The Living and the Undead

by Gregory A. Waller

With a legacy stretching back into legend and folklore, the vampire in all its guises haunts the film and fiction of the twentieth century and remains the most enduring of all the monstrous threats that roam the landscapes of horror. In The Living and the Undead, Gregory A. Waller shows why this creature continues to fascinate us and why every generation reshapes the story of the violent confrontation between the living and the undead to fit new times.
 
Examining a broad range of novels, stories, plays, films, and made-for-television movies, Waller focuses upon a series of interrelated texts: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897); several film adaptations of Stoker's novel; F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (1922); Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (1954); Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot (1975); Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979); and George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Dawn of the Dead (1979). All of these works, Waller argues, speak to our understanding and fear of evil and chaos, of desire and egotism, of slavish dependence and masterful control. This paperback edition of The Living and the Undead features a new preface in which Waller positions his analysis in relation to the explosion of vampire and zombie films, fiction, and criticism in the past twenty-five years.

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Nonfiction, Zombies

392 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clearly written, solidly argued overview of vampires (in both literature and film) and zombies (in film more than in literature). Waller is a bit too enamored of Van Helsing's notion of "wild work" and his willingness to read, say, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD as a kind of vampire story will likely strike some readers as an unpersuasive attempt to find a movie that hinges the two strains of undeadness. Still and all, though, this is good work. The chapter on 'SALEM'S LOT helped me along as I taught this novel for the first time in my Vampires! class last spring.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

All about vampires and zombies in one big volume sounds always inviting. Couldn't leave out this book, especially with that great cover. Here are my impressions. You get all the stories, Matheson, Romero, Stoker, vampires in the 20th century, Dracula retold, the Hammer Draculas, the resurrection of the Count, sucking in the 70s, Nosferatu, legions of the undead, The Night of the Living Dead in full swing, Salem's Lot, McCammon's They Thirst, Land of the Living Dead, violence and survival... with many fantastic movie stills and photos. Wow, that was the absolute overflow regarding that topic. I'm through, really enjoyed that companion. Highly recommended!

[Adryan Glasgow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This edition of the book has a slightly expanded preface, other than that, it is identical to the older version. I wrote a review for the Journal of the Fantastical in the Arts, so I won't put much here. just know that this book is about Stoker through the 1970s, there's no Buffy, there's only two Romero films and there's very little about zombies overall. But it's a great book that presents a fascinating theory about the evolution of survivor communities.

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Waller's "The Living and the Undead" is the most comprehensive study of Dracula/Vampires/Zombies that I know of. Top notch textual analyses of film, literature and television. HIGHLY recommended.