When looking at the zombie sub genre there seems to be quiet a few variances between all the films, books, and video games which flood our entertainment market. However going back to the beginning will help understand what the zombies meant and how they worked through the fear of the older generations. When going into zombie history and trying to figure out when the genre started it can be tricky to pin point, however looking at the classical zombie films, George Romero's 1968 Night of the Living Dead is the perfect place to start. This film is widely known as the first real zombie film, it wrote the rules for the sub genre and gave the world a starting place for zombie horror. The zombie sub genre is full of apocalyptic thinking and fears of the culture at the time are brought forward and shoved in the viewers face. Unlike what most people think the zombie sub genre portrays more fears than just the simple fear of infection or death. The success of the film had to due with the audience and their need for “unrestrained violence” this shows what state the country was in and why the zombie sub genre flourished. (Dillard). Further more through this film it is apparent the social contexts that grabbed the nation and pulled them into the zombie sub genre full force.
Several things where happening in 1968 and most of them were not good for the general population. As stated by the author of Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture Kendall R. Phillips “A mere list of the horrible events that occurred in 1968 is enough to recommend it as one of the darkest years in U.S. History.” These events ranged from dramatic changes in the Vietnam war, the end of the counter culture, the cold war, Robert Kennedy's assassination, and several other events. So now that we can understand the era of the first zombie film, we can understand it's underlying themes and fears. “Whatever Romero's objections that he did not intend Night of the Living Dead as a cultural critique, it is clear that the film rakes up many contemporary cultural issues and anxieties.” (Phillips).
The effect of apocalyptic thinking is at the heart of the zombie film and came to light back in 1968, zombies are the common enemy and everyone can get behind killing a zombie to save a life. The zombies represented the fear of communism and the overwhelming fear that came with them, the first zombie film was made during the middle of the cold war. The mass amounts of zombies roaming the street looking for people to devour are a symbol of what people fear would happen (not literally eating) if the communists won the war and overtook our country. The other great fear that is represented in an apocalyptic manner is the fear of the break down of society. This is a huge fear and it gets passed around horror and other genres as a real threat. In the film there are seven people holding out in an old farm house while the masses of zombies block all their exits. As the film continues we start to notice the characters acting unjustly or inhumane to the others. This continues throughout the film until the end where zombies start to break into the house and the characters subsequently break down themselves. They start to fight and hit each other trying to stay alive and one of the characters even kills another out of anger, no one is willing to help another person out, it simply just turns into last man for himself and they don't care how the others die or even attempt to live. This is a great fer for society, that if the culture breaks down then who is looking after you? Who can you trust? And to what limit are you willing to stay alive?
So this introduction to the zombie sub genre shows how the idea of a zombie attack is a full blown apocalypse. Now we can see how this zombie attack is a possibility in modern culture,through statements released by the CDC, books written on how to survive the zombie apocalypse, and even research that shows how ants are dealing with a zombie infestation right now. “It's not just a wind that's passing through; it is the ordinary world revealed for what is dangerously is. And the real horror of Night of the Living Dead is that there is nothing we can do that will make any difference at all.”(Dillard).
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