History of the Zombie Sub-Genre

Origins of Zombies

·       Theorists of zombie culture (such as Kyle Bishop or Jamie Russell), link the origin of the zombie to Haitian folklore and voodoo.

·       The zombie didn’t make its way into American culture until the 1920s and 30s, when travel narratives were popular with Western readers. W.B. Seabrook’s book The Magic Island is often credited as the first popular text to describe the ‘Haitian zombie’.

·       The first major zombie film was Halperin and Halperin’s (1932) White Zombie, which depicted a Haitian voodoo priest capturing the female actor as a zombie slave. Other early zombie films include: Revolt of the Zombies (1936), King of the Zombies (1941), and I Walked with a Zombie (1943).

·       The zombies of these films was not the cannibalistic zombie we know now. These zombies were people put under the spell of voodoo. In these films, the true terror is becoming a zombie, not being bitten by one.

 

·       What all these films have in common is their depiction of Voodoo and Haitian culture more generally as dangerous and superstitious. Many people are keen to note that the messages and signals contained in these films are not subtle, and present stereotyped versions of Haitian culture aimed largely at a mainly white audience. Many of these films also contain an all-white cast, with several members in 'blackface' as comic relief for the more “serious” scenes.

Classic Zombies

·       In 1968, the classic black and white film, ‘Night of the Living Dead’ was released by George A. Romero in theatres across America.

 

·       Prior to Romero’s take on the zombie genre; zombies largely reflected the spirit of the times in which these films were made e.g. the fears of racial mixing found in White Zombie (1932) and the fears of mind control found in Invisible Invaders (1952).

·       However, Romero changed these trends when he made the zombie into something more than simply a machine of mind control or voodoo; Romero introduced the “flesh-eater” into the zombie world. 

·       In addition, Romero made his zombies into a form of infection: A single bite from a zombie will similarly kill and turn you into a zombie, playing into fears of loved ones and strangers turning on one another.

·       What is interesting to note about Romero’s film is its not-so-subtle use of race relations to convey to the audience the tensions of the Civil Rights era. Although Romero himself has stated that his casting of a Black man as the lead role had nothing to do with race, the impact was felt by audiences.

·       Romero included still photos at the end of the film, in which aggressive white police officers drag the corpse of Duane, the lead character, by meat hooks, with canines and armed civilians. These graphic pictures are reminiscent of white lynch mobs in the southern United States.

·       Romero took his social criticism one step further in his second zombie film, Dawn of the Dead (1978). In this film, a group of survivors lay low in a shopping mall as zombies invade from outside. The images of zombies mindlessly walking, groping, and drooling over consumer goods provides an image of the cult of consumerism and American capitalism.

Modern Zombies

·       The first blockbuster film of this era, Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002) is often credited to raising the stakes in zombie films and is a cult classic.

·       Perhaps most importantly, Boyle’s film is also credited in the creation of a new breed of zombie, the fast-moving, disease-infected living type.

 

·       These zombies are no longer robots, but enraged, wild, feral, and overcome with madness. They sprint rather than shuffle aimlessly; and more than brains they seek to spread the infection further, spewing blood and bile onto their victims in addition to just eating them.

·       28 Days Later also set the stage for a dramatic expansion of the zombie narrative, both in terms of special effects and in scope. In the film, the entire world is said to have been taken over by the “rage virus” and the characters must struggle to survive without the safety of social institutions. The very social institutions established to protect humanity become threats to their survival, as the protagonists find out when they attempt to live with a group of soldiers, who attempt to rape and kill them.

·       As well as this, the Zombie sub-genre spilled into other genres e.g. comedy, romance. In 2004, Shaun of the Dead was released, a British horror film labelled a ‘ZomCom’.
 

 

Types of Zombies

The zombie can be reduced to three main types:

·       The somnambulist (i.e.: mind control slave-zombie),

·       The cannibalistic corpse (i.e.: undead eaters)

·       Infected living (e.g.: the “rage virus” of 28 Days Later).

 

Genre theory + theorists

Name	Theory
Daniel Chandler	Conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings) and/or form (including structure and style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as belonging to them.
Steve Neale	·         'Genres are instances of repetition and difference' (Neale 1980, 48). He adds that 'difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre': mere repetition would not attract an audience. ·         Argues that Hollywood’s generic regime performs two inter-related functions: i) to guarantee meanings and pleasures for audiences ii) to offset the considerable economic risks of industrial film production by providing cognitive collateral against innovation and difference. ·         Genre is constituted by “specific systems of expectations and hypothesis which spectators bring with them to the cinema and which interact with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process.”
John Hartley	·         Texts often exhibit the conventions of more than one genre. ·         John Hartley notes that “The same text can belong to different genres in different countries or times.” ·         Traditionally genres were regarded as fixed forms, but contemporary theory emphasises that both their forms and functions are dynamic.
David Buckingham	“Genre is not… simply ‘given’ by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change.”
Tom Ryall	Genre provides a framework of structuring rules, in the shape of patterns/forms/styles/structures, which act as a form of ‘supervision’ over the work of production of filmmakers and the work of reading by the audience