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Could someone enlighten me as to why this fad won't die?

Manchu wrote:Could someone enlighten me as to why this fad won't die?

Why does any fad come and go? Why were vampire popular in the 90s? Real vampires, not the X-Men that sparkle.

Because no one has taken a clean head shot on it yet??

Don't worry Manchu,even I,as a lover of all things zombie don't see the current interest in the genre lasting,sure AMC will carry on with TWD,and I'm sure there will be some movies in the future.
But sooner or later the zombies will shuffle of into the sunset.

It's geek chic. Someone, somewhere decided zombies were cool, and everyone else piled aboard the bandwagon.

chaos0xomega wrote:It's geek chic. Someone, somewhere decided zombies were cool, and everyone else piled aboard the bandwagon.

Hmmm, I can partially agree with you.
Zombies have always been cool...many people are discovering that fact out and piling on the bandwagon.

The horror genre has an interesting and sometimes irritating way of declaring that everything in it stands for something real. This is especially true of zombies, thanks to author-encouraged/originated sociological readings, and vampires, thanks to English professors insisting Bram Stoker was a good writer. So my question is: what is it about life (sociologically, culturally, economically) in the English-speaking world of 2010 that makes people want to read about, watch movies and shows about, play games about, and even dress up as zombies?

I mean, I like them. I've thought about this. And I can't think of anything that sounds more plausible/less pretensious than a feminist reading of Bram Stoker, i.e., nothing at all convincing.

Because wargamers like a movie monster that is somehow slower and smellier then they are.

It ain't just wargamers, my friend.

Manchu wrote:The horror genre has an interesting and sometimes irritating way of declaring that everything in it stands for something real. This is especially true of zombies, thanks to socialogical readings, and vampires, thanks to English professors insisting Bram Stoker was a good writer. So my question is: what is it about life (sociologically, culturally, economically) in the English-speaking world 2010 that makes people want to read about, watch movies and shows about, play games about, and even dress up as zombies?

I mean, I like them. I've thought about this. And I can't think of anything that sounds more plausible/less pretensious than a feminist reading of Bram Stoke, i.e., nothing at all convincing.

"We vs They" mentality?,being isolated in a hostile world?,Standing against a flood of mindless consumerism? All of these commentaries and more could be applied to zombie films.

ShumaGorath wrote:Because wargamers like a movie monster that is somehow slower and smellier then they are.

FITZZ wrote:"We vs They" mentality?,being isolated in a hostile world?,Standing against a flood of mindless consumerism? All of these commentaries and more could be applied to zombie films.

These are among the ideas I had thought of--but they're well-outlined. You remember, in Peter's speech about the mall in Dawn of the Dead. But can that be it? The isolation part has also occurred to me: do people feel so unable to connect that they look at one another as mindless/noin-existant (like when you're a kid, playing the "I wonder if I'm the only real person" game)?

chaos0xomega wrote:It's geek chic. Someone, somewhere decided zombies were cool, and everyone else piled aboard the bandwagon.

Sounds like 40K...

Because zombies are trendy on the internets

Heres a cat pic



EDIT

And another

Ma55ter_fett wrote:Because zombies are trendy on the internets

The bandwagon explanation is tautological.

Ma55ter_fett wrote:Because zombies are trendy on the internets

Heres a cat pic

Just for the sake of argument I'll point out that as annoying as bandwagon jumpers, pop culture whores and scenesters can be, the polar opposite is equally as annoying:

The "cool kids" that only listen to bands that no one else has heard of (and love to remind you of this fact), or who trash anything that other people like as being rubbish and/or beneath them.

It must be tiring being that "cool" and original and having to stay one step ahead all the time...

Why won't it die? A picture is worth a thousand words.

I think ANOTHER zombie thread just popped up a few minutes ago...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/332640.page

Ahtman wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:Because wargamers like a movie monster that is somehow slower and smellier then they are.

