Romero's Zombies

George Romero’s Zombies
Zombies, Culture and Critique

Monsters and Culture
Monstrosity is historically conditioned, not psychologically universal

“The monster functions as a monster when it is able to condense as many fear-producing traits into one body” (Judith Halberstam, Skin Shows 21)

“ Monsters are meaning machines” (Judith Halberstam, Skin Shows 21)

“ The monster always represents the disruption of categories, the destruction of boundaries, and the presence of impurities and so we need monsters...” (Judith Halberstam, Skin Shows 27)

Horror mediates between culture and ideology through an indirect mode of representation that formulates the tensions between social order and desire (Russell, 237)

The monster as social Other (Robin Wood)

"in a world homogenised by the commodity-form, and by money and information as universal equivalents, ‘the Other no longer has a place of refuge’." (Shaviro, 284)

Reactionary horror films figure the monster as social disorder/unwanted desire and reaffirms social order by eliminating the monster.

Subversive horror films point to the breakdown and failure of social order’s repression for which the monster acts as a medium.

Monstrology
Fusion monsters, e.g. a zombie which is fusion of both living and dead

Monstrology
Fission monsters, e.g. a werewolf, which fusion of human and wolf, but separated by time: a wolf by full moon only

Monstrology
Magnification monsters: large and many, e.g. giant ants

A History of Zombies
Zombies were first drawn from Haitian culture and voodoo.
I Walked With A Zombie (1943)
The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

Romero’s Dead series
Romero revolutionized the zombie genre by making them American and immanent to American culture.
Zombies are no longer exotic others, they are us.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Day of the Dead (1985)

Zombie Cult
Zombies gain a cult following and feature in many movies.

Zombies enter pop culture
While hardly horror, Michael Jackson’s Thriller video did much to feature the zombie in popular imagination.

Zombies go mainstream

Zombies go mainstream
San Francisco Zombie Walk (2005)

Romero’s return
Land of the Dead (2005)
Diary of the Dead (2007)
Island of the Dead (post-production)

Romero’s Zombies
Zombies resonate with the very processes that produce and enforce social order

Romero’s Zombies
"zombies present the ‘human face’ of capitalist monstrosity." (Shaviro, 288)

Romero’s Zombies
"zombie tales dramatize the strangeness of what has become real" (Shaviro, 289)

Romero’s Zombies
zombies figure a social process that no longer serves ratinalized ends (Shaviro, Cinematic Body 84 )

Night of the Living Dead
Zombies are overt social process of the disintegration of all communal bonds
Racism

Dawn of the Dead
Zombies and consumerism
Also humans and consumerism
Capitalist exploitation

Day of the Dead
Containment and boundaries
Cold War

Land of the Dead
Terrorism
Fear of the outsider
Isolationism

Diary of the Dead
Media panic
Revisiting Night of the Living Dead

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Romero's Zombies

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