Discovering The Undead Symbolism Of The Zombie Film Studies Essay

The rotting, walking corpse that mind is set only to feed on human flesh and brain; the zombie remains to be a staple of horror in popular fiction. But what makes this grotesque creature so compelling? And what does it imply in our fragmented society?

When approaching the topic of zombie, one must look at the origin and the history of classic zombie in different eras. This section will explore the development of the conceptual sub-genre from classic horror to the present day zombie films in which have arisen during the Universal era. To begin exploring the obscurity of the ‘undead’, the first chapter will point at the early stage of zombie films adapting from the historical and cultural background of Haiti and how it reached the 20th century American culture.

The frame of Chapter Two will examine the beginning of George A. Romero’s influential living dead trilogy; Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978) and his last instalment Day of the Dead (1985) as well as his other post-apocalyptic zombie films showing how he completely revolutionized the conception of the zombie figure during the 1960’s. This period will carefully extract the representation of Romero’s infectious zombies and the gruesome display of cannibalism, guts and gore.

Chapter Three will comprehensively outline the manifestation of hope in Robert Kirkman’s successful comic book series, The Walking Dead (now in TV series). This section will examine Kirkman’s different approach to the sub-genre; his main focus not essentially on the zombie but rather on the fundamental value of human nature and survival instinct. To establish the metaphor of the ‘walking dead’, this chapter with evaluate Kirkman’s dynamic characters ruled by the Deleuzian concept of deterritorialization or the “power of transformation.” It seems that the zombie, being the transformative force, brings the “change” out of the characters as they endeavour to achieve hope within the ravaged world. This chapter will centre on Kirkman’s use of deterritorialization and his own portrayal of the zombie; the breakdown of society.

Chapter Four will then investigate Max Brook’s powerful novel, World War Z; the great war between the hegemonic zombified humans and the living. This section will look at the human factors distributed in the novel, where Brook documents a series of first-person voices by ten survivors around the world contributing their experience during the zombie outbreak. This chapter will identify the representation of Brook’s zombie crisis during the “pre-war” era where it could be argued to be the mirror of the modern real world. Various aspects of human issues will be carefully considered in this section to explain the evident meaning of ‘the crisis’ outbreak which figuratively reflects diversity and prejudice and the hegemonic movement of politics.

After the extensive analysis of the living dead, this dissertation will conclude the primary answer to the gripping question of the undead and its’ relation to human nature and global social culture. From Romero’s grotesque monsters, Kirkman’s use of deterritorialization and Brook’s zombie outbreak; what exactly does the living dead reveal about the living?

Chapter One

History – The Birth of the Undead

“I thought that beauty alone would satisfy. But the soul is gone. I can’t bear those empty, staring eyes.”

– Charles Beaumont, White Zombie (1932)

To establish the nature of this ambiguous creature, it is imperative to instigate from the place of its origin. Perhaps it is its’ unique mythological and folkloristic history that separates the living dead from the horror clan of ghouls, golems, werewolves and vampires that lives on for many decades. This was excavated before the period of Romero’s cannibalistic zombie, when the fictitious creature was not so much of viscera and gore but rather just a mindless figure drowned under witchcraft, deriving from the myth of Haitian Voduo culture. It may seem that there is little correlation between the Haitian folklore and the modern zombie, but it is important to step back and consider the obscurity of the phenomenon.

Research points to the history of slavery in Africa when slaves were shipped to Haiti; it was the cruelty and callous treatment of slavery that brought the Voduo religion to old African traditions and so was the birth of the zombi. The word zombi, according to African scholars, comes from the Haitian word for “soul” or “spirit of the dead” where the deceased is brought back to life by a voodoo priest or what they would call the Bokor.

An ethnobotanist, Wade Davis, explained in his book (Passage of Darkness) that in Haitian voodoo folklore, bokors were hired to turn the human, who had displeased and provoked a person, a family or a community, into a zombi by means of black magic. With the administration of coup-padre, a poisonous powder which would be taken orally, the black magic would be issued and slow the victim’s heart rate down, subdue their breathing patterns and decrease the body temperature; the victim’s body would appear to be dead and would be buried. It is then when the Bokor would come and exhumed the body of the ‘zombified’ victim; with their physicality still intact but their memory erased from their mentality. The victim is transformed into a mindless creature; into a droning zombie.