Manchu wrote:

FITZZ wrote:"We vs They" mentality?,being isolated in a hostile world?,Standing against a flood of mindless consumerism? All of these commentaries and more could be applied to zombie films.

These are among the ideas I had thought of--but they're well-outlined. You remember, in Peter's speech about the mall in Dawn of the Dead. But can that be it? The isolation part has also occurred to me: do people feel so unable to connect that they look at one another as mindless/noin-existant (like when you're a kid, playing the "I wonder if I'm the only real person" game)?

I'd wager that most of us,at some time,have viewed our fellow human beings as mindless annoyances,and I'm sure most people can also identify with the feelings of being isolated and alone,or having an inability to "connect" with others on a large scale.
I've noticed,particularly with teens and twenties,a near inability to carry on a simple conversation that doesn't involve a computer or texting,with I definitely see ass a form of self isolating (of a sort).

CT GAMER wrote:It must be tiring being that "cool" and original and having to stay one step ahead all the time...

It's okay that people like zombies or Twilight vampire or whatever. I'm just interested in why. This zombie business has been going on for a fair few years now. Both Marvel and DC got into it, there are all sorts of video and board games, movies upon movies, a long-running comic turned hit TV show, parades all over the country . . . why?

FITZZ wrote:
I've noticed,particularly with teens and twenties,a near inability to carry on a simple conversation that doesn't involve a computer or texting,with I definitely see ass a form of self isolating (of a sort).

You intentionally left the word ass fall right into your sentence, didn't you FITZZ?

I once read an article that said that the reason we fear zombies is becuase they are essentially humans without the soul. They are us at our most base instincts: no creativity, no communication, just wandering around and eating.

It is a question of lost/losing identity, and considering the ongoing conflicts, the rise of the internet, and relativism having a strong foothold is it really much of a surprise that zombies are the monster du jour building up over the last decade? Just a theory in progress.

WarOne wrote:

FITZZ wrote:
I've noticed,particularly with teens and twenties,a near inability to carry on a simple conversation that doesn't involve a computer or texting,with I definitely see ass a form of self isolating (of a sort).

You intentionally left the word ass fall right into your sentence, didn't you FITZZ?

...A slip of the keys?...fitting though it may be.

Manchu wrote:

CT GAMER wrote:It must be tiring being that "cool" and original and having to stay one step ahead all the time...

It's okay that people like zombies or Twilight vampire or whatever. I'm just interested in why. This zombie business has been going on for a fair few years now. Both Marvel and DC got into it, there are all sorts of video and board games, movies upon movies, a long-running comic turned hit TV show, parades all over the country . . . why?

Zombies have been huge since night of the living dead, they're a social movie monster that easily creators a palpable sensation of fear, danger, and isolation when used but are more visibly feasible then other standard movie monsters like werewolves or vampires. They are not, and likely can not be romanticized, so their use in fiction is primarily as the antagonist and environmental element that creates strong interpersonal narratives between characters. They're one of the few environmental monsters that aren't silly and which have some precedence in historical myth but which totally lack personality and can be instantly understood by the laymen. That said, expect the craze to fall over in the next few years. Media tends to burn through monsters cyclically.

Manchu wrote:

CT GAMER wrote:It must be tiring being that "cool" and original and having to stay one step ahead all the time...

It's okay that people like zombies or Twilight vampire or whatever. I'm just interested in why. This zombie business has been going on for a fair few years now. Both Marvel and DC got into it, there are all sorts of video and board games, movies upon movies, a long-running comic turned hit TV show, parades all over the country . . . why?

Zombies represent a buried genre that didn't gain any respect until the early 2000s. It was primarily a cult thing that only surfaced in popularity after Hollywood made it a fad.

