Dan Parker Rocco Fight the Dead, Fear the Living A Comical Research Paper WARNING PAGES 7-10 may include The Walking Dead Spoilers The meaning of zombie has changed so drastically from the times of White Zombie, to the current Walking Dead. In movies like Day of the Dead, or Return of the Living Dead, the zombie is essentially the villain. It is the bad guy, the one you need to watch out for. In the Walking Dead, the zombies are just a pest, like wolves, the humans become villains. Have we become so much deeper that we can get through such an event? Would society really crumble? Could this really happen? And in my opinion, what makes The Walking Dead so deep into today’s culture, how would I do? Who would my friends be? WOULD I SURVIVE? Over the course of this paper, I have refined my thesis down to a sort of simple thesis. How the idea of the living dead influenced the big 3 monsters (Frankenstein, Dracula & The Mummy), and how these very primal fears have lasted for hundreds of years and permeated society even today. This paper opened my eyes to the fact that zombies are everywhere. From books, to comics, movies, music & videogames. Why do we like zombies so much, why now? What is going on in the world that made us love the Walking Dead? Why do we run obstacle courses where we get physically injured by “zombies.” We miss our pets or our grandmother, just because we want them back doesn’t mean they should come back. If I had to sew my dogs tail back on every day because he is undead, it would probably break my heart more. Not to mention there is no way to stop the flesh from decomposing. Would granny be watching Judge Judy as her eyeballs fall out? Would it be cool to see Elvis, or Buddy Holly preform one more time? Yes, but we would be stuck with fat Elvis. Modern technology has borrowed something of Victor Frankenstein, at Coachella 2012 Snoop Dogg, started to preform a song with his long dead friend, Tupac Shakur. The lights went out and slowly Tupac rose from a platform on stage. This was not Tupac, but a High Definition Hologram of him animated to look and sound like he was preforming. This is how in the future, I will see Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash preform on stage. I can see Marlon Brando in a Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway, live.Will Hall of Presidents in Disneyworld get an upgrade where you can see Andrew Jackson and Bill Teddy Roosevelt’s inaugural address live? Is this zombies? It is dead people coming back to life and man, is it cool. But the idea of bringing loved ones back to life started the zombie fear or craze. Zombie: Originates Haitian Creole: zonbi; North Mbundu: nzumbe. Zombie is defined as an animated corpse resurrected by witchcraft, mystical means, or some other supernatural power. They are usually slow moving, not self-aware, and usually unintelligent. Zombies first officially appeared in 1929 in “the Magic Island” by William Seabrook. Personally I think the idea and the fear of zombies have been around for years before that. The idea of zombies has been around for a long time and are still a huge part in today’s pop culture. The first full length zombie movie came out in 1932 called White Zombie, since this movie came out there are countless zombie movies, books, TV shows, video games etc. I will mostly be focusing on the transition and comparison of zombie movies from White Zombie up to now, also how zombies are created differently through human creation, science, poison, radioactive accidents, disease, or witchcraft. In today’s society zombies are almost an obsession for some people, taking over all aspects of their lives. I am a victim to the zombie apocalypse that has taken over pop culture. I have been bitten. I mostly enjoy watching zombie movies and TV shows, I have not yet started to read the graphic novels or novels, I have played some zombie video games but I am not that fond of them. I have also thought about what I would do if a zombie apocalypse was to actually happen, who I would team up with, where I would go, my weapons of choice etc. There are people that have made safe houses, have bags full of supplies ready to go, weapons made, escape routes, and strategies on what do “when” the apocalypse happens. The classic horror gods took their cues from zombies. And that is just the beginning. White Zombie came out and did all sorts of things to zombie culture, although it is all but forgotten, except by college humanities professors. It still pushes the notion the the idea of zombies is wibbly wobbly. It changes from where you need it. There sort of a solid definition, but there is always room for interpretation. For me I believe that the original Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was part of the beginning of the zombie culture. The novel was first published in 1818, Shelley had started writing the novel when she was 18 and was published when she was 21. It was about scientist, Victor Frankenstein and how he created a monster through