Stacey Abbott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748694907
- eISBN:
- 9781474426725
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694907.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Twenty-first century film and television is overwhelmed with images of the undead. Vampires and zombies have often been seen as oppositional: one alluring, the other repellent; one seductive, the ...
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Twenty-first century film and television is overwhelmed with images of the undead. Vampires and zombies have often been seen as oppositional: one alluring, the other repellent; one seductive, the other infectious. With case studies of films like I Am Legend, Daybreakers, and 28 Days Later, as well as television programmes like Angel, In the Flesh, and The Walking Dead, this book challenges these popular assumptions and reveals the increasing interconnection of undead genres. Exploring how the figure of the vampire has been infused with the language of science, disease, and apocalypse, while the zombie text has increasingly been influenced by the trope of the ‘reluctant’ vampire, this book shows how both archetypes are actually two sides of the same undead coin. When considered together they present a dystopian, sometimes apocalyptic, vision of twenty-first century existence.Less
Twenty-first century film and television is overwhelmed with images of the undead. Vampires and zombies have often been seen as oppositional: one alluring, the other repellent; one seductive, the other infectious. With case studies of films like I Am Legend, Daybreakers, and 28 Days Later, as well as television programmes like Angel, In the Flesh, and The Walking Dead, this book challenges these popular assumptions and reveals the increasing interconnection of undead genres. Exploring how the figure of the vampire has been infused with the language of science, disease, and apocalypse, while the zombie text has increasingly been influenced by the trope of the ‘reluctant’ vampire, this book shows how both archetypes are actually two sides of the same undead coin. When considered together they present a dystopian, sometimes apocalyptic, vision of twenty-first century existence.
Mark Bernard
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748685493
- eISBN:
- 9781474406444
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748685493.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book explores the role of the DVD market in the growth of ultraviolent horror in the 2000s and assesses how the emergence of the market changed cultural and industrial attitudes to horror films ...
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This book explores the role of the DVD market in the growth of ultraviolent horror in the 2000s and assesses how the emergence of the market changed cultural and industrial attitudes to horror films and film ratings. Focusing on the films of the Splat Pack (a group made up of film makers such as Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, James Wan, and Alexandre Aja), it argues that brutal American horror movies (such as the Saw and Hostel films) were products of, rather than reactions to, film industry policy. The book includes an overview of the history of the American horror film from an industry studies perspective, an analysis of how the DVD market influenced the production of American horror films, and an examination of the films made by Splat Pack members.Less
This book explores the role of the DVD market in the growth of ultraviolent horror in the 2000s and assesses how the emergence of the market changed cultural and industrial attitudes to horror films and film ratings. Focusing on the films of the Splat Pack (a group made up of film makers such as Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, James Wan, and Alexandre Aja), it argues that brutal American horror movies (such as the Saw and Hostel films) were products of, rather than reactions to, film industry policy. The book includes an overview of the history of the American horror film from an industry studies perspective, an analysis of how the DVD market influenced the production of American horror films, and an examination of the films made by Splat Pack members.
Stacey Abbott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748694907
- eISBN:
- 9781474426725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694907.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter offers a brief consideration of the role that the renewed popularity of the vampire and zombie plays within popular culture. Through consideration of the growing popularity of zombie ...
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This chapter offers a brief consideration of the role that the renewed popularity of the vampire and zombie plays within popular culture. Through consideration of the growing popularity of zombie walks, zombie runs, vampire fashion, vampire cosplay, this chapter argues that a fascination with the undead is a response to an unsettling cultural climate in which we are bombarded by the threat of annihilation but also serves as evidence of a cultural appropriation of this apocalyptic threat.Less
This chapter offers a brief consideration of the role that the renewed popularity of the vampire and zombie plays within popular culture. Through consideration of the growing popularity of zombie walks, zombie runs, vampire fashion, vampire cosplay, this chapter argues that a fascination with the undead is a response to an unsettling cultural climate in which we are bombarded by the threat of annihilation but also serves as evidence of a cultural appropriation of this apocalyptic threat.