Since zombies were never done in any large quantity except in the works of video games and Romeroesque B-rated movies, I don't see any suprise that it became wildly popular and still remains relevant today (however, it is getting played out).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

FITZZ wrote:

WarOne wrote:

FITZZ wrote:
I've noticed,particularly with teens and twenties,a near inability to carry on a simple conversation that doesn't involve a computer or texting,with I definitely see ass a form of self isolating (of a sort).

You intentionally left the word ass fall right into your sentence, didn't you FITZZ?

...A slip of the keys?...fitting though it may be.

Shhh! I'm sexting about computers right now. Stop bothering me.

ShumaGorath wrote:

Manchu wrote:

CT GAMER wrote:It must be tiring being that "cool" and original and having to stay one step ahead all the time...

It's okay that people like zombies or Twilight vampire or whatever. I'm just interested in why. This zombie business has been going on for a fair few years now. Both Marvel and DC got into it, there are all sorts of video and board games, movies upon movies, a long-running comic turned hit TV show, parades all over the country . . . why?

Zombies have been huge since night of the living dead, they're a social movie monster that easily creators a palpable sensation of fear, danger, and isolation when used but are more visibly feasible then other standard movie monsters like werewolves or vampires. They are not, and likely can not be romanticized, so their use in fiction is primarily as the antagonist and environmental element that creates strong interpersonal narratives between characters. They're one of the few environmental monsters that aren't silly and which have some precedence in historical myth but which totally lack personality and can be instantly understood by the laymen.

I agree but this only explains the longevity of zombies, not why they have been so prominent in the last several years moreso than in the past.

@Ahtman. Go on. Especially with regard to relativism and the internet, two things that I think have allowed people to communicate more genuinely.


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@Shuma: More on "environmental monsters" please.

Ahtman wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:

Manchu wrote:

CT GAMER wrote:It must be tiring being that "cool" and original and having to stay one step ahead all the time...

It's okay that people like zombies or Twilight vampire or whatever. I'm just interested in why. This zombie business has been going on for a fair few years now. Both Marvel and DC got into it, there are all sorts of video and board games, movies upon movies, a long-running comic turned hit TV show, parades all over the country . . . why?

Zombies have been huge since night of the living dead, they're a social movie monster that easily creators a palpable sensation of fear, danger, and isolation when used but are more visibly feasible then other standard movie monsters like werewolves or vampires. They are not, and likely can not be romanticized, so their use in fiction is primarily as the antagonist and environmental element that creates strong interpersonal narratives between characters. They're one of the few environmental monsters that aren't silly and which have some precedence in historical myth but which totally lack personality and can be instantly understood by the laymen.

I agree but this only explains the longevity of zombies, not why they have been so prominent in the last several years moreso than in the past.

"Last several years" I would say stems from 2003 onward, as the Dawn of the Dead remake, the Resident Evil series of video games, and the movies associated with Resident Evil really heralded in the beginning of the current craze.

I'm thinking more of Max Brooks's Zombie Survival Guide.

Manchu wrote:@Ahtman. Go on. Especially with regard to relativism and the internet, two things that I think have allowed people to communicate more genuinely.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@Shuma: More on "environmental monsters" please.

A monster that clearly defines the environemnt of the media they are present in. Zombie movies are claustrophobic, the enemy is persistant and everywhere and generally guide the narrative and entail an environment where the main characters are functionally in close proximity and consistently rely on eachother. Similar monsters would be steven kings "the mist", the flying things from pitch black, or the vampires rom I am legend. This is in stark contrast to the slasher monster like freddie or werewolves, which are primarilly predatory in how they are portrayed and the protagonists are generally hunted and killed by an opponant that they don't have a reasonable course of action to take against. This is contrasted further by monsters like vampires or mummies which generally possess some level of intelligence and personality, even if it's heavily restricted by the narrative. Imagine outdoors is fire and if you go outdoors you die. Thats a zombie movie. Zombies are the environment, they don't speak, think, or act in a way unexpected by the viewer. In this way the viewer can identify well with the danger they represent as they don't have to sympathize with them.