I
don’t often find the urge to write about zombies, but my hubby just watched
World War Z, and I have to say it made an impact on me. We’re big fans of The
Walking Dead, for whatever reason I do not know, and so World War Z promised to
be fairly entertaining. However, I didn’t just find it entertaining, but a
little eye-opening and thought-provoking.
What
about zombies is thought-provoking, you might ask? I think on some fundamental
level the idea of immortality fascinates us all, and zombies sort of represent
that. They represent the kind of living, or unliving as the case may be, for eternity
we all fear—a soulless existence based on endless need. Vampires live forever,
but they represent a tolerable kind of immortality, if you don’t mind drinking
blood and watching reruns of “Friends” for eternity. You get to dress fashionably,
the sex is supposedly to die for (tee-hee), and depending on the variation of
the vampire tale, you might be strong, fast, or sparkly, or some combination of
all three. And you can read minds, too.
Zombies
don’t even have minds, just some part of the brain that drives them to eat and
eat and eat, and not even good stuff like cookies or pancakes. No, they eat
people and animals and sometimes each other if nothing else ambles into their
path. Parts of them fall off, too, like fingers and noses, unlike vampires who
are ethereally tempting and beautiful. So I think people watch zombie movies
because they can safely experience a terrible kind of eternity and feel
grateful at the end of the ninety minutes that they don’t have to chomp on
their family members or neighbors to get sustenance. Sort of makes going to work on Monday a
little less of a chore.
If
you’ve ever watched The Walking Dead, you’ve seen what I always thought of as
the typical zombie. The Walking Dead variety move slow, so you could probably
out-run them, but they tend to lurk in places you’d least expect them and are
masters at the surprise attack. One of these zombies is escapable, but when
they pack up, they can tear down buildings or tear people apart, like an immense
wave of decaying flesh. It’s more than a little terrifying to see a pack of them
stumbling along, forwardly mobile eating machines that will munch on anything
that can’t escape their numbers.
Even more terrifying were the zombies in World War Z. Being used to the
lethargic, fairly low-energy Walking Dead zombies, I was shocked at how
predatory and high-energy these zombies were, fiends on caffeine. Once exposed
to the virus that caused the zombie-ism, a human would start flailing around
like he was being shocked with a cattle prod, then go all crazy and start
jumping on others and biting them, making more zombies. These were the fastest
undead I’ve ever seen, and they didn’t just run in packs, but flowed like water
around their victims. I’d always seen such slow moving creepers that these super-sonic
flesh-eaters were a hundred times more frightening.
The
most frightening aspect of World War Z, though, was in a scene with Brad Pitt
and a zombie that was gnashing its teeth at him threateningly. At one point, I
realized, horrified, that the zombie reminded me of…me. To be more exact, me
when I’m nagging at my husband. It was a spot on resemblance, but my hubby didn’t
seem to notice. I, however, am planning on taking nagging lessons. It’s one
thing to be a shrew, but I don’t have to look like a flesh-muncher doing it.
What
about you? Do you dig zombies? Have a fave zombie movie? Or do you have another
terrifying creature that haunts your dreams? Please do share.
Happy
Reading!
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