Tim Lanzendörfer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496819062
- eISBN:
- 9781496819109
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496819062.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The introduction lays out the necessary background to the zombie in contemporary fiction. It starts by offering a general idea of the zombie’s contemporary valence and then offers a brief history of ...
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The introduction lays out the necessary background to the zombie in contemporary fiction. It starts by offering a general idea of the zombie’s contemporary valence and then offers a brief history of the zombie in literature, from its various potential forebears to the 21st century. It argues for the importance of the Romero zombie as the most useful, and open, figuration of the zombie, and then lays out the way in which the book will read the zombie, read against alternative versions of zombie theory that are widely debated. It argues against symbolic readings of the zombie as such, and suggests that we must instead read it as a form, one which enables literature to engage possible futures, but does not in and of itself signify anything in particular.Less
The introduction lays out the necessary background to the zombie in contemporary fiction. It starts by offering a general idea of the zombie’s contemporary valence and then offers a brief history of the zombie in literature, from its various potential forebears to the 21st century. It argues for the importance of the Romero zombie as the most useful, and open, figuration of the zombie, and then lays out the way in which the book will read the zombie, read against alternative versions of zombie theory that are widely debated. It argues against symbolic readings of the zombie as such, and suggests that we must instead read it as a form, one which enables literature to engage possible futures, but does not in and of itself signify anything in particular.
Calum Waddell
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474409254
- eISBN:
- 9781474449625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474409254.003.0008
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
For this chapter, ‘Blood Feast’ and George Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ are discussed as the genesis of the new wave of American horror cinema. Whilst the two are very different films, in ...
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For this chapter, ‘Blood Feast’ and George Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ are discussed as the genesis of the new wave of American horror cinema. Whilst the two are very different films, in terms of certain stylistic attributes, for instance their use of the close-up, they have more in common than previous studies have alluded. Five key tropes of the exploitation-horror film are also introduced and discussed.Less
For this chapter, ‘Blood Feast’ and George Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ are discussed as the genesis of the new wave of American horror cinema. Whilst the two are very different films, in terms of certain stylistic attributes, for instance their use of the close-up, they have more in common than previous studies have alluded. Five key tropes of the exploitation-horror film are also introduced and discussed.
Margo Collins and Elson Bond
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823234462
- eISBN:
- 9780823241255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234462.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
This chapter probes the depiction of zombies in such contemporary novels as World War Z, Zombie Haiku, and the revisionist classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Authors Margo Collins and Elson ...
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This chapter probes the depiction of zombies in such contemporary novels as World War Z, Zombie Haiku, and the revisionist classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Authors Margo Collins and Elson Bond argue that the zombie is uniquely appealing to today's technologically savvy, fast-paced generation and, as such, can serve as a mirror for some of Generation Y's values and notions of identity. New millennium zombie-ism demonstrates an apparent divergence into what initially appears to be two distinct categories: zombie-as-comedy and zombie-as-threat, but as the chapter argues, time and again those two categories overlap in intriguing and symbolic ways. Ultimately, depictions of both kinds of zombies come to function as monstrous placeholders for potentially dangerous human interactions in an anomic society. Accustomed to instant communication with virtual strangers, insulated from the natural world and dependent on fragile transportation, communication, and power networks, millennial audiences have good reason to fear the chaotic anonymity of zombies.Less
This chapter probes the depiction of zombies in such contemporary novels as World War Z, Zombie Haiku, and the revisionist classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Authors Margo Collins and Elson Bond argue that the zombie is uniquely appealing to today's technologically savvy, fast-paced generation and, as such, can serve as a mirror for some of Generation Y's values and notions of identity. New millennium zombie-ism demonstrates an apparent divergence into what initially appears to be two distinct categories: zombie-as-comedy and zombie-as-threat, but as the chapter argues, time and again those two categories overlap in intriguing and symbolic ways. Ultimately, depictions of both kinds of zombies come to function as monstrous placeholders for potentially dangerous human interactions in an anomic society. Accustomed to instant communication with virtual strangers, insulated from the natural world and dependent on fragile transportation, communication, and power networks, millennial audiences have good reason to fear the chaotic anonymity of zombies.
