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Zombies and the Human Condition
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Contents
Introduction
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Racism Themes of Racism in Night of the Living Dead
10
The Anti-hero
14
Racial Stereotypes
18
Consumerism Half hour into the bloody rampage
22
The Zombie Economy
24
Black Friday
28
The Zombie Hypothesis One of the Living Dead
32
Are we willing to change?
35
An Unlikely Hero
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References
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Zombies and the Human Condition: Introduction
Introduction The popularity of zombie movies has increased over the years as more movies are being released creating a diverse audience, expanding from the die hard horror fans. But the market has become saturated with the same ideas being recycled. It has gotten to the point where there is no message behind the film, it’s only purpose is to provide the audience with pointless gore and mediocre horror. Zombie films have almost become a joke, I find myself laughing at the terrible acting instead of cowering in fear behind a cushion like I should be when watching a horror film. But what do you expect when every film ends with ‘Of the Dead’ the title suggests that it’s going to follow the same plot as the last film. It was George Romero who changed the genre and redefined what a zombie is, he changed the zombie within modern cinema forever by creating something that doesn’t follow the rules. Suddenly the zombie wasn’t just a mindless ghoul, it actually represented the wrongs of the world by commenting on the human condition. The audience could see the horror within our society portrayed through the undead. Before Romero the zombie was just a mindless ghoul usually the result of voodoo magic, or unidentifiable plague or the work of an insane scientist. Although terrifying in their own way there is no realism or underlying messages , he created a platform that challenged the audiences perceptions of the world we live in.
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‘The zombie has become one of these standard control motifs that is used in all different ways. It’s the flipside of all the American Ideals about individuality and the individual responsibility. The zombie is the fantasy infantile way to give up control.’ David Skal, author of ‘The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror.’
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Racism
Themes of Racism in Night of the Living Dead
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The Anti-hero
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Racial Stereotypes
18
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Zombies and the Human Condition: Racism
Night of the living Dead 1968 Ben: ‘I don’t wanna hear any more from you, Mister! If you stay up here, you take orders from ME! And that includes leaving the girl alone!’
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Themes of Racism in Night of the Living Dead The film starts off by setting up a point of equilibrium for the audience. From the image of the American flag flying over the graveyard to the two well-dressed, white characters who first appear on the screen, Romero establishes a universe to be read by the audience as Anywhere, USA. Not only does this prevent the audience from relegating Romero’s world to that of the Other (i.e. a foreign land) but it also functions to utilize the audience’s expectations of this world, with regard to race, gender and politics, against the audience in the disruption phase. Casting the opening scene in a graveyard also signifies that a break between the present and the past is imminent. It is the break from this past that causes the disruption to have multiple levels of impact for the audience. I think the disruption in this case is interesting for two reasons. First, it happens so quickly. There is no slow build up in which the director attempts to build trust between the audience and the perceived main character. Rather, Romero trusts the audience to make the necessary connections without the aid of stylized devices such as voice overs (Psycho) or montages (Cat People).
The return to equilibrium, which takes place when Ben is shot, is also interesting to me because it is an equilibrium that has been brought about by the victory of the monster (the lynch mob). I think the establishment of Ben as an anti-hero is significant. Throughout the course of the film we see him use violence against women (Barbra), murder a man (Harry) and threaten to keep food from a child (Karen). Personally, the violence against Barbra is most shocking. He not only ignores the societal edict to never hit a woman but he doesn’t just slap her in return, which could more easily be read as an appropriate response given her degree of hysteria. Instead, Ben punches Barbara hard enough to render her unconscious. And yet, he is clearly the person worth rooting for because he is the only one taking significant action throughout most of the film. When he is so casually gunned down, the viewer is left with the message that, if you are a member of the marginalized class, you may be able to defeat societal epidemics (zombies) but you will always be at the mercy of the dominant culture (lynch mob). So while social order has been achieved, justice remains elusive.
