Shaun of the Dead(Rogue Pictures)How pop cultures most famous disease resembles and differs from our reality.
When a zombie outbreak interrupts the slacker existence of the eponymous main character in the 2004 British comedy Shaun of the Dead, he thinks he knows exactly what to do. With the help of his similarly lackadaisical friend Ed, he decides to find a car, pick up his mother and ex-girlfriend, and head over to the local pub. There, they can have a nice cold pint and wait for this all to blow over.
Just before Shaun and Ed head out to execute this plan, a television newscaster implores viewers to stay home, refrain from attempting to reach loved ones, and avoid all zombie contact. Do you believe everything you hear on TV? Ed asks, prompting Shaun to shut off the tube. The ensuing journey to the pub results in the death and/or zombification of Ed, Shauns mother, and several of his friends. And by the time they get there, the bartenders are already zombies.
COVID-19 is not a zombie plague, despite what one hopes are only the darkly humorous wishes of some on social media. But our reality has nonetheless supplied some parallels to Shaun of the Dead. A few days ago, after the governors of several states announced closures of bars (and restaurants) to minimize the risk of the pathogens spread, many revelers mostly young did not take this as a sign to avoid them even before their scheduled closure. Defeating the whole point of the measure, in the last few remaining hours they thronged the bars for one last drink. Likewise, some young spring-breakers in Florida had no intention of canceling or even altering their plans. If I get corona, I get corona, one of them said. At the end of the day, Im not gonna let it stop me from partying. So Shaun of the Dead may have captured something more recognizably human than we could have appreciated in our pre-pandemic time (as the actors who played Shaun and Ed humorously suggest in a version of that scene redone as a recent PSA).
Shaun of the Dead is far from the only zombie-themed work in pop culture. Zombies are an ever-popular trope, starting with George Romeros Night of the Living Dead in 1968. Even before COVID-19, audiences thrilled to these depictions of viral outbreaks turning our fellow humans into lumbering (or sometimes sprinting) hordes driven to consume our flesh, or spread their plague, or both. AMCs The Walking Dead, an adaptation of a graphic-novel series about (though never saying the word) zombies, has been one of the most popular TV shows for years. And 2013s World War Z, an adaptation of a best-selling Max Brooks novel starring Brad Pitt, made more than $500 million worldwide. The popularity of zombies inspires all sorts of armchair sociology, much of it baseless. Do they speak to fundamental human fears of conformity or civilizational collapse? Do they reflect our qualms about consumerism? Or do they actually represent a kind of wish fulfillment for those who secretly tire of civilizations strictures and seek a return to the state of nature? The answers depend on the movie and on the viewer.
And though COVID-19 has not zombified anyone (yet), there remain other aspects of zombie media with a heightened contemporary resonance if not exactly the kind youd expect. Take Shaun of the Dead again: Its opening scenes depict Shaun going listlessly through his daily routine, oblivious to ominous signs. The next day, as the zombie outbreak has already occurred, Shaun proceeds through his routine again, taking almost no notice of what has happened until a zombie appears in his backyard. In the movie, this is meant to emphasize the apparent banality of Shauns and our own everyday existence. Yet theres something fundamentally human about seeking the status quo and returning to familiar forms. You can see it in the desire of many people to spend their days during this outbreak at home, with family. And its even apparent in the already tiresome debate over whether using the adjective Chinese to describe the novel coronavirus which did originate in China is somehow racist. This is one of the few aspects of the outbreak that map somewhat neatly onto the state of politics beforehand, perhaps explaining its endurance and its banality.
Yet we must also deal with a different banality. Culturally and politically enforced social distancing has dramatically circumscribed the lives of many throughout the world, cutting us off from regular physical proximity both to the familiar and the unfamiliar faces that we had taken for granted. In such times we have doubled down on methods used much more sporadically before COVID-19 to remain entertained and connected; stocks of the videoconferencing software company Zoom have skyrocketed, and functionally employed twentysomethings are returning to or doubling down on online gaming to supply missing companionship.
In 2004s Dawn of the Dead (a remake of the 1978 original, also by Romero), a demographically disparate bunch of people get stuck in a mall during a zombie outbreak. And they, too, seek camaraderie in unusual ways. Some among this mall contingent find their way to the roof with a dry-erase board and establish contact with a gun-store owner across the street; a zombie horde stands in between. Phone lines are down, and the gap is too wide for voices to carry. So the mall-goers make the most of what theyve got, holding up handwritten messages and even deriving dark humor from the situation. They begin to write the names of celebrities they think certain members of the horde below resemble on their dry-erase board and then watch to see if their neighbor across the way can kill the same zombie they identified. Its a pastime of questionable ethics, but in a zombie apocalypse, it beats doing nothing. At least theyre having fun with friends.Luckily our Zoom videoconferences dont require as much violence.