Lars Schmeink
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781781383766
- eISBN:
- 9781786944115
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781383766.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Chapter 7 returns to the changed social and political realities of the new millennium and the post-9/11 world, connecting global terror with the success of zombie films in mainstream culture. The ...
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Chapter 7 returns to the changed social and political realities of the new millennium and the post-9/11 world, connecting global terror with the success of zombie films in mainstream culture. The renaissance of the zombie films can be directly linked to its allegorical depiction of viral, off-scene terror and the dystopian future of a post-apocalyptic world. In analyzing post-9/11 zombie films, especially the Resident Evil-film series and the 28 Days-franchise, the chapter reveals liquid modern anxieties as connected with terrorism and globalization. The films reimagine the zombie in terms of biological disaster – as viral, infectious and unseen – in order to acknowledge the new form of terror emergent in 9/11. In appropriating this biopunk context, contemporary zombie films make available a cultural negotiation of the liquid modern logic of necropolitics (as an extension of biopolitics) and the negation of human and non-human others through technoscientific means. By casting humanity as homines sacri, biopunk zombie films allow for a witnessing of a radical change of the social order. Zombies, in these films, present a possible future that imagines posthuman subjectivity in drastic and extremely jarring imagery, providing contemporary society with biopunk dystopias.Less
Chapter 7 returns to the changed social and political realities of the new millennium and the post-9/11 world, connecting global terror with the success of zombie films in mainstream culture. The renaissance of the zombie films can be directly linked to its allegorical depiction of viral, off-scene terror and the dystopian future of a post-apocalyptic world. In analyzing post-9/11 zombie films, especially the Resident Evil-film series and the 28 Days-franchise, the chapter reveals liquid modern anxieties as connected with terrorism and globalization. The films reimagine the zombie in terms of biological disaster – as viral, infectious and unseen – in order to acknowledge the new form of terror emergent in 9/11. In appropriating this biopunk context, contemporary zombie films make available a cultural negotiation of the liquid modern logic of necropolitics (as an extension of biopolitics) and the negation of human and non-human others through technoscientific means. By casting humanity as homines sacri, biopunk zombie films allow for a witnessing of a radical change of the social order. Zombies, in these films, present a possible future that imagines posthuman subjectivity in drastic and extremely jarring imagery, providing contemporary society with biopunk dystopias.
Paul A. Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813177304
- eISBN:
- 9780813177311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813177304.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter seeks to explain the popularity of grim shows like the zombie narrative The Walking Dead, which seem to delight in portraying the destruction of the world as we know it. The Walking Dead ...
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This chapter seeks to explain the popularity of grim shows like the zombie narrative The Walking Dead, which seem to delight in portraying the destruction of the world as we know it. The Walking Dead offers a variant of the American dream, because it celebrates the independence of the ordinary people who are forced to fend for themselves in the absence of the authorities and institutions that traditionally had protected and taken care of them. Several of the characters reinvent themselves, going from the meek roles they played in pre-apocalyptic times to strong people. The show reflects widespread anxieties about social and political developments after the 2008 economic downturn. Many Americans felt betrayed by the elites who had claimed to have the expertise to run the country smoothly, and the show generally casts elites in a bad light. The Walking Dead recaptures the pioneer spirit that built America in the first place—a sense of self-reliance that harks back to the American West and frontier existence.Less
This chapter seeks to explain the popularity of grim shows like the zombie narrative The Walking Dead, which seem to delight in portraying the destruction of the world as we know it. The Walking Dead offers a variant of the American dream, because it celebrates the independence of the ordinary people who are forced to fend for themselves in the absence of the authorities and institutions that traditionally had protected and taken care of them. Several of the characters reinvent themselves, going from the meek roles they played in pre-apocalyptic times to strong people. The show reflects widespread anxieties about social and political developments after the 2008 economic downturn. Many Americans felt betrayed by the elites who had claimed to have the expertise to run the country smoothly, and the show generally casts elites in a bad light. The Walking Dead recaptures the pioneer spirit that built America in the first place—a sense of self-reliance that harks back to the American West and frontier existence.