In a way, this altering of the expected build up is one element of the disruption. Second, the disruption, fuelled by the appearance of the zombies, allows the audiences to more readily accept the disruptions taking place in the house. From Ben having authority over a group of white people, especially men, to Karen’s authority over Harry and Helen as much as she is the one keeping them together, traditional family dynamics are disrupted. The societal expectations of who should have power (whites over black, adults over children) are flipped on its head leaving the audience to infer this is a world gone mad.
The societal expectations of who should have power (whites over black, adults over children) are flipped on its head leaving the audience to infer this is a world gone mad.
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When Duane agreed to play the role we didn’t change the script,
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the same things would’ve hapened to him if the actor was white.
Zombies and the Human Condition: Racism
The Anti-hero The main character in Night of the Living Dead was played by Duane Jones who is African American which at the time of making the film was unheard of. Throughout the production Jones was the only one concerned about his race, the directors and crew had the attitude that times are changing, it’s 1968 and we’ve moved past all of that. When the first print of the film was finished Romero and a couple of producers were driving to New York to show it to potential distributors but heard on the radio that Martin Luther King Jr had been assassinated. Now all of a sudden the film became about race, even though when Russo wrote the script the character of Ben was assumed to be white. When Duane agreed to play the role the script wasn’t changed, the same things would’ve happened to him even if the actor was white. The zombies are used as a tool of acceptance, they distract the audience from the skin colour of the characters enabling us to look past their races as they are united to fight against a common enemy and set aside their differences. Romero lets the audience challenge their perceptions and use their brains to decide what’s right and wrong. When it comes down to it does race matter? The key to their survival is to work together, that’s the only way they will get out of the house alive.
Night of the Living Dead 1968 Ben: ‘We’d all be a lot better off if we were working together’ Night of the Living Dead, 1968
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Zombies and the Human Condition: Racism
BEN The tension between the group of survivors creates more problems than the monsters outside of the house. The constant arguing over dominance and leadership divides the group, initially it’s Ben verses Harry, who controls the other survivors making them follow his plan of staying in the basement until they are rescued. But when they realise that Harry is wrong they leave the basement and help Ben secure the house and look for a way to get to safety. It’s almost as if the zombies are there to draw the characters closer together. The basement represents the racial tensions of the time and by ascending from the basement the characters are opening their minds to new ideas symbolising that race doesn’t matter as we are all humans.
farmhouse
HARRY
basement
HELEN
TOM
JUDY
BARBRA 15
Violence against women, Murder, Car theft, Arson, Breaking
Within the film Ben commits all of these crimes in order to survive but given the current situation as an audience we don’t pay attention to the fact they are crimes. But all of these crimes fit into the scaremongering stereotypes of black people during the sixties, even though Romero initially wrote the part assuming it would be played by a white person, we notice them more.
Racial Stereotypes
and entering, Using firearms
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Consumerism
Half hour into the bloody rampage
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The Zombie Economy
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Black Friday
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Zombies and the Human Condition: Consumerism
Half hour into the Bloody Rampage Roughly half an hour into the bloody rampage of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, the four protagonists who have been fleeing the chaos of Philadelphia by helicopter come across an abandoned shopping mall. Isolated from the rest of civilisation and only populated by few slow moving zombies it seems like the perfect place to hide out, refuel, eat and rest. If only the world wasn’t populated by zombies, it would be just another shopping trip. After landing on the roof, securing their position they investigate the building assessing the levels of safety and of course the potential spoils for the taking. By setting the bulk of the film inside the shopping mall, Romero consciously draws the audience’s attention toward the relationship between the zombies and consumerism. The zombies represent us as a society as if we are looking into the future of how we will become mindless slaves to consumerism. The insatiable need to purchase, own and consume has become second nature, with advertisements already brainwashing us into buying the latest products. Our need to consume is slowly eating away at our flesh much like a zombie. The metaphor is simple, Americans in the 1970’s have become a kind of zombie already, slave to the master of consumerism and mindlessly migrating to malls for the almost instinctual consumption of goods. This role reduces the zombies to supporting characters, they are just a part of the mall similar to the people we see when we go on a shopping trip, easy to ignore but they can get in your way. Having been brainwashed by capitalist ideology they cannot see the world around them in any terms other than those of possession and consumption.
