Zombie
Zombies are all the rage in today’s horror and dystopian fiction. Their presence in book stores and movie theatres is inescapable, so you are probably already familiar with Zombie basics. They are undead. Mindless. Near invincible. And bloodthirsty. Taking out a single Zombie is next to impossible. You can shoot them, rip off their limbs, crush them, and they will still crawl towards you, longing to sink their rotting teeth into your flesh. If finishing off a single Zombie takes that much energy, imagine being caught in a cluster of four or five Zombies. You will probably end up being eaten or infected rather than putting a dent in the Zombie population.
The first germ of Zombie-lore came from Africa, where the native people of Gabon and the Congo believed in dead spirits called ndzumbi or nzambi. The original role of these spirits is unclear. Belief in these pre-zombies spread during the 1500s, when the Atlantic slave trade began transporting millions of African people to the Americas.
Zombies have highlighted “us vs. them,” mentality. Staged in a lawless, post-apocalyptic world, these films make human-human conflicts just as dangerous as human-zombie conflict. They also introduce the idea that curing the Zombies and reuniting humanity is the only way to save the world.