Maria Sulimma
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781474473958
- eISBN:
- 9781474495240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474473958.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
As a model by which to explore the The Walking Dead’s gender performances, the palimpsest can capture how the comic series of the same name reverberates in the show’s storytelling, which ...
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As a model by which to explore the The Walking Dead’s gender performances, the palimpsest can capture how the comic series of the same name reverberates in the show’s storytelling, which paradoxically both draws on the comic and seeks to overwrite it. Palimpsestic re-inscriptions are not purposefully layered characterizations but rather demonstrate how unintentional textual echoes continue, even if the show aspires to learn from previous controversies the comic caused. Specifically, in the case of unpopular characters, palimpsestic echoes do not appear to be envisioned by the show's production. Here then, criticism of the zombie narrative’s essentialist gender roles becomes a significant reception practice. The chapter strategically provides readings of characters relatively consistent with the comic book (Michonne, Lori), of ones widely divergent from it (Carol, Andrea), and of an original creation without a comic book precedent (Daryl). The respective position of characters as either fan favorites or much proclaimed ‘worst characters’ serves as a lynchpin for the chapter’s readings.Less
As a model by which to explore the The Walking Dead’s gender performances, the palimpsest can capture how the comic series of the same name reverberates in the show’s storytelling, which paradoxically both draws on the comic and seeks to overwrite it. Palimpsestic re-inscriptions are not purposefully layered characterizations but rather demonstrate how unintentional textual echoes continue, even if the show aspires to learn from previous controversies the comic caused. Specifically, in the case of unpopular characters, palimpsestic echoes do not appear to be envisioned by the show's production. Here then, criticism of the zombie narrative’s essentialist gender roles becomes a significant reception practice. The chapter strategically provides readings of characters relatively consistent with the comic book (Michonne, Lori), of ones widely divergent from it (Carol, Andrea), and of an original creation without a comic book precedent (Daryl). The respective position of characters as either fan favorites or much proclaimed ‘worst characters’ serves as a lynchpin for the chapter’s readings.
Maria Sulimma
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781474473958
- eISBN:
- 9781474495240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474473958.003.0010
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Building on the previous analysis of popular, long-surviving characters, the chapter focuses on The Walking Dead’s participation in a larger discourse of survivalism driven by the cultural phenomenon ...
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Building on the previous analysis of popular, long-surviving characters, the chapter focuses on The Walking Dead’s participation in a larger discourse of survivalism driven by the cultural phenomenon of the zombie apocalypse. Through a variety of paratexts and textual depictions, the franchise casts survival struggles and preparedness as entertaining, interactive pastimes. However, the chapter suggests that these practices prepare viewers less for survival within a zombie apocalypse, or any kind of disaster as a matter of fact, but for survival and competition within a neoliberal, capitalist marketplace. The chapter elaborates on this understanding in regard to three specific themes, genre knowledge-related ‘zombie literacy,’ ‘zombie consumerism,’ and ‘zombie workout.’ Moreover, aside from such dominant participations, the chapter searches for alternatives to such neoliberal, capitalist competition within the show and its paratexts. The notion of survival failure here can be reframed as disruptive refusal of capitalist survivalism.Less
Building on the previous analysis of popular, long-surviving characters, the chapter focuses on The Walking Dead’s participation in a larger discourse of survivalism driven by the cultural phenomenon of the zombie apocalypse. Through a variety of paratexts and textual depictions, the franchise casts survival struggles and preparedness as entertaining, interactive pastimes. However, the chapter suggests that these practices prepare viewers less for survival within a zombie apocalypse, or any kind of disaster as a matter of fact, but for survival and competition within a neoliberal, capitalist marketplace. The chapter elaborates on this understanding in regard to three specific themes, genre knowledge-related ‘zombie literacy,’ ‘zombie consumerism,’ and ‘zombie workout.’ Moreover, aside from such dominant participations, the chapter searches for alternatives to such neoliberal, capitalist competition within the show and its paratexts. The notion of survival failure here can be reframed as disruptive refusal of capitalist survivalism.
