Popular movies often reflect society’s real world fears; likewise in horror movies monsters reveal our true anxieties as well. The monster that I am going to be using as examples will show how they reflected society’s fears and anxieties during specific moments in history. One example of such a monster that has been used to negotiate the anxieties of the changing times in which they specifically emerged is Godzilla. Godzilla was used to portray the Japanese’s trauma and fear over mounting nuclear threats, untrammeled environmental degradation, the shadows of World War II and rapid post-war construction. The climate and nuclear anxiety in Japan reach new heights in 1954, even before Gojira was released. On March first the United States detonated a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, a weapon …show more content…
At first glance, modern zombie movie seem to be about the fear of disease. The zombie movies today feature the “infected” type of zombie being used as the most common, but what threat the zombies really show in the movies are not about the zombies infecting everyone, but the sheer numbers of them. Today’s biggest problem is overpopulation, people are reproducing so fast and so much that overcrowding is starting to appear. People are starting to leave the idea that the world is going to look like a desolate wasteland behind. Instead the end of the world is going to look like most zombie movies do, hordes of people mindlessly swarming everywhere. Even in the old zombie movies the fear that zombies represented was fear of the masses or mobs, than they were about disease, though that was part of it. People know that the world is overcrowded and it is almost like everyone is on their tiptoes waiting for a zombie-like disease to break out. The Scariest thing about zombies is that they mob you, when they attack. Again representing this fear of overpopulation for the modern ear, and the mindless mobs of the earlier
AHHHHhhhhhh........! Imagine being awakened by a soft, distance scream. Wide awake, the world returns to being silent except for a racing heartbeat. Suddenly, a soft resonating moan starts to fill the empty air of the bedroom. Looking out the window, the world is an eerie grey with nothing moving but the occasional garbage blowing in the wind. Suddenly the horizon begins to change as a crowd of people begin to emerge. Watching nervously, the figures get closer and turn into something much more menacing. They are all disease-invested, flesh-rotted, brain-hungry zombies! Where did these undead monsters come from? How do they survive? What helped them crawl into the popular culture and continue through the changing fads of past decades? The zombie craze was “born” for the hardcore horror fans but has been kept “alive” by fear and publicity that is focused towards everyone.
The zombie race is very different. It doesn't not have many abilities and is not advanced like humans. Their behavior patterns are different. They cannot stand cold or winter weather. Their behavior is very different and difficult to calculate. They usually stand around lingering and waiting to attack when they hear something. They follow noises.Some abilities that they do have is that they have excellent hearing and can walk but aren't blind.The also can smell human blood. Zombies are generally weak but don’t underestimate what they can do to a human.
Could it be possible that zombies are calming people’s fears? Everywhere people look they would find zombies being used in almost every possible way. Zombies could be found in tv shows, movies, and books/comic-books. Overall the fear that we all have is the unknown and the idea of zombies used to a part of the unknown. Soon, the fear of the unknown has become the ideal “American Dream” for the people. This was an idea from an author, Paul A. Cantor, who wrote an article called, “The Apocalyptic Strain in Popular Culture: The American Nightmare Becomes the American Dream”.
“As a broad answer, we might say that horror addresses fears that are both universally taboo and that also respond to historically and culturally specific anxieties. Horror movies exploit timeless themes of sex and death, the self and the soul, and our own beastly inner nature – fears that exist within our collective unconscious – as well as more topical fears such as, for example, atomic radiation in the 1950s, environmental contamination in the 1970s and 1980s, or, more recently, post-911 tourist horror with films such as Touristas (2006), The Ruins (2008), and the two Hostel films (2005, 2007).” (Grant ?)
Jeffery Cohen's first thesis states “the monster's body is a cultural body”. Monsters give meaning to culture. A monsters characteristics come from a culture's most deep-seated fears and fantasies. Monsters are metaphors and pure representative allegories. What a society chooses to make monstrous says a lot about that society’s people. Monsters help us express and find our darkest places, deepest fears, or creepiest thoughts. Monsters that scare us,vampires, zombies, witches, help us cope with what we dread most in life. Fear of the monstrous has brought communities and cultures together. Society is made up of different beliefs, ideas, and cultural actions. Within society there are always outcasts, people that do not fit into the norm or do not follow the status quo. Those people that do not fit in become monsters that are feared almost unanimously by the people who stick to the status quo.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a real and serious condition that affects many people around the globe. One of the things that can be done to supposedly help a person dealing with ADHD is medication. But what happens when something goes wrong? There is no cure for ADHD, simply management. Doctors will talk about all the benefits of taking medication for ADHD, but some things may not be what they seem. Not many people speak of what is being called the “zombie effect” openly. There’s whispers between parents, but not much more. This has been going on for a few generations now. Is medicine advanced enough in the modern age to avoid the zombie effect? Or is there something still going on inside the minds of people heavily medicated for ADHD?
