The Depiction of Zombies as Negative Spirit of Humanity

The depiction of both vampires and zombies have evolved over time. While vampires have developed a non monstrosus and even romantic object of human admiration, zombies have infiltrated culture as one of the most popular monsters in film. They have evolved over time from an element of voodoo religion, representing the manifestation of the anxieties brought on by slavery, to today’s much different role in modern media. With the demeaning nature and consequential place that zombies have carried in their portrayal, zombies drive a fear of the worst possibilities of an unexamined life. The zombie can be interpreted to represent all that could possibly come in the negative spirit of humanity. Zombies now have largely religious undertones, particularly Christianity, with references to things such as the seven deadly sins, the end of the world, and other, more typical religious concepts such as the good versus the evil inside of us.

The evolution of zombies has changed with the westernization of folklore, with the media as its main influencer. Media has in part come to shape religion, and vice versa. Secularization is the concept of religion playing less of a significance and having less influence over a nation or people in general. With the rise in technological commodities and open availability of all information, media has become the most prevalent influencer. As Stephen King suggests, “the horror film has become the modern version of public lynching”, fictional stories fulfil a purpose to mankind. Storylines and character development in pop culture gives way to influence the public towards certain concepts, fears, and ideals for the future. In “Vampire Gentlemen and Zombie Beasts” lies an analyzation and description claims of zombies, that religions, such as Christianity, can be apply for their benefit. One religious concept that zombies elicit is their implication to a greater purpose or meaning in life. Tenga and Zimmerman argue in “Vampire Gentlemen and Zombie Beasts: A Rendering of True Monstrosity” the depiction of zombies can lead the audience to grasp for a meaning in life; “zombie fiction warns that in a world without history, humanity will be assimilated into a global herd without purpose or meaning”. This alludes to the concept that a world without religion would be similar to the depiction of humans becoming zombies, a very powerful metaphor, in which humanity no longer has the ability to differentiate between good and evil. Zombies drive a fear in the worst possibilities of an unexamined life, representing all that could possibly come in the negative spirit of humanity. Zombies represent humans post death, with the behavior of whoevers’ corpse they belong to, but exaggerated. In this way, they are able to remind us of our ever present feelings and judgements of ourselves.

In “Why We Crave Horror Movies”, we enjoy the ability to, as King claims, “reestablish our feelings of essential normality. ” While horror relieves us of the judgements between the good versus evil within in us, zombies portray beyond that. They also represent, as Zimmerman and Tenga point out, “evolving versions of the story of the confrontation between the living and the undead”. More than any other monster, zombies are close to human form but in a grotesque and nonconscious reincarnation. They bring viewers closer to visualization of their inevitable future in death as they are essentially walking versions of decaying human bodies. They also relax into a portrayal of death as an unexplainable gruesomeness that can be as much of a relief as it is entertaining. King explains, “it urges us to put away our more civilized and adult penchant for analysis. . . this invitation to lapse into symplicity, irrationality and even outright madness” in particular channel the necessity of religion through their conceptual role in afterlife, as one definition of Christianity states, “every wrong action is sin”.

The most important sins to be conscious of are the seven deadly sins, and most of them are found in the portrayal of the zombie, as a sermon from Father Kocik states, “we call them “deadly” because they cause spiritual death”. As most of the human race being exposed to or actively believing in some form of life after death, zombies belong to a fantasy of what type of experience could be possible for us. Although zombies and vampires lie at opposite ends of the spectrum in regards to the depiction of monsters, they still have a few similarities in which they represent some of the Seven Deadly Sins. One of the seven deadly sins, and probably most recognizable, that both vampires and zombies portray is gluttony. Gluttony is when there is extreme cravings to consume much more than is needed. Christian leaders also add that it pertains to, “the pursuit of this pleasure as an end in itself”. This is shown as zombies and vampires relentlessly consume their food (humans), in a fashion that is as aggressively neverending.

Zimmerman and Tenga acknowledge the way of the zombie, “they are the poor, who toil ceaselessly but never have enough; their predation on humans is a demand for the sustenance that has been denied to them”. They are mechanical, bloodthirsty, and aggressive in their hunt. They do not care about the welfare of any and all people, and manage to destroy societies. Zombies are notoriously horrific in their rise to action without second thought, like many monsters while vampires have essentially the same caricatures, but are perceived as a more romanticised type of monster. The most cardinal and serious of all the sins is pride. Pride is identified as dangerously corrupt selfishness, when one puts their own desires and urges before the welfare of all people. Zombies and their indulgent relentless consumption, is similar to consumer culture which is also nonstop through marketing and advertising to create devoted ravenous patrons.