“Though still living, they remain under the Bokor’s power until the Bokor dies.”

– Dr. William F. Keegan, Anthropologist

Although it is debatable whether or not the validity of Davis’ zombification illustrated in his book was established as authentic. Critics argued and expressed Davis’ thesis as, if not a lie, an exaggeration. Davis expressed in his book that “the stories are told with laughter as much as with seriousness, and the zombie remains a potent image in the rural folktales and philosophical discussions of Haiti today.” (Passage of Darkness) This is due to the sensitivity of the subject that relates directly to the territory of secret societies, which are seldom explored for evident matter; those who strived to break the issue are often ignored and accused of bigotry. It could be argued that in regard to 20th century American culture and society, the indictment was then found culpable when the zombie first hit the big screen.

A theorist of zombie culture, Kyle Bishop, makes a firm argument in his thesis that the zombie “remains purely a monster of the Americas, born from imperialism, slavery, and-most importantly-voodoo magic and religion.” The basis of his case highlighted from the Haitian culture and the development of the zombie starting with the earliest zombie film in 30’s, White Zombie (1932) by Victor Halperins.

White Zombie derived its theme directly from the Haitian zombi legends, where a Haitian business appoints a “native with doctor” to lure the woman he loves hoping to remove her connection to her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie. Bishop stated that the zombie was influenced by the “imperialist system” as the film displayed only white casts with some characters painted in black expressing the 20th century racist attitudes regarding the relation between the white and the black races.

Alongside this contentious argument, many zombie films that followed during the next decades carried familiar expressions generally representing the Haitian zombie. Films like I Walked with a Zombie in 1943 by Jacques Tourneur and Voodoo Man in 1944 by William Beaudine retained the Haitian voodoo folklore geographically and thematically; and other early zombie films in the 30’s and 40’s that kept the same theme but changed geographically [Revolt of the Zombies by Victor Halperins (1936) and Zombies on Broadway (1945) by Gordon Douglas]

All these films have one common concept, the use of voodoo black magic to turn members into zombies. Bishop mentioned in his thesis that the “true horror in these movies lies in the prospect of a Westerner becoming dominated, subjugated and effectively ‘colonized’ by a native pagan.” It is conveyed that the real fear is not the zombie but the fear of turning into the zombie which in Bishop’s interpretation, is the fear of turning into a non-white, “whites as universally righteous and casting blacks as potentially wicked.” Perhaps it is safe to agree that the outlook of the early American society towards the non-white race is one of the main aspects that influenced the portrayal of these films. It could also be argued that the representation does not necessarily focus on the Westerners’ imperial power; it could be interpreted simply as the frustrated ambition of one’s unreachable desire to achieve the love or contentment from the other. However, with less regard to the early 20th century racist sentiments, it is not difficult to identify the true metaphor of the zombie residing in Haitian Voduo Folklore; it is mainly the fear of losing mentality and the fear of losing control of your own body.

Chapter Two

George A. Romero – Grotesque Zombies, Guts and Gore

“ I ought to drag you out there and FEED you to those things! “

– Ben, Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Before the end of the 1960’s, voodoo and folkloristic zombies departed from the modern cinema and the reinvention of the zombie was born. With no residual link to the early classic zombie, George A. Romero transformed the undead into monstrous, blood-splattering, crumbling zombies that craves only for human flesh and nothing else. It is truly a ground-breaking turn for the period of zombie horror with the undeniably compelling monster stapling to the top of the popular horror subgenre of its time, giving George Romero his title as the “Godfather of All Zombies”. However, what makes Romero highly significant in this period is not merely for his cannibalistic zombies to shock his audience but his revolutionary expression of human society within the zombie apocalypse; the living being the minority. When Romero’s renowned film Night of the Living Dead in 1968 came to the cinema screen, it is during that time when the fear and tension of the Cold War was taking place. It is evident that Romero wanted to bring the awareness to the war using the violence between the living dead and the living.