The gun-store owner in Dawn of the Dead is the kind of person who often features in zombie media: the badass whos been waiting, perhaps even preparing, for exactly that kind of world-ending situation. A return to the state of nature means that justice once again becomes the will of the stronger. The most famous such character is probably The Walking Deads Negan, who has ruthlessly established a semblance of order amid a zombie-induced civilizational breakdown. As Jonah Goldberg summed up Negans understanding of the world, The new world order is this. . . . Give me your sh**, or I will kill you. Many of us like to think that we would be Negan in that kind of world. But so far, civilization has rather stubbornly refused to break down. And so the best Negan impression most have managed is to depopulate grocery store shelves of hand sanitizer, spaghetti (though not lasagna), and . . . toilet paper. Some of the more enterprising among us have secured these and other goods in bulk to sell at higher prices to others. If thats all weve got, most of us would probably just end up as zombies.
The specter of Negan raises another frequent argument of zombie media: that the real monsters are actually our fellow humans. This was shown rather pointedly in Night of the Living Dead, which came out just a few years after the end of Jim Crow and the same year as Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination. The main character, a black man, survives a nocturnal-undead onslaught, only to be shot by humans who mistake him for a zombie. Fortunately, rank cruelty of this nature has hardly been the order of the day thus far. Nevertheless, the Chinese governments quashing of the efforts of Li Wenliang, a doctor in Wuhan treating COVID-19 patients who was one of the first to warn the public about the dangers and who ultimately died of the disease, approaches the grim irony of Night of the Living Deads climax.
Without much of mans inhumanity to man on display as yet and let us hope it stays that way what zombie entertainment provides the closest analogue to our current moment? I would submit 2009s Zombieland. Midway through the movie, its roving band of survivors comes upon none other than Bill Murray, playing himself as one of the few humans to survive the zombie outbreak. Murray lives alone in a nice house, and occasionally ventures outside it disguised as a zombie . . . to play golf. With his idiosyncratic combination of prudence and aplomb taking precautionary measures while seeking some normal enjoyment Murray may be the most human character in any zombie movie. Though in our case, his eschewing of social distancing may not have been ideal. (Nor would we wish to emulate his untimely and ironic end, the result of someones mistaking him for one of the undead.)
There are plenty more zombie movies, TV shows, video games, etc. out there if youve already tired of Outbreak, Contagion, and The Andromeda Strain but are still up for some weirdly topical viewing. And therell undoubtedly be more, even after COVID-19 subsides. The zombie can represent anything, or nothing and that may be the source of its pop-culture durability. Yet one last eerie parallel between zombie movies and real life deserves mentioning. Allegedly, World War Z originally depicted characters speculating that the zombie outbreak originated in China. But, because the studio feared the loss of the ever-lucrative Chinese market, these scenes were removed.
Maybe there is something to these zombie movies after all.
