portrayed as an authoritarian dictatorship (as in 28 Days Later), sometimes even breeding a dystopia (like Woodbury in The Walking Dead). So it seems that, ultimately, the zombie films critique the government itself, encouraging our leaders not to disappear into an inhuman or ineffective system, or else the apocalypse will come and leave their people defenseless.
On a last note, there’s one thing I seem to notice about zombie films: an ever-feared thing called the “swarm.” The swarm, or horde, is an overwhelming herd of zombies that the protagonists cannot defeat. They are rare in films, and they usually signal the end with their approach. But as I watch them in zombie films, I find myself wondering if that very swarm is us. Do we lose ourselves in the crowd, with the ultimate result of destroying our fellow man? Do we find righteousness in anonymity? Personally, I think we should each examine ourselves to see what role we would play in such a film. I think it might be best if we could reconcile the inner plot and the outer plot and save as many souls as possible.
Until next time, friends…
Stay tuned for my next blog post, in which I’ll explore why we, as Christians, need no longer obey the strict commands of Leviticus!