Tim Lanzendörfer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496819062
- eISBN:
- 9781496819109
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496819062.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter argues that zombie fictions enable us to reflect upon the meaning and possibility, and especially the conditions of possibility, for community. Read through Zygmunt Bauman and Jean-Luc ...
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This chapter argues that zombie fictions enable us to reflect upon the meaning and possibility, and especially the conditions of possibility, for community. Read through Zygmunt Bauman and Jean-Luc Nancy, community becomes central to two novels less frequently read by critics, Bob Fingerman’s Pariah and Kim Paffenroth’s Dying to Live, novels which also share a thematic concern with humans who are not in danger from zombie attack. The two novels ultimately present nearly opposite versions of how community may be reconstituted in the wake of a zombie apocalypse, and so are instructive of our contemporary concern with the possibility of community.Less
This chapter argues that zombie fictions enable us to reflect upon the meaning and possibility, and especially the conditions of possibility, for community. Read through Zygmunt Bauman and Jean-Luc Nancy, community becomes central to two novels less frequently read by critics, Bob Fingerman’s Pariah and Kim Paffenroth’s Dying to Live, novels which also share a thematic concern with humans who are not in danger from zombie attack. The two novels ultimately present nearly opposite versions of how community may be reconstituted in the wake of a zombie apocalypse, and so are instructive of our contemporary concern with the possibility of community.
Tim Lanzendörfer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496819062
- eISBN:
- 9781496819109
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496819062.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The coda explores what the book takes to be the most expansive question about contemporary zombie fiction, its meaning for literature at large. It departs from the question of whether we will be able ...
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The coda explores what the book takes to be the most expansive question about contemporary zombie fiction, its meaning for literature at large. It departs from the question of whether we will be able to read literature again without the zombie, and takes zombie fiction, in its many manifestations but especially in its appearance in ostensibly “literary” fiction, as a crucial part of the contemporary generic turn, and as a harbinger of the future of fiction. More than that, however, it suggests that the processes at work in zombie fiction prefigure a larger shift in the literary field, one which ultimately depends on the zombie’s capacity to broadly signal possibility, rather than symbolic meaning.Less
The coda explores what the book takes to be the most expansive question about contemporary zombie fiction, its meaning for literature at large. It departs from the question of whether we will be able to read literature again without the zombie, and takes zombie fiction, in its many manifestations but especially in its appearance in ostensibly “literary” fiction, as a crucial part of the contemporary generic turn, and as a harbinger of the future of fiction. More than that, however, it suggests that the processes at work in zombie fiction prefigure a larger shift in the literary field, one which ultimately depends on the zombie’s capacity to broadly signal possibility, rather than symbolic meaning.
Terence McSweeney
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748693092
- eISBN:
- 9781474408547
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748693092.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines the resurgence of the zombie genre which went from a minor figure to one of the defining pop cultural icons of the era. What might be said about the connections between this ...