View original post here:
Zombies in the Age of COVID-19 - National Review
- Even Will Smith Couldnt Save Zombie Survival Game Undawn, Which Flopped Spectacularly - IGN - March 24th, 2024
- Rob Zombie Recommends This Surprisingly Wholesome Comedy - Dread Central - March 24th, 2024
- Army Writing and the Zombie (Noun) Apocalypse - Modern War Institute - United States Military Academy West Point - March 24th, 2024
- Fatal Fury's Mai Shiranui Is In This Zombie Survival Game For Some Reason - Time Extension - March 24th, 2024
- Should you be worried about 'zombie deer'? | College of Public Health - George Mason University - March 24th, 2024
- 'Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island' Scares Its Way to Blu-ray for the First Time This Spring - Collider - March 24th, 2024
- Rob Zombie hates my guts: GWAR's Dave 'Oderus Urungus' Brockie was a genius, and here's an interview that proves it - Louder - March 24th, 2024
- In the fight against gun violence, Rep. Frost Introduces the Destroy Zombie Guns Act - The Apopka Voice - March 24th, 2024
- Elfriede Jelinek's 'The Children of the Dead' is a historical zombie novel - The Washington Post - The Washington Post - March 24th, 2024
- Germany's Zombie Government Is Fueling the Far Right - The Atlantic - March 24th, 2024
- Zombie Survival Game Undawn Has Crashed And Burned According To A Reuters Report - MMOs.com - March 24th, 2024
- Will Smiths Zombie Game Has Been Hit Harder Than Chris Rock at the Oscars Its Astronomical Budget Was ... - imdb - March 24th, 2024
- Scooby-Doo On Zombie Island / Return to Zombie Island Blu-ray (Warner Archive Collection) - Blu-ray.com - March 24th, 2024
- Registration almost here for Dothans annual Zombie 5K Chase - WDHN - March 24th, 2024
- Zombie magic and gambling club Magic Island will come alive again this summer - Houston Chronicle - March 24th, 2024
- Undawn | The $140m zombie survival game starring Will Smith that bombed while nobody was looking - Filmstories - March 24th, 2024
- After 4 years, a cult classic zombie horror manga from Ga-Rei's creator is finally getting an official English release - Gamesradar - March 24th, 2024
- Will Smith's Zombie Game Has Been Hit Harder Than Chris Rock at the Oscars - Its Astronomical Budget Was ... - FandomWire - March 24th, 2024
- "The game literally no one knew existed": The Will Smith Zombie Survival Game is Reportedly a Big Flop and Fans Are ... - FandomWire - March 24th, 2024
- Zombie-palooza --- Get to the biggest undead music event in the latest Dead Island 2 expansion: SoLA - Gaming Trend - March 24th, 2024
- Bournemouth University medical students treat 'zombie attack' in mass training simulation - The Tab - March 24th, 2024
- Zombie car factories on the rise in China as buyers opt for EVs - Financial Times - March 16th, 2024
- Hey, Remember When Rob Zombie Was Going To Direct THE CROW 3? - FANGORIA - March 16th, 2024
- New Walking Dead Twist Shows How The Zombie Outbreak Will Finally End - Screen Rant - March 16th, 2024
- Candid conversations from death row with The Zombie Hunter - Arizona's Family - March 16th, 2024
- Zombie! The Musical - REVIEW - City Hub Sydney - March 16th, 2024
- A Gorgeous Harp and Guitar String Duet of 'Zombie' by The Cranberries in Honor of Alexei Navalny - Laughing Squid - March 16th, 2024
- Y2K Review: A 1999 Youth Nostalgia Comedy That Turns Into an Attack-of-the-Computers Zombie Movie. But Only the First One Is Fun - Variety - March 16th, 2024
- AMC Announces Every Zombie in The Walking Dead Getting Its Own Spin-Off - Hard Drive - March 16th, 2024
- The Growing Threat of Zombie Code - CXOToday.com - March 16th, 2024
- The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever Gets Theatrical Return For Anniversary - Giant Freakin Robot - March 16th, 2024
- You won't expect which fighting game character pops up in this random mobile zombie game trailer for a bizarre ... - EventHubs - March 16th, 2024
- Coby White, Butler and the 'Zombie Heat,' Fontecchio Are All Here to Stay - Canis Hoopus - March 16th, 2024
- 'Land of the Dead' 19 Years Later: Romero's Return Was Smarter Than the Average Zombie Movie - Bloody Disgusting - March 16th, 2024
- Z Nation Season 6: SYFY Tease Return of Zombie Series 6 Years After Its Death - ComingSoon.net - March 16th, 2024
- Zombie! The Musical (Hayes Theatre Co) - Limelight - March 16th, 2024
- Get This Definitive Edition Zombie Game For Free Right Now On Steam - Screen Rant - February 19th, 2024
- The Best Ghost and Zombie Movie Romances - Vulture - February 19th, 2024
- The couple trying to keep killer 'zombie viruses' at bay - and protect us from another pandemic - The Telegraph - February 19th, 2024
- Meet the Serbian Businessman/DJ Who Runs the Zombie AI Southwest Journal - Racket - February 19th, 2024
- Dead Island 2 Spreading Its Zombie Virus to Steam in April - GameSpace.com - February 19th, 2024
- Lincoln hosts Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie - Omaha - KETV Omaha - February 19th, 2024