Looking briefly at the narrative of Night of the Living Dead, when the chaos attains the country of what seem like a radioactive contamination reaction causing the dead to arise, the tragedy starts when the undead begins to move and look for human flesh to consume. The film centres on a group of bewildered survivors trapped in a nearby farmhouse where they find shelter but all tension and conflicts between the characters arises when the hordes of zombies gathering outside the farmhouse begin to spread and grow larger and larger. The black and white horror introduced the modern zombie with no subtle evidence of the early zombie classics but with its own resemblance to some popular horror creatures such as vampires and invading aliens; the separation from the Haitian voodoo folklore, the outnumbered human protagonists, their hunger for human flesh and their infectious condition. Romero’s radical tradition breaker dispensed the classic zombie into pure evil, invading flesh eaters controlled by nothing but their instincts.

Romero’s display of cannibalism and gore in Night of Living Dead may correlate to Andrew Sarris’ auteur theory explaining firmly in his article, Notes on the Auteur Theory (1962) that a director must communicate their personal vision and style as, in Sarris’ words, “the way a film looks and moves should have some relationship to the way a director thinks and feels.” Possibly, in Romero’s vision, the blood-splattering living dead is purely a metaphor for the early society’s problems. The zombie may be interpreted as consumerism, intolerance, counter-culturalism and extremism; and where the cannibalism reflect the humanity’s urge for violence during that era, our society’s compulsion for power and the need to destroy one another. But which of these evaluations matches Romero’s auteur vision?

Perhaps, it is also important to move this focal argument towards Romero’s chief protagonist, where he casted a black character, Duane Jones (Ben) and insisted to have him as the hero in Night of Living Dead; merely being the best actor auditioned for that role. The fact that the film has a black protagonist gave the critics a large stir; of course, Romero was conscious of this. Giving Jones the character of Ben was indeed revolutionary expressly to African Americans in cinema. The leading role who deals and controls with the situation, appearing to be the only calm one despite of chaos; not to mention his slapping and shooting other white members and finally being the only survivor after the hordes outbreak and eventually getting shot by a white man in the end. The display of this character gave a lot of assumption about the social implication of the film concerning the racial conflict taking place in the American society during the late sixties. There are a number of interpretations to Romero’s vision and they can be generally explained as the protest against the Cold War, civil wars, scepticism toward parliamentary organization and an objection against civil defence. It appears that the spin of this film suggests that the portrayal of the non-white in the early classic zombie films has been turned around by Romero’s modern zombies; perhaps it is the fear of being the part of the American society.

“They kill for one reason: they kill for food. They eat their victims; you understand that, Mr. Berman? That’s what keeps them going!”

– Dr. Foster, Dawn of the Dead (1978)

A decade after Night of the Living Dead took over the modern zombie subgenre; George Romero’s subsequent sequel Dawn of the Dead in 1978 moved several steps forward and became undoubtedly one of the greatest films ever made in horror cinema. With even more blood-splattering viscera, grotesque flesh-eating, crumbling zombies, Romero breaks through the extremity and fearlessly bellows to civilization his own manifestation of consumerism. After ten years of the making, Romero brings us to the apocalyptic world where human society is on the edge of losing over the droning living dead; a grander and much more violent than its predecessor.

To Romero’s hilarity, he takes his protagonists out of the farmhouse and brings them to their perfect paradise; the shopping mall. As hundreds of living dead hammers their way in at the entrance door, a small group of four takes shelter in the bliss of limitless supply of luxurious commodities, the absolute place for fervent consumers. When consumerism hit the American culture in the seventies, credit cards became a fashion; the society became obsessed with the pleasure of shopping, spending left and right like, in Romero’s version, zombies feeding their hunger for whatever they can consume. The bliss of having the luxury of everything you need may seem appealing at first; however the situation for the four survivors does not last long as they grow bored and aggravated with their useless material comfort. It is then when the survivors face the question, “is this truly a paradise? Or is it a prison?” The real threat arises when a gang of mutinous bikers breaks in and destroys everything they have.

