by Beth Laster

Created on: October 15, 2007

When you picture a zombie flick, do you envision (perhaps literally) mindless entertainment? Do lurching, slow-moving protagonists seem to bring nothing more than gore and protracted chase scenes? There is a reason zombie films have a rabid (okay, bad choice of words) fan base. Behind those dead eyes, something is revealed about the human soul.

The zombie film is, perhaps, the most misunderstood film genre out there. There have been a few recent high-profile films that have almost changed the public opinion. Unfortunately, these films are still often seen as being postmodern interpretations. Zombie films have been, from the beginning, examples of how far-reaching and symbolic genre films can be.

George Romero started all of this with his classic film, Night of the Living Dead. At first glance, this seems to be your run of the mill zombie film. People running, people stuck in houses while the hordes bear down on them, people dying. The important thing to remember is this film has a black male lead! This may not seem odd or shocking to us today, with Denzel Washington in so many films, but then it was almost unheard of. Certainly there was no reason for a black man to star in a low budget horror/action film with white costars? This wasn't just a publicity stunt, there was a real need for the star. The killing of the film's black hero, mistaken for one of the zombies, had resonance when held up against the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The violent death of a black hero was devastating in a time when a large portion of the nation was actively against the black hero with many seeing him as a threat and seeking to kill him. The film is still powerful and holds a place in history for this reason.

Romero brought us symbolism again in his Dawn of the Dead. The vision of zombies congregating en masse at the mall raises big questions. Are the zombies just doing the same things they did in everyday life? Why would that happen if they are lacking souls? Are we just a distaste for cannibalism away from being zombies? The mall theme allows us to think about how consumerism and the everyday banality of the modern world may be leeching our souls away. The viewer may think just as much about the state of his soul watching a zombie film as watching a religious film.

Zombie films have often been seen as silly, with their slow-moving villains. The Kids in the Hall had a great sketch, showing a couple in a chase with zombies. The couple was forever running and tripping in

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