Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 9/28/09 Section: Opinion

Every decade has its own theme that seeps into pop culture.

Ninjas and pirates were popular last decade, and this decade has witnessed an overload of zombies.

Zombies seem to be everywhere now, and just like in the movies, I can't get away from them.

I think this zombie craze all started with 2003's, "The Zombie Survival Guide," in which Max Brooks goes through step-by-step ideas, concepts and "analysis" of how zombies work.

My friends could not stop talking about it and continued to read it whenever they got the chance.

"Most people think a flamethrower would be effective on zombies, but that's wrong, because you would get flaming zombies," my friend said.

This started the chain reaction with ever-growing people who need to feed their zombie hunger.

With more than 160 zombie movies made since 2000, according to the Zombiepedia Web site, the list only grows as the decade comes to a close.

Even South Park cashed in on the zombie craze with its "Night of the Living Homeless" episode, depicting homeless people overrunning South Park displaying mannerisms of zombies who feed off spare change.

I just don't understand it. I feel that once you have seen one zombie movie, you've pretty much seen them all.

Well I was wrong.

"Shaun of the Dead" changed that view.

Director Simon Pegg wanted to make the anti-zombie movie, combining comedy with romance instead of actual horror.

He also wrote an opinion letter stating how newer zombie movies cater to a different audience and that fast zombies are here to feed the MTV audience who wants everything fast.

I don't care about fast zombies, heck, I don't even care about slow zombies - I just want the whole thing to go away.

Zombie movies are always predictable, with predictable characters often making predictable, wrong choices, which leads them to, predictably, become a zombie.

As a moviegoer, I feel obligated to question the actions of characters, usually yelling at the screen, "Why would you open that door?!" or "A rotten wooden door is not going to keep a zombie out!"

I frequently wonder what I would do if I was in a, "Oh crap, the world is filled with zombies" situation.

The question has answered itself with 2008's "Left 4 Dead," a video game where you and up to three other survivors can take on a zombie horde while trying to make it through zombie survival movie scenarios.

Its sequel, "Left 4 dead 2," comes out later this year, when its little brother hasn't even been released for a year.

It's already difficult enough to coordinate socks and shoes, or belts and socks, but it's even more difficult to coordinate four people trying to survive the "zombiepocalypse."

The zombie cashing in has gotten to a point where zombie Nazis were included in "Call of Duty: World at War," and, "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1," with the background musical theme of the game repeatedly sung with the game's title name.

In the next decade, the new fad seems to be showing up earlier than normal, with vampires.

"Twilight" seems to have made a giant dent in the wall.

I wish the whole zombie thing would just go away. Of course, I'll be happy for it to come back once vampires have taken over.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools