The Grandson

This was my final assignment for my blog. Been meaning to get it up for a while now. Essentially the goal was to write an essay or piece based on all of our research. This is my first piece of fiction since at least 2006.

This was it. Everything I had been working up to. I examined my surroundings. A waiting room not unlike one in a doctor’s office, however instead of medical degrees behind the secretary’s desk, pictures of celebrities smiled back at me. The way they stared made it seem like their lifeless eyes were burning holes into my soul.

I could only hope that I’d be able to leave this room soon-

“Mr.Parker? He’s ready to see you.” 

“Wha...?” The voice of the secretary broke me out of my trance. “Oh. Thank you.”  I stood up and started walking towards the open door, just a few steps behind the secretary.

“Richard? Mr. Parker is here to see you.” 

The inside of the office was now visible. “Thank you Tiffany,” a man’s voice replied. “That will be all for now.” 

A desk chair turned out towards the window blocked my view of the voice’s owner. As I stepped further into the room, the chair slowly turned to face me. In it sat Dick Holloway, C.E.O. of Bonzai Productions. This meeting would determine whether or not my hard work would finally pay off or be completely worthless.

“Have a seat Mr. Parker,” he said as he gestured to one of the chairs in front of his desk. “Can I call you Arnold?” 

“S-sure.” Honestly, I hated my name, but right now I had other things to worry about.

“Can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee?” He pushed a button on the intercom on his desk. “Tiffany?”

“Yes?” came the muffled reply.

“N-no, I’m alright Mr. Holloway.” I quickly sputtered.

“Please, call me Dick! We’re all friends here.” This did not make me feel any more at ease. And who else was he referring to?

“I can see you’re nervous, so let’s get down to business shall we?”

My silence must have been the answer he was looking for since the next thing I knew, he was talking again. “We loved your screenplay! Absolutely genius!” he exclaimed. 

“Really? I-I mean, thank you. You have no idea how much work I’ve-”

“There were just a few things that I’d like to discuss with you.”

“O-oh?” The nerves were beginning to set back in.

“Don’t get me wrong, we are ready to make an offer but there are just a few things we would like to change.”

“Like what?” 

“Well, for one, your zombies seem, well, kind of...dead. This foot dragging nonsense is ridiculous! How can anyone find that scary at?”

“B-b-but, that’s how-”

“And these characters. Where’s the conflict? You have them all working together! None of them are emotionally crushed by the end of civilization! Where’s the fun in that?”

“I’m not sure what you-”

“And the witch doctor? Where’d that come from? No one is going to buy any of this!” 

“You clearly don’t-”

“Trust me. I know exactly what I’m talking about. I personally greenlit our last three zombie movies and they were all huge hits in the box office. You’ve seen them right?”

“I have. They’re what inspired me. You see-”

“So you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you let us make a few changes to the script we’re going to pull out all the stops for your movie,” he raised his arms in the air as he said this. “I’m picturing full on gore. Sex! Rock & Roll! All in glorious 3D! What do you think? The public are just going to eat it up!” A Cheshire grin was pasted across his face. I could feel greed seeping off the guy. 

I wasn’t lying. Those kinds of movies were what inspired me to write my screenplay. I’ve never had any real desire for fame and fortune like everyone else, but I couldn’t just sit there and let these movies ruin the groundwork that George A. Romero, The Grandfather of the Zombie, had laid out. Holloway obviously had no idea what sort of audience was out there, just waiting for someone to return life to the undead.

I knew. Growing up watching Romero’s films with my friends, the production quality and makeup was laughable in comparison to any of the box office hits of my childhood. Blue skinned zombies slowly limped along in huge mobs. Sure, there was some merit in what Holloway was talking about; zombies that could run and jump, but anyone that knew anything about zombies would know these actions weren’t realistic, or at least realistic in terms of zombies.

“Mr. Holloway, why do you think so many people are drawn to these films about zombies? The graphic effects? The splatter porn?” I was feeling more confident now. “What about the brief opportunity to see the majority of the world devastated?”

A confused look crossed his face. “Well, that’s just plain morbid. Why would anyone want that?”

“You’re telling me that you get along with every human being you run into? Zombie fans are looking for an escape from the bullshit of the world. From the people around them that, in their eyes, are already zombies. You’re giving them exactly what they don’t want. More bullshit,” I stood up as I said this. “Thanks, but no thanks. You can keep your 3D sex scenes, Dick. I want to do this right.” 

“Y-you have no clue what you’re giving up here Arnold. I’m talking big money!”

“That’s okay. You can keep your money. If Romero has taught me anything, it’s that the zombie apocalypse has all the best sales.”

Fraser Tripp

December 2010

Who Owns the Zombie?

How much does it cost to manufacture a zombie? Well, if you want to get technical: one corpse and a rabbit’s heart (or a child’s bones) if you follow the lore of the television show Supernatural. Oh, and the ultimate price: The Earth. Because we all know zombies will be the end of life on this planet as we know it. Someday this price may need to be paid but, until then, it is a little easier to put a monetary value on the walking dead.