It is not difficult to see Romero’s representation of the zombie in Dawn of the Dead; it is evident that the society is so attached to consumerism that even in the periods of catastrophe, they will not let it go. The metaphor is clear in this film that the true zombies are in fact not the living dead but the society residing in the 1970’s, drowned under the concept of gluttony and consumerism. Romero abundantly shows, through the relation between the protagonists and the bikers that, in times of crisis, instead of coming together to fight against the real problem, all humanity seems to be able to do is to fight one another. The living dead is not the monster, Romero successfully shows in this film that the true enemy is mankind itself.

Romero’s approach clearly shows that he is not afraid to use irony and humour in Dawn of the Dead. It is apparent in this film that the zombies are not as menacing as their predecessors in Night of the Living Dead as they stagger around the mall with the number of pies and bullets they receive in their faces. But to evade misinterpretation, Dawn of the Dead calibrate the modern standards for the representation of violence in cinema. In contrast to Night of the Living Dead, it is noticeable that this second sequel is seemingly more vigorous and enjoyable. The low-budget, gritty black and white horror with coarse actions and expressions that create an edgy atmosphere justifies that Dawn of the Dead stands the opposite. It is substantially clear what Romero wants to represent in this film. It is the infinite supply of food, lavish clothing, infinite use of appliances, the bright colours and lights that draws the characters into material hypnotism. As they feel safe inside their comfort zone watching the zombies grind on the glass doors, Romero’s remarkable and powerful message lingers on; the undeniable attachment of society to consumerism.

“They are us.”

– Dr. Logan, Day of the Dead (1985)

George Romero brings his final instalment of his renowned “Dead” trilogy, Day of the Dead, to an underground military facility where a scientific neurological research is being conducted on detained zombies. It seems that during this period of time, the zombie outbreak is already over and only a small group of survivors are left huddled below the ground; a claustrophobic bunker controlled by a military contingent. Dr. Logan, supposedly accountable for the recovery of human race, attempts to domesticate the undead one in particular whom he calls Bub (apparently the modernized adaptation of Frankenstein) by feeding him human flesh. It is when the military uncover Logan’s secret that caused him his life and when Hell breaks loose.

It is evident in this film that Romero had, in some way, taken a different path forward, completely discarding the balance of his earlier zombie films. It then becomes clear how Romero has turned the empathy towards the zombie and criticizes the survivors. Bishop has stated in his thesis, Dead Man Still Walking that Romero’s obvious criticism goes towards the “industrial military complex of the United States, an overly bloated and arrogant arm of the government that cannot see the reality of the dire situation because of its own sense of supremacy.” (265) it’s intriguing to watch the obnoxious and mostly violent survivors destroy each other, putting an exclamation on Romero’s argument that humanity has finally destroyed itself. Although it is difficult to understand Romero’s message, it is important to consider that the zombies in this film can be taught from their experiences and can be trained to follow instructions and copy simple human actions. In Romero’s words, “zombie with a soul” this evolution creates yet another representation of the zombie making them more empathetic to audience but more treacherous, in a subtle humanly manner, to the protagonists.

Perhaps Day of the Dead is not as powerful as its fellow predecessors. Romero’s true message has not come across fully in this film, leaving the trilogy with a little perplexity and many aspects unanswered. It could be that Romero’s social argument is too tired to cover a new ground and that somewhere along his pretentious argument he has lost his balance, henceforth the lack of communication in this film.

Nevertheless, it appears that Romero’s “Dead” trilogy is cloaked with cultural and social criticism primarily against the early American society. He derived his philosophy directly from the cultural and societal fears of the dominating American consumer capitalism back in the early 20th century, exporting his ethos through his revolutionary zombies. Romero’s exploration on human society inspired him to recreate the familiarity within his films, dressing the violence and inequality with bodies of grotesque monsters. His method to project fear at his audience is not by shocking them with viscera and gore, it is the concept of being infected and turning into one of the zombies. And this recreation of familiarity is embedded around his characters and their behaviour towards the crisis, where the living dead duels against the living as the living duels against the living.

Chapter Three

Robert Kirkman – The Walking Dead

“We’re surrounded by the DEAD. We’re among them — and when we finally give up we become them! We’re living on borrowed time here. Every minute of our life is a minute we steal from them! You see them out there. You KNOW that when we die — we become them. You think we hide behind walls to protect us from the walking dead? 