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Romero’s zombies are not merely a metaphor they are also the catalyst of the true problem infecting humanity: consumerism. The surviving humans are inescapably consumers and because the malls provide them with all the supplies they could want they no longer need to produce goods themselves. If you take away the zombies you are left with a scenario that’s no different from real life. There’s more to the film than identifying consumerism, Romero is suggesting that if we don’t change our ways it will lead to our demise. According to Romero, the progressive dialect of society will ultimately stall and fail because humans only consume, they cannot do anything else. When given the chance to transcend the framework of the late capitalist society in an environment that provides them with all their needs, the surviving humans of Dawn only attempt to recreate the lost structures of society and become fatally overwhelmed by the perceived need to own rather than produce.
After landing on the roof, securing their position they investigate the building assessing the levels of safety and of course the potential spoils for the taking.
Fran: Stephen, I’m afraid. You’re hypnotized by this place. All of you! You don’t see that it’s not a sanctuary, it’s a prison! Let’s just take what we need and get out of here!
Dawn of the Dead 1978 Isolated from the rest of civilisation and only populated by few slow moving zombies it seems like the perfect place to hide out, refuel, eat and rest. If only the world wasn’t populated by zombies.
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Zombies and the Human Condition: Consumerism
The Zombie Economy With Dawn of the Dead, the relatively innocuous zombie narrative reaches a new level of terror by depicting a full blown global apocalypse. It changes the dynamic from it’s predecessor Night of the Living Dead, which sees the zombie pandemic on a local scale. Dawn on the other hand confronts audiences with a much larger picture of a worldwide cataclysm: the zombie phenomenon is occurring on a global scale apparently affecting all corners of civilised society. In addition Romero intentionally targets consumer culture and capitalist economics by setting the majority of Dawn in a shopping mall, using both the unusual setting and the symbolic zombies to offer a scathing critique of contemporary American society. Dawn’s creatures are a gross exaggeration of the late capitalist bourgeoise: blind consumption without any productive contribution.
Stephen, I’m afraid. You’re hypnotized by this place. All of you! You don’t see that it’s not a sanctuary, it’s a prison! Let’s just take what we need and get out of here!
On a purely metonymical level the zombies represent the existing horrors of a society brainwashed by the capitalistic need to consume. Although they have some primitive ties to their former lives, they do not organise or act according to any kind of plan; any anatomy they manifest is a direct result of the instinctual drive to consume. Because all biological functions have ceased to exist in the zombies dead physiology, they do not eat for sustenance , instead they eat simply for the sake of eating. Much like their consumer counter parts who shop for the sake of shopping. The zombies eat and eat and eat yet always want more They represent the problems with materialism and consumer consumption existing for Romero’s contemporary audience. This depiction certainly applies not only to the zombie but also to those in audience as well. The comforts of a modern society come with an unavoidable desire and need to consume.
Dawn of the Dead 1978 As a society we are all zombies, slaves to consumerism that dictates how you live your life.
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Fran
Why do they come here?
What are they doing?
Looking down through the skylights they see a modern day shopping palace,complete with fully stocked stores and ample electrical power, and the few zombies roaming the concourses seem to be of little threat. Fran, the only woman in the group, looks on the ghouls and asks, ‘What are they doing? Why do they come here?’ her boyfriend Stephen answers ‘Some kind of instinct...memory...of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives’.
Stephen
Some kind of instinct, memory of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives
Zombies and the Human Condition: Consumerism
Raider: Hey you in the mall, listen we don’t like people who don’t share. You just fucked up real bad!
Black Friday There are many parallels between the zombie hordes of Dawn of the Dead and the angry shoppers ready to tear apart flesh to get discounted goods at the Black Friday Sales. The zombies in Dawn do nothing beyond attacking humans and eating their flesh; they represent consumers on the most primary and fundamental level, all they do is take food. Of course while humans may act like zombies when shopping and consuming real zombies prove to be more dangerous; the goods they consume are the very flesh and blood of humanity. It leaves the audience asking the question is there a difference between zombies and modern society? Civilisation itself proves to be the first victim of the zombie onslaught, the establishing scenes of Dawn show not only mass chaos resulting from supernatural invasion but also the collapse of all societal infrastructure and social organisations. The first sequences of the films depict the chaotic decay of two of the most powerful institutions in America: the media and law enforcement.
