“What is interesting in this most recent wave of Zombie movies are the Zombies themselves and the strength of character they increasingly possess, including power, quick reflexes, care for community, and even brain activity. We face a cultural shift concerning the celluloid Walking Dead, as Zombies struggle for socialization and freedom to create and identity of self and community.”
Perhaps this sense of identity and community has been found in the game “World of Warcraft,” where players are able to choose between a dozen or so races, one of which is the “Undead.” While only a small minority of players actually play as the Undead race in World of Warcraft, society tends to refer to people who spend 4-6 hours a day playing games like World of Warcraft as zombies. The example of Ed in Shaun of the Dead in “Plans are Pointless”, how his life didn't really change that much as a Zombie at the end of the movie, shows the ways in which the idea of a “Zombie” has transcended the fictional world. It has permeated culture in a way that inherits it's meaning from those who appreciate it most, Zombie enthusiasts. Ed is shown playing video games in the last scene of Shaun of the Dead, but he is still a zombie. In the end, he got infected but his life didn't really change all that much. He is still an unshaven, unmotivated young man with a love for video games and a best friend named Shaun.
It seems in some ways, humans and Zombies aren't so different...In fact, this news article reports two separate cases of “Zombie-like activity,” where drugs led a person to strip down naked and then violently consume live human flesh. Kind of crazy right?
This news article is obviously a very literal representation of the zombification of the real world. But what caused this type of behavior in otherwise functioning people? According to the article it was “an unknown drug,” which I think is funny. Think about the concept of a drug, how people try them recreationally, the stigma surrounding them, the side-effects and addictive qualities of some. Now think about the idea of a zombie, the idea of being morally powerless, you-but-not-you, hungry for only flesh and incapable of speech. In a lot of ways, these two phenomena are similar. Shaun of the Dead is one of many examples of zombie-oriented media that comments on this relationship to current worldly culture.