Don’t you get it? We ARE the walking dead! WE are the walking dead.” 

– Rick Grimes, The Walking Dead, (Volume 5: The Best Defense)

In the year 2003, Robert Kirkman published the first issue of yet another zombie-themed fiction, The Walking Dead. However, this monthly black-and-white comic novel carries a remarkable extended narrative that eludes the line of the conventional contemporary horror; it is not just another zombie-themed horror, in fact as Kirkman described in his The Walking Dead: Volume One, it is not a horror book at all. It seems that Kirkman gained his novel’s conception and ethos from the greatest, George Romero, following his serious and thoughtful examination on human society centring on the journey of survivors of the zombie catastrophe. But unlike his predecessor or any other modern zombie fictions, the nature of the novel’s monthly production allows Kirkman to explore human behaviour and the society through a different path. He stated in his first issued novel that he wants to “explore how people deal with extreme situations and how these events CHANGE them.”(page 27) What differentiates Kirkman’s work from Romero’s zombie films is that Romero’s films holds on Bakhtin’s carnivalesque symbolism of the zombie where as Kirkman’s novel provides a powerful expression of deterritorialization, the conception of “becoming”; the power of transformation.

It is the use of Deleuzian’s deterritorialization that swings the trait of Kirkman’s characters into a fluid period of progressing, changing or becoming, in which Gilles Deleuze’s theory is the acknowledgment of and desire for change. It appears that Kirman’s specific focus is to examine the conception of “becoming” through the transformative and cannibalistic force of the zombie. Kirkman uses his conception of zombie as the force to change his characters’ performance; he utilizes this method to show how his characters will change and endeavour hope within the manifestation of the catastrophic zombie world. “This book is more about watching Rick survive than it is about watching zombies pop around the corner and scare you.”(Kirkman) Kirkman makes his specific focus clear to his reader that the novel is not necessarily about the flesh-eating “walkers” but rather follows the journey of Rick Grimes and the rest of the survivors and the way they acknowledge and deal with the change that has fall upon their world. This constructive approach, unlike Romero’s protagonists, allows Kirkman’s survivors to explore and discover the vigorous existence of hope that may lead to living a new suitable life.

Looking succinctly at the plot, The Walking Dead watches the life and adventures of a police officer, Rick Grimes. After being shot by a convict during the line of duty, Rick wakes from a comatose in the middle of the catastrophic chaos of flesh-eaters. He wakes up in confusion as he makes his way out of the hospital, thinking whether if he is still in the delusion of coma or Hell. He walks barefoot on the ravaged ground of the town that he no longer recognizes and takes a quick refuge in a house that is no longer his. He soon regains his strength back and makes his way to Atlanta to search for his wife and son, Lori and Carl. He is then directed to a small camp situated in the outskirt of the city where he finds his wife and son along with a small group of survivors which he eventually leads. Rick and survivor group goes on a journey to find a secure location to settle; through their journey they encounter places, people and situations that soon change them and their traits. They find a farmhouse where they soon discover a barn full of “walkers”, the outbreak of from the barn leads them to their next location, a prison which is eventually attacked by a vicious Governor and his troops. And finally after their horrible escapade in the hands of the Governor, Rick and of what is left in his group, finds a refuge town called Alexandra Safe Zone. Rick and his group of survivors all the way through their journey to sanctuary will come across tremendous danger, however is not fully from the flesh-eating monsters but also from the monster of humankind. This is when they must welcome the calamity of both the living and the living dead to find a new Hope that is lost inside the world of disaster and in Kirkman’s method, it is to embrace the transformative force of the zombie apocalypse.

Chapter Four

Max Brook – World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

“The monsters that from the dead, they are nothing compared to the ones we carry in our hearts.”

– Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

For several decades after the birth George Romero’s pioneering modern zombies, many has – if not failed – attempted to adapt and continue the “Godfather’s” legacy. When Max Brooks published his comically remarkable “survival guide” in 2003, The Zombie Survival Guide and his subsequent post-apocalyptic horror novel in 2006, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, an argument begun to arise; Max Brook may have “pulled it off.” His palpable gesture of not endeavouring to re-invent the zombie format but instead, highlighting the important aspects of the modern zombie that, prior his time, has not been done before; Brook has indeed carried on Romero’s legacy. He brought a seemingly new concept in to a world of clichés and imitation without altering the concept of the modern zombie.

Focusing on Brooks’ 2006 novel, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, he presents the documented experiences of ten survivors of the zombie apocalypse a decade after the outbreak, entailing testimonies and interviews of men, women, and even children who encountered the living dead during that terrible time. The never before entrance to a document that overpoweringly expresses the horror and fear that ruled human society through the zombie outbreak. When the zombie outbreak begun in a village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, the Chinese government decides to keep it from the society; it quickly gets out of control and spreads epidemically around the world.

Max Brooks takes an extensive measure to examine the representation of the zombie in his novel. Brooks draws a firm line between the living and the living dead as he embodies the undead with neurotic and cannibalistic impulse to destroy human race. It is this line that depicts the zombie is the monster that is disqualified from the human society. Brooks’ communication comes across when he turn the positions around, the human society being the minority and the cannibalistic zombies as the global majority. This situation allows Brooks to express his evaluation on the hegemonic movement of the global politics through his postcolonial representation of the zombie. Following George Romero’s commentary on human societal and cultural crisis, Brooks mirrors Romero’s message at his audience, allowing them to consider the apocalyptic conflict between the human and the zombie as the representation of the real world human race and the problematic society that it has created today.

Chapter Four

Conclusion

The living dead, the undead, the walking dead – the zombie carries a powerful history and metaphor for the early human society and today. The zombie itself is the personification of modern fears and anxieties due to the existing failure of global societal and cultural structure that may symbolize as terrorism, consumerism, global catastrophes and the current breakdown of society.

In Romero’s films, he has abundantly expressed that we are our own problem and we are own solution. His criticism against the early American society is made clear through his films; the modern zombie that her has created is a merely refection of America’s iniquitous attitudes during the Cold War, equality and the almost cannibalistic, capitalistic consumers. Romero’s vision is to represent the society as the grotesque, flesh-eating zombies blinded by greed and hunger; we are the living monster inside the living.

Reference & Bibliography

Brooks, Max. World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War. New York: Three Rivers

Press, 2006. Print.

Dawn of the Dead. Dir. George A. Romero. United Film Distribution Company, 1978. DVD.

Kirkman, Robert, creator and writer. The Walking Dead: Compendium One. Penciling, ink,

and gray tones by Tony Moore. Penciling and ink by Charlie Adlard. Gray tones by

Cliff Rathburn. Lettering by Rus Wooton. Berkeley: Image Comics, 2010. Print.

—. The Walking Dead, Vol. 9: Here We Remain. Penciling and ink by Charlie Adlard. Gray

tones by Cliff Rathburn. Lettering by Rus Wooton. Berkeley: Image Comics, 2010.

Print.

—. The Walking Dead, Vol. 10: What We Become. Penciling and ink by Charlie Adlard. Gray

tones by Cliff Rathburn. Lettering by Rus Wooton. Berkeley: Image Comics, 2010.

Print.

—. The Walking Dead, Vol. 13: Too Far Gone. Penciling and ink by Charlie Adlard. Gray

tones by Cliff Rathburn. Lettering by Rus Wooton. Berkeley: Image Comics, 2010.

Print.

—. The Walking Dead, Vol. 14: No Way Out. Penciling and ink by Charlie Adlard. Gray

tones by Cliff Rathburn. Lettering by Rus Wooton. Sina Grace, ed. Berkeley: Image

Comics, 2011. Print.

58

—. The Walking Dead, Vol. 15: We Find Ourselves. Penciling and ink by Charlie Adlard.

Gray tones by Cliff Rathburn. Lettering by Rus Wooton. Sina Grace, ed. Berkeley:

Image Comics, 2011. Print

Haiti & The Truth About Zombies – http://www.umich.edu/~uncanny/zombies.html

Zombie History – http://www.umich.edu/~engl415/zombies/zombie.html

Keegan – http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/caribarch/meetbill.htm