Zombies—That Thing You Do

Photo courtesy of Blastr

There’s a discussion going on in the one of the Goodreads groups I follow about zombies and why we are obsessed with them. I know there’s been a ton written about the subject but, since I’m publishing Tell Me When I’m Dead this summer, I thought I would weigh in.

Zombies Are Cool Again

I’m not sure they ever really went out of style but zombies appear to be cool again. A few years ago we were treated to the excellent ‘Zombieland,’ followed by this year’s ‘Warm Bodies.’ Now Brad Pitt thinks enough of the little buggers to star in a new zombie movie, ‘World War Z,’ based on the book by Max Brooks. Of course, he also played a vampire opposite Tom Cruise a million years ago. Who knows, maybe werewolves are next.

Zombies Are Fun to Kill

Mainly because there’s no guilt. Their destruction also allows for some creativity based on the circumstances and the weapons available. Take a look at this compilation video of kills from ‘The Walking Dead.’ Tip of the iceberg, my friend. And for more fun, check out the old ‘Resident Evil’ movies.

A note here. When incorporating zombies into a novel, you really have to work hard to make each kill unique otherwise the reader will get bored. Most of the time you must rely on guns. In my story, Dave’s favorite weapon is an axe and he does a lot of damage.

Zombies Are Hard to Kill

This is especially true if a loved one has become a zombie. There’s a beautiful moment in Season One of ‘The Walking Dead’ when Morgan is unable to kill his walker wife. For the longest time he watches her through the scope of a high power rifle but cannot bring himself to pull the trigger.

A similar moment happens in another episode with Andrea when her younger sister is savaged. She remains with her sister all night, holding her and talking to her. Unlike Morgan, though, she dispatches the girl once she turns. But it’s not easy.

Fast vs. Slow

In the classic ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ the ghouls are slow. If you ran even a little track in high school, you should be able to easily outrun these losers and live another day. What they lack in speed, though, they make up in numbers. And remember, when this iconic movie came out, the idea of your dead neighbors feasting on people was still fairly fresh.

Things changed a lot with ‘28 Days Later.’ These miscreants are not only vicious but they move really fast. Why? Because technically they’re not really zombies. They are in fact still very much alive. But they carry a rage virus that turns them into monsters who will mess you up.

Still. For me they fall into the zombie category, much like the vampires in ‘I Am Legend.’ And unlike Edward, there is zero romance to those things!

Zombies Have No Agenda

Well, other than to eat you. They don’t make value judgments and they don’t care what you look like. They are not inherently evil—they just are. Like scorpions or black mambas. Frankly, that’s the difference between zombies and vampires. Vampires know exactly what they are doing and revel in it. After all, they’ve been doing it for centuries. Zombies are for the most part mindless and cannot help what they do.

Zombies Inspire Sympathy

Because they are victims. Something was done to them and now they are condemned to walk the earth in perpetual darkness. They don’t appear to experience pleasure and they have no purpose. This is the flip side of the fate that was meted out to Prometheus. He was condemned to endure the punishment of an eagle tearing out his liver every day for eternity. If it hadn’t been for Hercules, he’d still be tied to that rock.

Zombies Are a Blank Slate

You can put whatever “message” you want on them. End of Days, science gone wild, plagues from outer space. Whatever. They are malleable and work well in stories. There are hundreds of books and movies about them—all unique.

From a Christian perspective, they are the opposite of what is supposed to happen at the end of the world. At that time, according to the bible, everyone will rise from the dead. And it’s not a bad thing if you’ve lived a good life.

Zombies are a cruel perversion of this story of hope. Maybe that’s why we loathe them so much.

It’s Not About the Zombies

If you write a story featuring zombies, it’s never really about zombies. You could just as well have written about the Black Death, Martians or giant ants. You are using them as background. Well, other than ‘Warm Bodies.’ But even that wasn’t about zombies—it was about people who are dead inside—lacking love and purpose. Consider the movie’s tag line: He’s still dead but he’s getting warmer. Thank you, studio marketing department!

If you think about it, at least in movies, zombies are simply the monsters that drive the story forward. They represent what everyone is trying to get away from—or what they are trying to cure as in the Will Smith film I mentioned. ‘I Am Legend’ is one of the several movies based on the excellent 1950s novel by Richard Matheson. Interestingly, in that story the monsters are actually vampires. No matter. Robert Neville is faced with the same challenges. He must kill as many of the infected things as he can during the day and try to make it through another night alone without getting bitten.

Tell Me When I’m Dead

So what about my story? Well, I am a huge fan of zombies—I just like them, okay? And I thought they would make a great backdrop to the story I wanted to write about Dave Pulaski, a young guy who has screwed up a lot in his life but gets a chance at a happy future until his wife finds out he cheated on her. If that isn’t enough, now these pesky dead people start showing up.

My story is about redemption and forgiveness. The zombies are there for the fun.

As a writer, I am always trying to tell a great story. It will be up to readers to let me know whether I succeeded.

Meanwhile let’s see how Brad is doing.

Related articles

The guy who gave us zombies (books.blogs.starnewsonline.com)
World War Z: Screw The Movie Edition (wilsonkhoo.wordpress.com)
‘The Walking Dead’ Movie: “[It's] Gonna Be In the Works Not Too Far Down The Road” (thedeadwalkers1.wordpress.com)


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