Vent?

What’s so good about zombies?

“The Last Guy” was released on PSN today, so I downloaded the demo (because I’ve learned from past exprience: One, not all PSN games are good, even if you think they are [PixelJunk Eden]; and two, not all PAL games work on my Japanese PS3 [Siren]). Not so long after, I jumped in and grabbed the full game — $13, who could resist. Plus, it was fun running around trying to guide a group of people to safety. From zombies. Well, monsters and shit.

Then I started thinking, “Damn, I love zombies”… and this led to more rumination — why? Why the hell do I love zombies so much… Why the hell does everyone (who loves horror) love zombies so much? Really, when you think about it — in the horror world, zombies rule… They kick ass over vampires and werewolves (although I love both of them as well), and are arguably more popular to boot. So I thought — why do I like them… really?

And I’m not really sure why. It’s probably a mixture of the fact that hey, everyone likes zombies (well, everyone that likes horror) as well as some other variables (cop out). One of these, and perhaps the crux, being that the dead can come back to life… And eat your brains.

Vampires are too high concept to be really popular, and ghosts too incorporeal, so perhaps it’s the simplicity (and the solidity) of zombies that makes them so damn cool. This simplicity means that it just doesn’t matter how they come about, the idea of the dead turning into indiscriminate killing machines is just cool. Who really cares if it’s a virus, or radiation, or mutation, or whatever? Not me. As long as the dead can suddenly arise and feast on brains, I’m content.

And this is evident by the number of extremely crappy zombie movies. Arguably, zombie movies make up the majority of the b-grade horror movie gamut (although I really don’t know, there are so many that I just don’t care to look into it). And you know what? I can watch them all, no matter how crap (and I’ve seen some really bad ones). I’m just entertained by the lack of civility.

And maybe that’s another point. Perhaps we are just so enamoured by our civilisation that we are interested in what it would be like to lack this. Humans as animals, feasting on entrails and growling, walking aimlessly towards a very simple goal… It certainly interests me. Then there’s George A. Romero — king of the zombie movie, maker of the greatest zombie movies there are. And why? Because of exceptional acting and attention to detail? No. Because he actually thinks about what zombies might think about, and it shows in his movies. Are they really braindead? Can they think? What about their past life — does it all just go away? Can they LEARN???

Yet I digress. I was merely looking into why I like zombies, and I think I got to a good point. I like a simple antagonist, one that provides a very visceral fear, and relies little on explanation. That’s why I like George A. Romero’s zombie movies, the more recent zombie flicks, and various zombie video games, such as the House of the Dead series, the Resident Evil series, and now The Last Guy and Left 4 Dead (coming soon, but another must-buy).

But hey — who knows why I like them really? I just found it interesting, is all…

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