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Session 2: Unearthing the Undead
Chair: Phil Fitzsimmons

The Zombie Movie in the ‘Millennial Generation’
Peter Dendle
Penn State University, Mont Alto, PA, USA

 The current generation (sometimes called the “millennial generation”)—those who were born around the time MTV was launched in 1981; who were raised fully immersed in video games, downloadable media, and instant messaging; and who reached adulthood around the turn of the millennium—present something of an enigma to parents and cultural commentators. They are well known for short attention spans, the uncanny ability to multitask, a smattering of knowledge in an impressive diversity of areas, and an acute awareness of contemporary violence, culture wars, and other socio-political problems. At the same time, the zombie (in all its artistic manifestations—film, literature, video games, cartoons, etc.) has surfaced as the premier monster of this generation, leaving vampires and space aliens well behind.
I intend to examine this apparent paradox: the fact that a highly-stimulated, technologically saturated, and fast-paced generation has fixated on a monster known especially for its slowness, its uni-dimensionality of thought and action, and its simplicity of character (e.g., an inability to use even the least technologically sophisticated of tools). I will look especially at the characteristic elements of contemporary “filmic” zombie narratives and the way they relate to current audiences: studio industry efforts have transformed the zombie into a CGI-enhanced, fragmented, fast-paced killer; but the low budget contributions produced by the fans themselves retain far more conservative aspects. These films are often short, fully independent, and available for free download online. They are replete with self-conscious irony while remaining lovingly steeped in all the traditions of earlier zombie movies: gore, cannibalism, and character dynamics drenched with cruel cynicism. The zombies in these amateur efforts remain slow and uncomplicated. There is a sense in which the zombie may both repulse and attract contemporary audiences because it suggests a simpler, freer, and more biologically attuned psyche, one for whom choices are easy and out-lashes of violence are predictable and understood rather than sporadic, random, and mysterious.

Zombie Aesthetic and the Post-Apocalyptic Franchise
Kevin Stewart
Department of Film & Media Studies, University of Stirling, Scotland

Following on from the recent commercial success of both Capcom and Shinji Mikami’s Resident Evil survival-horror videogame series, the film industry has been quick to rekindle the fortunes of the iconic yet moribund screen zombie. Once again the dead have begun to rise from their celluloid graves to shamble, stumble and lurch across cinema screens. Since the first Resident Evil game in 1996, Mikami’s reworking of the protean Romero/Fulci model has lent the zombie newfound credibility, sophistication and cultural “coolness,” in a cycle of remediation that has found its way into subsequent videogame and movie franchises. Resident Evil has crossed over to cinema with significant commercial success and Romero’s ‘Dead’ films currently enjoy new popularity. Both worlds depict realist, atmospheric and apocalyptic driven narratives—they are enthralling, immersive and firmly grounded within the realm of the fantastic. I will explore how the cinematic experience is defined and informed by the benchmark set by the Resident Evil video game series, and discuss the potential future of the genre within the increasingly restrictive bounds within which it has situated itself. 

Zombie Culture: The Audience and the Undead
Kriscinda Meadows
Gettysburg College, USA

The zombie genre has been the topic of much interest and study, from films to video games, from books and comics to toys; much has been written regarding the genre, focusing mainly on the interpretation of films, the appeal and effects of video games, and the ever changing face of zombie literature.  What seem to be lacking in all this are studies of the fans themselves.  The never failing enthusiasm of fans of the genre—even in the face of manifestly low quality, low budget fare—has kept the zombie genre surprisingly resilient.
I intend to undertake a survey of the consumers of zombie culture and examine their demographic patterns.  I will be looking specifically for trends in political affiliation; issues of race, gender and sexuality; tendencies towards anti-social and/or violent behavior; and gun ownership and gun culture immersion.  I will be comparing these results to the well-established elements of the zombie genre, such as post-apocalyptic themes, anarchic social structures, lawlessness, survivalism, and power struggles.  I will also be looking at the zombies themselves, as they may represent a kind of “blank slate” on which the viewer may impose any sort of image—a boss, a husband or wife, a certain type of person (race, ethnicity, sex, etc.)—so that he or she may dispose of that person/characteristic both guilt- and punishment-free.

The Zombie as Other: Mortality and the Monstrous in the Post-Modern Age
Kevin Boon
Penn State University, Mont Alto, PA, USA

The introduction of nuclear warfare into world consciousness in 1945 dethroned science as the arbiter of human progress and redirected self-definition inward. I argue that this shift in the way science is perceived bears strong influence over the rise of the zombie as a cultural icon. The existential loss of an externally-validated identity that follows the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki severed ties between the individual and structural systems (e.g. governmental, social, political, racial, and so on) that previously promoted communal perceptions of human identity, leaving the individual to fend for him- or herself in an indifferent universe.
The myth of the zombie, which fused with the Ghoul during the 1920s in zombie literature (with H.P. Lovecraft’s “Herbert West: Reanimator”) and during the 1960s in film (with George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead”), has steadily risen in prominence as a monstrous other. This other, I argue, is necessary for the formation of an existential self (as Nietzsche argues in Will to Power), and thus functions in the latter part of the twentieth and the first part of the twenty-first centuries the way we might argue Dracula functioned at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries—as a symbol of ultimate human corruption and the loss of self.

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