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This chapter examines the resurgence of the zombie genre which went from a minor figure to one of the defining pop cultural icons of the era. What might be said about the connections between this renaissance and the turbulent War on Terror decade? It offers a detailed analysis of the films of George A. Romero and I Am Legend.Less
This chapter examines the resurgence of the zombie genre which went from a minor figure to one of the defining pop cultural icons of the era. What might be said about the connections between this renaissance and the turbulent War on Terror decade? It offers a detailed analysis of the films of George A. Romero and I Am Legend.
Stacey Abbott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748694907
- eISBN:
- 9781474426725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694907.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter argues that not only has the 21st century seen a rise in popularity of the vampire and zombie in film and television but that this period has also witnessed an increased dialogue between ...
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This chapter argues that not only has the 21st century seen a rise in popularity of the vampire and zombie in film and television but that this period has also witnessed an increased dialogue between these two conceptions of the undead, which highlights symmetry over opposition. This chapter argues that the increased interconnection between vampires and zombies in popular culture is a result of a growing pre-occupation with notions of apocalypse. Rather than simply presenting this development as a response to the events of 9/11, this chapter posits that since the turn of the millennium there has been a growing fascination with the apocalypse within contemporary media, responding to a range of transformative global events. It is through fictions surrounding the vampire and zombie that the trauma of these events is negotiated. Case studies include Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.Less
This chapter argues that not only has the 21st century seen a rise in popularity of the vampire and zombie in film and television but that this period has also witnessed an increased dialogue between these two conceptions of the undead, which highlights symmetry over opposition. This chapter argues that the increased interconnection between vampires and zombies in popular culture is a result of a growing pre-occupation with notions of apocalypse. Rather than simply presenting this development as a response to the events of 9/11, this chapter posits that since the turn of the millennium there has been a growing fascination with the apocalypse within contemporary media, responding to a range of transformative global events. It is through fictions surrounding the vampire and zombie that the trauma of these events is negotiated. Case studies include Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
Stacey Abbott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748694907
- eISBN:
- 9781474426725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694907.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter traces the 21st century synergy between vampire and zombie back to Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I Am Legend, a book that both reinvented the vampire story as science-fiction by ...
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This chapter traces the 21st century synergy between vampire and zombie back to Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I Am Legend, a book that both reinvented the vampire story as science-fiction by reimaging the vampire through the language of science, and served as origin text for the birth of the zombie genre with George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Through an analysis of a range of adaptations of Matheson’s novel, including his own script written for Hammer Studios but rejected by the BBFC, this chapter considers how this text marks key transformative moments within the evolution of the horror genre on film.Less
This chapter traces the 21st century synergy between vampire and zombie back to Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I Am Legend, a book that both reinvented the vampire story as science-fiction by reimaging the vampire through the language of science, and served as origin text for the birth of the zombie genre with George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Through an analysis of a range of adaptations of Matheson’s novel, including his own script written for Hammer Studios but rejected by the BBFC, this chapter considers how this text marks key transformative moments within the evolution of the horror genre on film.
Stacey Abbott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748694907
- eISBN:
- 9781474426725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694907.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses how between 2002-2005 a selection of films emerged that sought to re-imagine the zombie film through the lens of 21st century cultural and scientific pre-occupations. The ...
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This chapter discusses how between 2002-2005 a selection of films emerged that sought to re-imagine the zombie film through the lens of 21st century cultural and scientific pre-occupations. The global blockbuster, and critical, success of these films served to launch a renaissance of zombie cinema that continues to dominate contemporary horror films. Like the vampire, the new zombie film has been reconceived through the language of science via discourses of virology and pandemic, but also through the language of 21st century media, in the form of the found footage film. This chapter discusses this new, post-Romero, zombie film in the light of 9/11 and the growing culture of apocalypse that dominates contemporary media. Case studies include [REC], 28 Days Later, Resident Evil, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Dawn of the Dead.Less
This chapter discusses how between 2002-2005 a selection of films emerged that sought to re-imagine the zombie film through the lens of 21st century cultural and scientific pre-occupations. The global blockbuster, and critical, success of these films served to launch a renaissance of zombie cinema that continues to dominate contemporary horror films. Like the vampire, the new zombie film has been reconceived through the language of science via discourses of virology and pandemic, but also through the language of 21st century media, in the form of the found footage film. This chapter discusses this new, post-Romero, zombie film in the light of 9/11 and the growing culture of apocalypse that dominates contemporary media. Case studies include [REC], 28 Days Later, Resident Evil, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Dawn of the Dead.
