Zombies, those rambling, shuffling (sometimes running), undead who want nothing more than to share a bite or two with you. Okay, so they want to take a bite or two OUT of you, but the fear or losing complete control and having society collapse with no chance of rebuilding still thrills us to no end.
Or does it?
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
7 Comments
I am so tired of the whole undead genre. Especially zombies. If i hear that a show has zombies i am out.
As an outsider looking in, I feel compelled to say that there is room for everyone. I say I am an outsider because I am not the target audience for the zombie plague. I have never read “The Walking Dead” or caught its incarnation on television. I do not seek out Zombies in the theatre, I have never even consumed the iconic “Dawn of the Dead.” With that being said, when the infection begins to leak over into the popular culture that I do consume, I enjoy it. A couple of seasons ago Grimm had a brush with zombie fever, and managed to ride it out to a satisfying conclusion. Edgar Wright crafted a masterpiece of comedic horror in Shaun of the Dead. Marvel Zombies was a little heavy handed, but enjoyable. Afterlife with Archie is a treasure. Zombies are not going anywhere, if it isn’t your thing, you can always skip it, but I think they are here to stay, and will always find a cozy little niche right here with the rest of our pop culture.
I’d like to see the craze dialed back a bit for a while. Not completely done away with, not by far, just not so zombie-centric everything for a little while. I’m not a big fan of zombies to begin with, but I’d hate to see some potential masterpiece passed by simply because it was yet another zombie story in an already flooded sea of zombie stories.
It definitely needs to make way for Mummywerewolves in 2017.
#mummywerewolves2017
We have gone through the vampire phase and the zombie phase. Universal’s “The Mummy” and a remake of “American Werewolf in London” are coming out, so Sydness will get his wish, may be not in 2017.
Night of the Living Dead is one of my favorite movies of all time, The Walking Dead is one of my favorite TV shows of all time, and the Zombie genre (or more accurately, the sub-genre, as Matthew keenly pointed out) will ALWAYS be one of my favorite. Therefore, I voted “Bring Out the Undead!” That being said, even as a die hard fan, I can’t believe how mainstream Zombies have become for a niche sub-genre. It’s not surprising to me that the general audience is starting to drift away from this trope.
I wanted to thank Matthew for catching Stephen’s logic error of “Walking Dead viewership is down-so let’s question if zombie genre is on it’s way out”. The incongruity of the logic got to me. That said…zombies are fun and though everyone’s preferences are not the same-the genre as a whole I think is still fairly strong.