- 'The Walking Dead - The Ones Who Live' Review AMC's Zombie Epic Shambles On - Collider - February 19th, 2024
- Legislative recap: zombie bills, teacher pay, lithium tax, pipelines and more - Black Hills Pioneer - February 19th, 2024
- Japan's stock markets are on a tear. Will 'zombie firms threaten the bull run? - CNBC - February 11th, 2024
- Thebe Phetogos haunted response to zombie figuration in art - The Washington Post - February 11th, 2024
- Cosmic dust from 'zombie' galaxies could form planets and life - The Telegraph - February 11th, 2024
- I walked with a zombie: 16 monster love interests that set hearts aflutter - The A.V. Club - February 11th, 2024
- Free Steam zombie shooter you've never heard of is getting rave reviews, somehow - GAMINGbible - February 11th, 2024
- South Korea's 'zombie football' finally leaves them in a hole too deep to climb out of - ESPN - February 11th, 2024
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Zombie Mode is Getting Abandoned by Developer - FandomWire - February 11th, 2024
- Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses Full Audio Being Released as Immersive Vinyl - ComicBook.com - February 11th, 2024
- Zombie 'apocalypse' caused by mind-altering fungi, like that in hit TV show The Last of Us, is possible MPs ar - Daily Mail - February 11th, 2024
- The dark horse of Steam Next Fest is this open-world zombie survival game that feels like an homage to the best game ... - Gamesradar - February 11th, 2024
- COVID-19 Zombie Viral Fragments Could Help Explain Why Some Infections Are More Severe | Weather.com - The Weather Channel - February 11th, 2024
- Gotham City becomes a Joker-infected zombie nightmare in new Batman #143 preview - Dexerto - February 11th, 2024
- Boy, 16, stabbed to death with zombie knife at birthday party, court hears - The Independent - February 11th, 2024
- ROB ZOMBIE And ALICE COOPER Announce Summer 2024 'Freaks On Parade' Tour With MINISTRY And FILTER - BLABBERMOUTH.NET - February 3rd, 2024
- Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper are bringing their 'Freaks on Parade Tour' to Indy this summer - IndyStar - February 3rd, 2024
- Alice Cooper And Rob Zombie Touring Again This Summer - Vermilion County First - February 3rd, 2024
- Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper's 'Freak' show coming Aug. 25 to the X in St. Paul - Star Tribune - February 3rd, 2024
- Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper get their freak on with tour stop in Houston - CultureMap Houston - February 3rd, 2024
- 'True Detective: Night Country' and the 'Zombie Virus' Theory - Pajiba Entertainment News - February 3rd, 2024
- Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie to team up at Star Lake; Heart to headline PPG Paints Arena - The Times - February 3rd, 2024
- Double bills of Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper, Train and REO Speedwagon coming this summer - St. Paul Pioneer Press - February 3rd, 2024
- Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper's Freaks On Parade 2024 tour: Presale code, tickets, dates, venues, & all you need to ... - Sportskeeda - February 3rd, 2024
- Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper added to Walmart AMP lineup - Fayetteville Flyer - February 3rd, 2024
- ROB ZOMBIE and ALICE COOPER continue "The Freaks On Parade" tour in 2024 - Lambgoat - February 3rd, 2024
- Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper to Continue Their 'Freaks on Parade' Tour with Filter and Ministry - MetalSucks - February 3rd, 2024
- 'Handling the Undead' Review: This Emotional Zombie Horror Movie Isn't as Unique as It Thinks | Sundance 2024 - Collider - February 3rd, 2024
- Sundance Review: Handling The Undead Deconstructs the Zombie Genre with Painful Dread - The Film Stage - February 3rd, 2024
- How many 'zombie' stores will be left in the Philly area after Rite Aid's bankruptcy? - The Philadelphia Tribune - February 3rd, 2024
- Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper announce 'Freaks on Parade' 2024 tour dates with Ministry and Filter - Brooklyn Vegan - February 3rd, 2024
- Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper coming to Milwaukee on Aug. 27, 2024 - FOX 6 Milwaukee - February 3rd, 2024
- Alice Cooper And Rob Zombie Announce 2024 Tour: See The Dates - iHeartRadio - February 3rd, 2024
- Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper to stop at Walmart AMP - KNWA - February 3rd, 2024
- Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper coming to Blossom - WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland - February 3rd, 2024
- Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper Reveal Joint U.S. Tour Dates Here's How To Get Presale Code Tickets - Grimy Goods - February 3rd, 2024
- Canada's 'zombie fires' continue to burn even under thick layers of snow - National Post - February 3rd, 2024
- Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie bringing Freaks on Parade to Coopers home state - MLive.com - February 3rd, 2024
Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero