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by Can Tran

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In just about any horror movie, it seems that the use of zombies have been and still is appealing in most aspects of this genre. The one thing that had gotten me interested about zombies was that old computer game by Infogrames called "Alone In The Dark." In the past, I was a bit freaked out by zombies after watching "Return of the Living Dead" and "Return of the Living Dead 2." I tended to avoid watching zombies movies and what not.

But Alone In The Dark was the father of all survival horror games. For anybody that's old enough to remember, Alone In The Dark was one of the earliest 3D survival horror games in the world today. You controlled one of two people and walked around this old mansion solving the mystery of this person's suicide. Once you got to the attic of the mansion, the real adventure began where you had to fight all sorts of beasts and monsters. The most common monster in that game was the zombie. There were plenty of zombies to fight off in the game.

"Alone In The Dark 2" came out a year later. This had piqued my interest more on zombies. It looked to get me more interested. This game appealed more on firearms combat as the zombies wielded Thompsons and shotguns.

However, I saw "Night of the Living Dead." I didn't even know how to kill a zombie. Then my uncle said you're supposed to hit them in the head. The two things that very much appealed to me about zombies were how they came in a mass yet at the same time they could be easy to kill by severe damage to the head. Basically you can shoot zombies in the head, jab something into their skulls, or swing a heavy blunt object to the decomposed skull and damage the brain in the process.

But I learned that there are more to zombies than meets the eye. Zombies are former humans and animals. Yes, there are zombie animals. Zombie movies tend to revolve around this one truth: survival. When there are a few survivors, things look all fine and dandy because you have weapons and supplies. When supplies and ammunition become depleted, people start sweating it out. Zombie movies are a good way to examine human nature.

George Romero had a very interesting idea in his zombie series. Night of the Living Dead targeted racism in the south. Ben played by Tony Todd was the protagonist of the movie as well as being African-American. Tony Todd is well known for his cult status in various horror films. His most notable role would be Ben of Night of the Living Dead. This was a remake of the original 1968 version.

Ben bled to death and became a zombie. He was shot in the head by State Troopers. Though Ben befriended Barbara, the other survivors such as the rednecks treated him like garbage. The salvation from the zombies came from a lynch mob made up of rednecks. At the same time, the survivors holed up in that house got paranoid. This one man even fired upon Ben and Barbara because he didn't want anybody shooting his zombified daughter.

There was the original "Dawn of the Dead" written and directed by George Romero. It looks as this was targeting consumerism. The only four survivors are holed up in the Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania. It looks to be a sanctuary with all the food and merchandize but at the same time looks to be a prison. The 2004 remake proved to be the same thing. The remake takes place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin instead of Pennsylvania.

"Day of the Dead" focused on domestication and military intervention. It focused on many things. There was the doctor who was training "Bub" the zombie to act like a human. It was revealed that Bub was a former soldier and quickly learned things. Bub managed to pick the lock on his shackles. At the same time, Bub relearned how to re-assemble a handgun and fire it. One important aspect is the "memories of life."

It also focused on military establishments. George Romero had an interesting premise that humans could be more dangerous than zombies when holed up. In this case, they were holed up in a World War II missile silo. You have the soldiers that want to destroy zombies, scientists that want to study them and civilians that do not care. It caused a lot of friction. The soldiers proved to the most dangerous since they had the weapons. It shows how much in a dire situation that conflict of interests causes a lot of problems.

The scientists' role played an integral part on that zombies could in fact be "domesticated." There was also another interesting situation presented: one female amongst a bunch of males. Sarah is the only female scientist let alone living female in the movie. The friction between groups was also caused by sexual frustration as Sarah was "unavailable." Rhodes who is the leader had completely lost it and became the most dangerous antagonist in the movie.

"Land of the Dead" bashed the George W. Bush administration and Big Business. The main antagonists are Big Daddy and Paul Kaufman (Dennis Hopper). While Big Daddy is the leader of the zombies, Kaufman rules over the city with an iron fist and a lot of firepower. It revolved around a dystopia on how the rich live safely and the poor aren't as lucky.

Big Daddy by far is the most intelligent zombie as he tried to save his kind from getting slaughtered. He led the attack on the city. It was Big Daddy who taught the zombies to fight more intelligently. The scariest part I thought were the zombies being able to quickly acquire and use automatic weapons.

And then there are "28 Days Later" and "28 Weeks Later" that bring a new type of zombie. There was a strong military presence in place.

There was "Shaun of the Dead" which was a very refreshing and humorous take on zombies. There was one scene where they attacked zombies with vinyl records. Of course there is "Fido" which is another take on zombies used as servants.

Asides from the obvious with the use of zombies, there are so many ways the zombie genre can be approached. Zombies are a genre of their own. It can be approached in the traditional horror-type way, it could be approached militarily, it can be approached politically, and it can be approached humorously. So many ways zombies can be approached. This is also one of the best genres to use to examine human society.

Besides the scare factor of zombies, these situations are the one that has people examining today's society. For these many reasons, zombie movies will continue to appeal to many.

Learn more about this author, Can Tran.

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