Stacey Abbott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748694907
- eISBN:
- 9781474426725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694907.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines the role of the zombie within TV horror both in terms of a long established tradition of monster-of-the-week through to the increasingly prevalent place that the zombie plays ...
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This chapter examines the role of the zombie within TV horror both in terms of a long established tradition of monster-of-the-week through to the increasingly prevalent place that the zombie plays within contemporary serialised television. This chapter challenges the dismissal of television as an appropriate space for horror and the political allegory often associated with Romero’s zombie films, by presenting a series of case studies in which the TV zombie serves such as narrative and thematic purpose. In particular it considers how the serialized nature of television, exemplified by the soap opera format, is well suited to the zombie narrative in which closure is traditionally denied. It also serves to structure the nature and function of allegory within the televisual zombie format. Case studies include: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, The Walking Dead and In the Flesh.Less
This chapter examines the role of the zombie within TV horror both in terms of a long established tradition of monster-of-the-week through to the increasingly prevalent place that the zombie plays within contemporary serialised television. This chapter challenges the dismissal of television as an appropriate space for horror and the political allegory often associated with Romero’s zombie films, by presenting a series of case studies in which the TV zombie serves such as narrative and thematic purpose. In particular it considers how the serialized nature of television, exemplified by the soap opera format, is well suited to the zombie narrative in which closure is traditionally denied. It also serves to structure the nature and function of allegory within the televisual zombie format. Case studies include: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, The Walking Dead and In the Flesh.
Stacey Abbott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748694907
- eISBN:
- 9781474426725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694907.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter considers the increasingly prevalent presence of a ‘hybrid’ hero, a hybrid of human and vampire and/or zombie, within 21st century vampire and zombie films and television. Through an ...
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This chapter considers the increasingly prevalent presence of a ‘hybrid’ hero, a hybrid of human and vampire and/or zombie, within 21st century vampire and zombie films and television. Through an examination of a selection of special-effects driven, hybrid horror/science-fiction films, this chapter considers how the hybrid hero celebrates notions of hybridity through the figure of the post-human, or cyborg, hero while also challenging conceptions of racial purity and the controlling doctrines of contemporary bio-politics. These heroes defy accepted behaviour, perceived racial boundaries, physical limitations and the boundaries of the body, reimaging the human as a hybrid form in which the lines between human, machine and monster are blurred. In so doing, they invite the audience to embrace hybridity in all of its forms and see the world through the eyes of the monster. Case studies include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade, Underworld, Ultraviolet and Resident Evil.Less
This chapter considers the increasingly prevalent presence of a ‘hybrid’ hero, a hybrid of human and vampire and/or zombie, within 21st century vampire and zombie films and television. Through an examination of a selection of special-effects driven, hybrid horror/science-fiction films, this chapter considers how the hybrid hero celebrates notions of hybridity through the figure of the post-human, or cyborg, hero while also challenging conceptions of racial purity and the controlling doctrines of contemporary bio-politics. These heroes defy accepted behaviour, perceived racial boundaries, physical limitations and the boundaries of the body, reimaging the human as a hybrid form in which the lines between human, machine and monster are blurred. In so doing, they invite the audience to embrace hybridity in all of its forms and see the world through the eyes of the monster. Case studies include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade, Underworld, Ultraviolet and Resident Evil.
