The End of the World

Zombies allow people to deal with their own anxiety about the end of the world. Night of the Living Dead and its counterparts also illustrate the fear of widespread apocalyptic destruction. It is not a coincidence that these movies appeared mostly at the height of the Cold War paranoia. Much like the atomic bomb, zombies … Read more

Exploitation

Control and related themes of power and exploitation are basic to the voodoo zombie films. “They work faithfully and are not worried about long hours,” says zombie master Legendre of his creatures in White Zombie, in justification of the capitalist organization represent by the metropolis-like machinery of the mill. Zombies of the Haitian Voodoo variety … Read more

Loss of values

Another element often found in zombie films is the freakishness of familiarity the victims seem to have with the creatures attacking them. When the main character is attacked by a zombie who was originally a friend or a loved one and want to turn it into his next meal, there are no limits to sheer … Read more

Death

Death is the underlying basic theme of every zombie film and reflects the attitude and beliefs of society towards mortality. There is little explanation of what happening after death and the livings, though liberated from the stigma of religion, are still haunted by this existential issue, either feeling that they are responsible for the dead … Read more

Social mirrors

In any good zombie story, the zombies represent the weakness of a society or community of people they come after. Zombie films are therefore allegories. In Night of the Living Dead, the zombies tape into anxieties of the late 1960s — the dehumanizing violence of the Vietnam War, uneasy reactions to the Civil Rights movement … Read more