The Zombie Craze

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A notable seller in the past ten years has been zombie movies and related media. Among zombie movies, eight of the top ten best sellers have been in the last ten years. Why is it that a concept that came into the public eye in the thirties with the release of “White Zombie” only became popular in the last ten years? Zombies were born of Caribbean and bayou voodoo. They weren’t undead and flesh seeking, as society knows them today. They were people who were highly suggestible and didn’t think for themselves, being controlled by the voodoo practitioner. These stories quite often involved dark magic and rituals. In reality, it was a mix of herbs that caused the suggestible state. This fear is understandable as the government of the time grew increasingly powerful and every other system began to collapse during the Great Depression. The only way to survive would to be entirely subjected to Uncle Sam’s will. In contrast to the zombie of the past, these new ones are born of a different circumstance. It is not always clear just what caused the zombie infestation, often not even being told within the story. The fact that more than just one person is a zombie is a large change. In modern media it is often portrayed that the main characters are part of the surviving few who aren’t zombies. This craze started in Ramiro’s “Dawn of the Dead”, having a group of survivors fight to live through a zombie attack. Zombies changed from normal people being controlled by dark magic to undead creatures, shambling around, looking for human flesh to devour. The fear inspired by them was not that they were a dangerous enemy, but that they were an endless horde, an inevitable demise. Even though they are but forty-years-old, there has been an evolution fro... ... middle of paper ... ...Nevada, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. . "Die Reichsgründung 1871/The Empire in 1871." Das Kaiserreich/The Empire. German Historical Museum, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. . Joel, Billy. "The Stranger Lyrics." The Official Billy Joel Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. . "Lord Byron Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. . "White Zombie." International Movie Database. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. . "Zombie: Total Grosses." Box Office Mojo. International Movie Database, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. .

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