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BBC News 28/10/14 In Wigan, officers were called to reports of “several hundred people trying to enter the store”. Police added: “Two men were ejected before control was regained”
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The Zombie Hypothesis
One of the Living Dead
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Are we willing to change?
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An Unlikely Hero
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Zombies and the Human Condition: The Zombie Hypothesis
One of the Living Dead The title of Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004) engages in evocative wordplay: phonetically, it establishes its relationship to Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1978) and anticipates the subsequent homage to and pastiche of iconic zombie films, but it also reveals something about the impending hero. Shaun is ‘of the dead’ himself; rather than an opposing force fighting evil, he is identified not only as among the dead but as one of them. The horror genre regularly explores the notion that to know, understand and thus defeat one’s enemy one must become the enemy. Shaun does not get bitten and become a zombie. Instead, the implication is that he already was one and the film becomes simultaneously a satirical social commentary on the drudgeries of modern life and a witty validation of the sedimentary lifestyles of young males refusing to grow up. Shaun represents modern society and how we are becoming zombies, glued to our phones, doing the same things on a daily basis.
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In the pre-credit sequence Shaun gazes blankly into space before mechanically lifting a beer glass and cigarette to his lips. His girlfriend, Liz complains about their mindless and repetitive social routine and says she wants to ‘live a little’. Shaun promises her that things will change from tomorrow, then fails back into a daze. The film’s hero is exhibiting all the attributes of a zombie. As a brain-dead deadbeat in a dead-end job, with a social life that is gasping its last, Shaun is already one of the living dead and he is not alone. It is clear from the credit montage which displays fellow workers stumbling through meaningless tasks with moronic expressions that contemporary London is populated entirely with zombies before Z-Day even begins. The film toys intermittently with possible reasons for the ensuing crisis, although a definite answer is never audibly given. The newspapers blame genetically modified crops and killer flu, the radio suggests alien intervention, and although the television rules out
rage-infected monkeys the channel is changed just before the real cause can be mentioned. Ironically, it is a universal apathy and lethargy that prevents this information being shared. Disinterest in news and current affairs impede any character from focusing on a media report or even witnessing key events long enough to glean an answer, and the joke is quite literately on them. That is, the characters’ conduct is the cause of the phenomenon: as Shaun exemplifies and the depiction of London maintains, it is modern living that creates the living dead. Virtually every slack-jawed, bleary-eyed anonymous face seen before Z-Day is later seen as an actual zombie, but the physical change is barely noticeable, in the day before the event, Shaun is already surrounded by the apparently dead on the bus, at his job, in the pub and along the streets.
As a brain-dead deadbeat in a dead-end job, with a social life the is grasping its last, Shaun is already one of the living dead.
Shaun of the Dead 2004 In the day before the event Shaun is already surrounded by the apparently dead, on the bus, at his job, in the pub and along the streets.
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If I don’t do something, I’m going to end up going into that pub every night for the rest of my life like the rest of those sad old fuckers, drinking myself to death and wondering what the hell happened. Liz
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Are we willing to change? Just as modern humanity is portrayed as being a mere shambling step away from flesh-eating monsters, the mundane events of everyday life are presented from the outset as an inherent part of the horror genre. Even such prosaic tasks as Shaun’s regime of getting ready for work are characterized by snap-shot action montages reminiscent of last battle preparations. While the running joke of his bleeding pen and the barrage of misdirected frights which turn out to be something perfectly normal foreshadow the real blood and scares Shaun is about to face. The notion of the current state of the world inevitably informing the horror of future events is integral to the film’s comedy, and considering the eventual fate of Shaun’s best mate, Ed, it is neatly ironic that so many of his observations prove to be prophetic. The ‘pay-off’ jokes include Ed’s ironic proclamation that ‘it’s not the end of the world’, and that the next time he sees their housemate, Pete, ‘he’s dead’. Even more significant is Ed’s plan for the following day which proves to be a complete plot synopsis: ‘A Bloody Mary first thing, a bite at the King’s Head, couple at The Little Princess, stagger back here and bang ... back at the bar for shots.’ In keeping with Ed’s plan, after their first zombie encounter, in which they kill Mary the checkout chick, the boys rush to rescue Shaun’s mother (Penelope Wilton), whereupon his domineering stepfather is bitten fatally in the neck. They then take down a number of the undead while fetching Liz and her friends, impersonate the zombies by lurching their way back to their local, the Winchester, and finish with a gunfight over the bar.