Stacey Abbott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748694907
- eISBN:
- 9781474426725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694907.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines the adoption and development of the first person narrative format within vampire, and more recently zombie, film and television. It considers how this trope has contributed to ...
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This chapter examines the adoption and development of the first person narrative format within vampire, and more recently zombie, film and television. It considers how this trope has contributed to the rise of the sympathetic/romantic vampire figure from the Byronic hero within Polidori’s The Vampyre to Interview with the Vampire and Byzantium and the subsequent rise of the sympathetic zombie. This chapter questions if this first person point of view empties the vampire and zombie of symbolic agency, or manipulates the genre to explore new meanings. It considers how the genres of the vampire and the zombie are increasingly interconnected, moving away from themes of apocalypse and cultural anxiety to explore questions of identity and the self within a changing world, effectively queering the vampire and zombie for new audiences.Case studies include Let the Right One In, Byzantium, Only Lovers Left Alive, Warm Bodies, Colin, and In the Flesh.Less
This chapter examines the adoption and development of the first person narrative format within vampire, and more recently zombie, film and television. It considers how this trope has contributed to the rise of the sympathetic/romantic vampire figure from the Byronic hero within Polidori’s The Vampyre to Interview with the Vampire and Byzantium and the subsequent rise of the sympathetic zombie. This chapter questions if this first person point of view empties the vampire and zombie of symbolic agency, or manipulates the genre to explore new meanings. It considers how the genres of the vampire and the zombie are increasingly interconnected, moving away from themes of apocalypse and cultural anxiety to explore questions of identity and the self within a changing world, effectively queering the vampire and zombie for new audiences.Case studies include Let the Right One In, Byzantium, Only Lovers Left Alive, Warm Bodies, Colin, and In the Flesh.
Matthew Pangborn
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781784992699
- eISBN:
- 9781526124050
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784992699.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter investigates the Gothic as a mode of writing that escaped generic literary boundaries during the British debates over the French Revolution in order to express more widespread fears of ...
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This chapter investigates the Gothic as a mode of writing that escaped generic literary boundaries during the British debates over the French Revolution in order to express more widespread fears of cultural decline. Positing the current ubiquity of the zombie as a resurgence of this Gothic mode, the chapter explores zombie-apocalypse texts as expressing a return of Malthusian worries about population growth, climate change, financial instability, and energy insecurity. The zombie-apocalypse genre, popularized by George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968), released within a few years of U.S. peak oil production, has become a mainstay of global cinema, fiction, and television in the recent international scramble for alternative energy sources. These texts, like the Gothic in its first heyday, demonstrate a conflicted desire both to confront and dismiss problems that seem as inconceivable as they appear to be insoluble. Today’s zombie stands, then, much as the envisioned undead did for earlier British writers like Edmund Burke and Mary Wollstonecraft, as the spectre of regression so unimaginable within the reigning cultural narrative of the time that its nightmarish possibility may be repressed by the very same spectacle of apocalyptic carnage used to figure it.Less
This chapter investigates the Gothic as a mode of writing that escaped generic literary boundaries during the British debates over the French Revolution in order to express more widespread fears of cultural decline. Positing the current ubiquity of the zombie as a resurgence of this Gothic mode, the chapter explores zombie-apocalypse texts as expressing a return of Malthusian worries about population growth, climate change, financial instability, and energy insecurity. The zombie-apocalypse genre, popularized by George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968), released within a few years of U.S. peak oil production, has become a mainstay of global cinema, fiction, and television in the recent international scramble for alternative energy sources. These texts, like the Gothic in its first heyday, demonstrate a conflicted desire both to confront and dismiss problems that seem as inconceivable as they appear to be insoluble. Today’s zombie stands, then, much as the envisioned undead did for earlier British writers like Edmund Burke and Mary Wollstonecraft, as the spectre of regression so unimaginable within the reigning cultural narrative of the time that its nightmarish possibility may be repressed by the very same spectacle of apocalyptic carnage used to figure it.