In “Vampire Gentlemen and Zombie Beasts”, “zombies spread across borders, erasing human memory and transforming everything in their path into an unthinking, undifferentiated consumer throng”. This is similar to the consumerism that is prevalent today with almost all of our everyday products being designed, with the help of science, to be addicting and creating monetary benefits for large aggressive corporations. The authors acknowledge, “horrifying through their sheer numbers, zombies are ‘a literalization of what has already happened’ in our mechanised, depersonalised, consumer-powered age”. In this way, zombies terrorizing through cities in modern film are similar to our product hungry reality.

Another Deadly Sin that zombies represent is sloth. Sloth can be described as sorrow about spiritual good, lack of any feeling about self or others, or a mind-state that gives rise to boredom, apathy, indifference. It can also be defined as disregard which may lead to slowing of one’s spiritual progress toward eternal life and failure to do things that one should do and omitting responsibilities (Dirk). Zombies are reincarnations of our lowest capabilities, lacking self control and our ability to think usefully, properly. Aligning exactly with sloth they “typically come in hordes, but generally still lack will, consciousness, and individuality; they constitute a collective body that acts without thought or understanding”. They are the post-death human form, which may be unconsciously activating, like many media metaphors. Zimmerman and Tenga state, “the zombie reminds us that we will soon be rotting flesh without thought or control. We fear this, yet it fascinates us”. Why do humans have this fascination of the representation their lowest selves? Stephen King argues that “it deliberately appeals to all that is the worst in us. It is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized”. The zombie “appeals to the worst in us” as it is a portrayal of the worst in humans. We are able to experience the rush of that which excites us, frightens us, relieves us of age stripping maturity, if only for a moment.

As we transition out of the sin of sloth, and all of its subsequent boredom and mental sluggishness, in “My Zombie, Myself”, Cluck Klosterman puts his rendition of the zombies in an opposing interpretation. Unlike Timmerman and Zinger, in Klosterman's article the zombie doesn’t represent us as the one behind the zombie. As us versus the zombie, it becomes comparable to everything in our life that causes us to experience sloth. It is the internet, the work emails, the day to day repetitiveness of life that is causing us to lose spiritual sanctity. We lose enthusiasm towards ourselves, our lives, our purpose. Despite technology becoming more and more of a basic necessity for modern ‘survival’, most of us can maturely acknowledge that this attachment to our devices, our electronics, is as terrifying as it is exciting. Klosterman states, “this is our collective fear projection: that we will be consumed. Zombies are like the internet and the media. . . All of it comes at us endlessly (and thoughtlessly), and — if we surrender — we will be overtaken and absorbed”. In an age with less and less active experiences engaging with their traditional belief system firsthand, it is arguable that God has become a lessened fear. He commends the battle, stating “It’s disenchanting, but it’s not difficult. . . This is the zombie’s world, and we just live in it”. Killing zombies can be like killing our demons, although it can also resemble attacking the mundane tasks of this new modern world. The zombie here ties to religion and its necessity to find a fulfilling intention. Klosterman acknowledges that life can sometimes be sucking our souls especially the more monotonously frustrating aspects of everyday life.

Through the popularization of the horror genre and secularization giving rising power to today's media, zombies have come to share a special place in the fears and metaphors they instil in audiences. As perfectly decaying corpses’ running around ruining communities, endless reproduction, and pauseless consumption of humans; zombies represent humans in many ways. These ways also relate to religion, mostly Christianity, in their portrayal to the Seven Deadly Sins as well as the concept of them leaving the underworld, or a version of hell. This is one reason people enjoy zombies, as “a key source of the appeal of horror, which makes us look at what we avoid seeing and provides a cathartic purgation of fear” (randomly added this quote here i can take it out). People love all the things they see in humanity being portrayed in the zombie. The consumerism, and the way the killing of zombies is repetitive and neverending, like our modern lives of never ending email and internet tasks. Also, zombies and their violence take us to the dark place inside of us that needs to something relate to, emotions that need acknowledgement too.