Zombies are undead monsters who attack the living and have been popularized in movies, TV shows, and video games. Their origins can be traced back to Haitian voodoo folklore. The 1968 film Night of the Living Dead is credited with ushering in a new era of horror cinema featuring zombies. Zombies have also been parodied in films like Shaun of the Dead and featured in TV shows and music.
In popular culture, zombies are people who died and were reanimated as mindless, nearly invulnerable monsters who band together and attack the living. They are also known as “the walking dead”, “the walking dead” or “the undead”.
While many people are familiar with zombies from horror movies, TV shows, and video games, their history stretches back hundreds of years, to stories from Haitian voodoo folklore. In Haitian culture there are hundreds of stories of people who died and were brought back to life by a sorcerer; the revived person has no awareness of who they once were, although they are not dangerous to others.
Zombies didn’t gain a strong presence in American popular culture, however, until the 1968 release of George A. Romero’s classic horror film, Night of the Living Dead. The film featured slow, violent, cannibalistic zombies and many critics believe it ushered in a new era in horror cinema. Romero directed several sequels to the film, all using zombies to portray a critique of society.
A recent British film, Shaun of the Dead, released in 2004, parodied Romero’s zombie films, billing itself as a “zom-com” or “zombie comedy.” Other popular zombie films include Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson’s Braindead, which was titled Dead Alive for its US release, and a 2004 remake of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.
Zombies have also been featured frequently in TV shows, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and appear frequently in many video games. In Michael Jackson’s famous “Thriller” music video, he and a large group of corpses become zombies and perform a dance routine – the 14-minute clip is one of the most famous music videos in history. Zombies also have a strong presence in music, with bands like the metal band White Zombie and 1960s pop group Zombies named after mythical monsters; the Cranberries also had a popular single called “Zombie”.
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