In spite of the early popularity of zombie movies, they seem to have played themselves out by the mid-1980s. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video in 1983, tried to be eerie and frightening, but when the dead started to dance, “zombies became nothing more than a joke” (Bishop). Historically, zombie cinema had always represented a stylized reaction to cultural consciousness, and the US in the 1990s had too much stability for zombie movies to fit the national mood. Virtually no new or original stories were produced in the decade at all.Even though zombies were no longer on the silver screen, people found renewed interest in zombies through violent video games. The first true zombie video game was in 1996, Capcom's Biohazard (renamed Resident Evil). This game takes its central story line directly from Romero's movies. Video games helped zombie’s make a slow transition back to theater in the new millennium.
Since the beginning of the war on terror, American popular culture has been colored by the fear of possible terrorist attacks and the realization that people are not as safe as they might have once thought. “This shift in cultural consciousness can be most readily seen in narrative fiction, particularly through zombie cinema” (Bishop). Since 2002, the number of both studio and independent zombie movies has been on a steady rise.
Movies such as 28 Days Later, and the Resident Evil series have helped bring the zombie back to its original excellence. And now zombies all around us, “in films, books and video games, the undead are once again on the march, elbowing past werewolves, vampires, swamp things and mummies to become the postmillennial ghoul of the moment” (Bishop). All this evidence points to one fact: zombies are back… and better then EVER!Works Cited
Bishop, Kyle. Journal of Popular Film & Television. Washington: Spring 2009. Vol. 37, Iss. 1; pg. 16, 10 pgs. Periodical.
http://smalltownhero.deviantart.com/art/Michael-Jackson-s-Thriller-127778669
http://www.loftcinema.com/node/702
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