According to author Kyle Bishop, we are living in what he is calling the zombie renaissance, essentially, it is the reinvigoration of the genre that for many years became non existent. Since 9/11 movies and shows featuring the genre have spark interest in the pop culture community. Using the genre’s features and aesthetics these new films and shows have formed a connection between our society’s greatest fears and anxieties such as reality about our deaths, infectious diseases, natural disasters, and war. These types of images continue to become a more common aspect of our daily lives and essentially is dominating the horror genre.
Imagine waking one day to witness the tragic state of hundreds of thousands of homes being left in ruins, along with the ashes and rubble of major cities, and the casualties of millions of citizens. This was evident on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima, Japan when the first ever atomic bomb dropped. A mere three days later, and Nagasaki, Japan was also bombed, and the world was taken by storm. Even though WWII is in the past, the long-term effects on Japanese citizens and the debate on possible outcomes of the war is still discussed decades after the events. According to Peter H. Brothers in “Japan’s Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb Became a Beast Called Godzilla,” these events inspired film director, Ishiro Honda, to create the monster movie Godzilla,
For me, Zombies have always held a certain appeal to them. I remember sitting in the basement of a mutual friend's house watching one of the most ridiculous movies I had seen in quite a while. I later learned, as I had come into the movie late, that this movie was appropriately titled Zombieland. Zombieland had its opening night on October 9th, 2010 and earned more than $60.8 Million dollars in 17 days, exceeding the earnings of Dawn of the Dead as the top-grossing zombie film in the United States, that is until World War Z was released in 2013 (1). The appeal of zombies has significantly increased in the last decade and Chuck Klusterman's article "My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead" discusses why zombies have had such
The concept of a zombie apocalypse has been popular in pop culture for a few decades now. The zombie apocalypse does however bring up a lot of ethical and social hierarchy issues on what is most important to survive in the event of an apocalypse. The three most important issues to consider in the event of a zombie apocalypse are individualism or communitarianism, when is a person considered dead, and how to fight back the advance of the zombies.
The movie Night of the Living Dead, created by George Romero, and the book, Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, are completely different stories with completely different zombies. They might both be categorized under what is called the zombie genre, but both have different plots, themes, and were told from completely different viewpoints. The zombies from the movie Night of the Living Dead and the book Warm Bodies are completely different kinds of zombies according to their physical traits, how they interact with the surrounding humans, and how they all think as individuals.
The first time I watched a horror movie I felt fear. A Lot like other people, after I watched the movie I wouldn't want to be left alone. Horror movies make us scared of things that aren't supposed to be scary in the first place like clowns or children asking to play. Even though movies make us feel this way after watching them we still craved more movies like it. Everytime I watch a horror movie I want to watch another one right after. why do we crave horror movies even though it makes us feel this way? Scary movies allow us to enter into an alternate reality that gives us an adrenaline rush. Stephen King is right to claim that humans crave horror in order to show that we are not afraid, it re-establishes feelings of essential normality, we are all mentally
A monster can be a symbol of what we fear or something we desire to be and cannot. A monster is a figure of speech. Overtime monsters have not changed how they are portrayed to the world. When we are growing up we use several figures to portray our feelings and sometimes act out. Many social scientists have developed theories telling how we can learn about people from the monster myths they tell. Some of these theories stress the role of monster myths in understanding society as a whole. Others emphasize the place of monster myths in understanding why an individual act’s in a certain way, whether it is conscious or unconscious by a person experiences in the world filtered through the senses. They come in the form of fairytales, or in this case
In the 1954 piece of film making genius being Godzilla directed by Ishirō Honda has often been interpreted as a horror movie. Which is a surprising categorization considering the film doesn’t focus on blood and gore as a scare tactic like many traditional horror films relay on. Instead Godzilla uses the horror elements in order to portray its underlying themes. One of these themes being the idea of the fear of unknown, which is a very real fear that most people face at some point in their life’s and relating to these basic human attributes makes a whole new genre and form of fear inducing cinema. A notable example from the film is when Godzilla is attacking the city in a scene of destruction and fear from the cities citizens. During this chaos
The term monstrosity represents creatures. It represents largeness and being big. A culture’s monsters normally embody some of its most acute anxieties. This means that cultures tend to create and ascribe meanings to such monsters. Monsters have for long been objects of horror a fascination. In one sense, society requires monsters.