The routine events of daily London life are thus imbued with the promise of these horrors, although both Ed and Shaun, as products of their degenerate era and lethargic society, are cheerfully oblivious to the impending doom. Little wonder then that on the morning of Z-Day the activities and actors of modern London life prove to be indistinguishable from a state of living death. Shaun always staggers down his hallway and zombie-groans upon waking of a morning, but he is so immersed in the walking coma of his hangover that he cannot even tell the difference between the apocalypse and the after math of a normal Saturday night. The satire is twofold: not only were London and its inhabitants already zombified before the event, but Shaun himself is a mindless and shambolic anti hero who now fits in comfortably with the post horror surroundings and meandering monsters. The real zombies have been easily mistaken for bored workers, tired commuters, amorous lovers, happy drunkards, eccentric vagabonds or aggressive street gangsters. The horror of the change is that there has been no discernible change.
A Bloody Mary first thing, a bite at the Kings Head, a couple at The Little Princess, stagger back here and bang... back at the bar for shots.
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universe. They get up in
lives as if in a parallel
the world seem to live their
middle-class youth all over
Despite different cultures,
and head for school.
Naomi Klein, No Logo
Sony personal CD players
caps and backpacks, and
Levi’s and Nikes, grab their
the morning, put on their
Zombies and the Human Condition: The Zombie Hypothesis
An Unlikely Hero When the crisis is literally brought home to Shaun upon encountering bloody Mary in his backyard, he deals exceptionally well with the situation. He is relatively unmoved by the spectacle, immune to the horror and at home with the violence. As a pseudo-zombie himself and after living among the quasi-walking dead already, the experience of London being overrun by shuffling cannibals has all the marks of familiarity for him. His life up until this point proves to have prepared admirably for the situation and his very ineptitude and banality are revealed as heroic features Shaun’s post-teen penchant for first-person shooter games, he and Ed are seen playing TimeSplitters 2, which actually involves beheading zombies - has formed a useful training regime: he is able to beat, stab and tackle undead opponents with skill, ease and fearlessness. It is also fortuitous that Shaun smokes and drinks and can shoot a gun because in the third act he employs alcohol, his lighter and the bar’s shotgun to keep the zombies temporarily at bay.
After living among the quasi-walking dead already, the experience of London being overrun by shuffling cannibals has all the marks of familiarity.
Shaun is resourceful and quick thinking mainly as a result of his lack of athleticism, even if he can’t leap fences in a single bound he can improvise with trampolines, and if he can’t shoot straight he can wield kitchen items, pool cues and cricket bats. His bumbling leadership skills and team-player work ethic become focused when his charges realize their survival is at stake and give him their attention and respect, while his penchant for zombie-like behaviour allows him to blend in when imitating the monsters, and to outwit them when attacking them. Ultimately, Z-Day solves everything without actually changing anything, both for Shaun and the outside world. The city has been cleaned up, society is reuniting over Zombaid efforts, and the remaining zombies are providing cheap entertainment and being put to use in the menial jobs that were oppressing Londoners in the opening sequence. The world is fundamentally unaffected by the event, and things do not really look any different than before or during the onslaught.
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Shaun of the Dead Shaun is resourceful and quick thinking mainly as a result of his lack of athleticism, even if he can’t leap fences in a single bound he can improvise with trampolines, and if he can’t shoot straight he can wield kitchen items, pool cues and cricket bats.
Zombies and the Human Condition: References
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http://i.imgur.com/zNDJ0xF.jpg
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http://www.midniteticket.com/sites/default/files/ styles/theater_photo/public/george-romero-dawn-ofthe-dead.jpg
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