The evolving zombie
I’m a fan of horror movies and I can’t help noticing how zombies have evolved over the years. The genus zombie seems to have bred two major strains in time. Initially, the zombie was a mindless member of the living dead created by the powerful potion and incantation of a voodoo priest(ess) and under his/her power. This early manifestation of zombie did not procreate by biting the non-zombie nor did it eat their flesh but it only did the bidding of its evil master. Examples of the controlled, mindless, undead can be found in such films as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), White Zombie (1932), I Walked With A Zombie (1943), and The Serpent And The Rainbow (1988). However, in the 1960s, a new zombie appeared on the horizon in the film The Last Man On Earth of 1964 (based on the novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson). This new zombie was not the creation of a priest or priestess and under control, but was the result of a world-wide apocalyptic plague. This new zombie had the freedom to procreate as it wished, by biting others. However, in the Richard Matheson screenplay, the zombie could only be killed by receiving a wooden stake through the heart, like vampires. These were therefore zombies still in search of an identity and would await the 1968 film Night Of The Living Dead to acquire their own new zombie identity unto themselves, apart from vampires. Since the George Romero film, we have seen fast zombies, semi-intelligent zombies, and even zombies with a great sense of humor.
What’s the next step in zombie evolution, I wonder? Will we see a film about a society in which finally everyone is a zombie and they must struggle to resolve their own sets of zombie issues, with their own zombie morality, a story told entirely from the point of view of the new social zombie?
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White Zombie (1932),
