zombies

I have been fascinated with zombies since I was 8 or 9 and my brothers brought Return of the Living Dead home from the video store.  I had to hide in the backyard until it was over because the muttering of 'BRAINS' accompanied by screaming would follow me all over the house and I got way too scared. But from then on I read only 90s horror books and vampire teen fiction (LONG before we met Edward Cullen and Bella).  Even now I make a mental note at home on the best escape route just in case the apocalypse does happen.  But let's face it, amongst all that horror, I love a good old corny chick flick too.

So imagine my pleasure when I see a trailer for Warm Bodies.  The living and the dead falling in love- a great combination of horror and romance. WIN.  

my drawing of R
copyrights to me

All R the zombie ever wants to do is connect with people and so the journey begins on 'meeting' Julie (this is nothing you haven't already seen in the trailer ps) as R's 'life' starts to change.  It almost brought a tear to my eye as I thought about it.  That is a fundamental human need- to connect.  Just the other day as I skirted around one of those shopping centre stalls for skin care I saw an old man having his hands exfoliated by one of the sales people as a demo.  I thought to myself, that man does not need an exfoliant.  But as I watched I could see him talking away to her and I realised, he was probably just wanting to talk about himself for a moment...just to connect... and for one minute have someone listen, even if it was to get him to buy a product.  He was probably also lured in by her feminine wiles. But that is a topic for another post. 

But it got me thinking, even the most strange or somewhat vile creature wants to be understood.  And so it is with our zombie friend R.

Now let's talk about zombies.  They are dead.  Their bodies waste away, yet somehow they are animated, they walk, eat, groan.  Such a terrifying concept perhaps- that a person doesn't move on after death but is stuck in their rotting body only to wander the earth and eat brains. Not only do they repulse us physically but they horrify us by their voilent ways.  Zombies are a slave to their appetites, they are mindless and think only of one need. That is to eat flesh and brains. What is more horrifying than not having control over your very own body? To have it waste away while you uncontrollably lust after the things you no longer have.  Your instinct to have this thing is so strong, you no longer have choice nor thought for anything else.  Now that is a nightmare.

The crazy thing is that the zombie apocalypse is probably not as far fetched as one might think and perhaps I am slowly turning into one. How far away is the world really from becoming zombies?  Have you noticed that nobody knows who their neighbours are anymore? That we'd prefer to spend time on our computer than develop real relationships, in fact our relationships are developed through devices, rather than real human contact.  Does anyone actually smile or talk to anyone anymore on the street or in line at the grocery store? 

It's almost like our hearts are coming to a stand still, we stop caring about each other...I would NEVER stop to help someone broken down on the side of the road for fear they'd be a murderer.  We stumble around in our own lives wanting to connect but not knowing how anymore. Are we then dead? Are we slaves to our own whims and wants? Can we think about more than ourselves? Are we slave to social networking, chocolate, TV, alcohol, porn, partying, attention, phone apps, adrenaline rushes? Could that not describe a zombie- when we are compelled to do things by some uncontrollable instinct? Perhaps this is causing us to forget what is to be human.

Just a movie, I know, but perhaps there's something in that, zombies learning to re-connect, remembering what it's like to care... I wonder if I need to monitor my zombie status because although I dress as a zombie EVERY year at Halloween- I never want to be one.