Gray makeup was a poor choice made by the makeup
 and special Fx teams. While it seemed effective in the
flesh (pardon the pun), it appeared blue on film.

The zombie genre has been an extremely popular one since George A. Romero’s first film, Night of the Living Dead (1968).  Costing approximately $114,000 (about one million dollars by today’s standards), the black and white low budget film produced a niche for films featuring reanimated corpses harassing the living. 10 years later, his second zombie film, Dawn of the Dead,  cost about $650,000. In this instance extras, usually friends and family of the production crew, were reported to have been paid in the form of $20 cash, a box lunch, and a t-shirt. And aside from $7,000 worth of drunken zombie fun involving a golf cart and a marble pillar, it did not appear too expensive to create mobs of zombies (albeit extremely corny, blue skinned mobs of zombies) even 10 years after Romero’s debut zombie production. 

Amazingly, in comparison to two recent zombie movies, Zombieland (2009) which cost about $23 000 000 to produce and Resident Evil Afterlife (2010) which cost around $60 000 000 (a considerable amount more due to the added 3D effects), Romero is still able to maintain a minuscule budget of just around four million dollars for his most recent zombie epic, Survival of the Dead (2009). 

In contrast to the millions of dollars spent on these productions, the zombie can be seen more as a phenomenon than an actual commodity. While Hollywood may seem to have a monopoly over the genre it appears as though the true monopoly belongs to the fans themselves. With events such as Zombie Walks or Humans vs. Zombies the idea of the apocalypse is still very much intellectual property of the people. While the zombie genre can be related to modern North American consumerism in that the undead will not stop until they have ‘consumed’ everything (and the fact that a great deal of zombie related media tends to occur in shopping malls) it is also counteracted by these free events organized by the people, for the people.

So, how much does it really cost to produce a zombie? Well, if we are going by Romero’s standards then about as much as the cost of a tube of gray face paint. Everyone having the ability and rights to make their own zombies? Priceless. For everything else, there’s Mastercard.

Gather Your Village!

In my second post I pointed out that the idea of an apocalypse was cause for empowerment in the masses of fans. The young, able-bodied believers of the zombie apocalypse live with the idea of being the sole survivors after the dead return to walk the earth. Zombie media (films, video games, comics/books) provide the consumers of this genre with a sense of immortality that can only be fulfilled through the terms of the apocalypse but, is this the only reason why someone might lead themselves to believe in the destruction of the human race by bloodied corpses?

Aside from the fact that any responsibilities (aside from killing zombies) are thrown out the window, could it be that this group of people wish to see the world in chaos? If so, then why? Most might say they wish to see modern, human society crash and burn so they no longer need to bother with the rules and laws forced upon them. This may be true but, as social creatures, we do require interaction with other humans. 

However, do we really need that much?

150. This is the number of social relationships one person can maintain at a given time (give or take). I do not care how many friends you have on Facebook, you cannot keep up with every single one of them, nor can they always keep up with you. According to Jonathan Barrickman, this can be related back to man’s earliest forms of living in communities: villages.

With modern developments (i.e. more or less anything that improved living from the onset of the Industrial Revolution onwards) we’ve been forced to live in huge cities with thousands of other people that we have no desire to connect with let alone interact with. Besides your 150 relationships, your modern day village, these people are just road blocks (sometimes literally) in your life. Who cares if they were to actually become a zombie?

The ideal world for the zombie-obsessed would be one that must be started from the ground up or for others just left as it is. The most important thing is the removal of these modern cities full of people. By a certain age we have reached our current capacity for social relationships and as far as a believer of the apocalypse could be concerned, everyone except for their ‘village’ can just go off and die (and be reanimated to walk the earth of course).

So, for these people who are involved with zombies, be it through film, games, or some form of literature, the idea of the zombie apocalypse is the only tangible option short of removing themselves and their 150 closest friends out to the country to form a self-sustained farming community. At least with the rest of the human populace wiped out they only need to be concerned with killing the zombies that threaten their lives. In the world of Zombieland, farming is not required. And as most zombie fans know (at least the ones that are active on the internet), Farmville has taught us that farming is not fun.

Check out the amazing zombies from Toronto's Zombie Walk 2010: 

Let the Training Begin

Workshops to help improve your
zombie camouflage are available
in the Greater Toronto Area.

How Will You Survive?
In my last post I mentioned the preparation that college students are going through for the “impending” apocalypse. Whether it is being prepared to blend in to the new ‘majority’ that might possibly be the onslaught of the zombie race or practicing their zombie-survival skills out in ‘the field’ there are a number of different means to an end (or in this case to prevent an end).

The first of these events, and the longest running, is the zombie walk. The earliest known case of a zombie walk was in the summer of 2001 in Sacremento, California. These walks, sometimes turned pub crawls (zombies need to stay hydrated too!), take place mostly in urban centers including Toronto (Saturday, Oct. 23). Suitable seeing as, if the apocalypse occurs, the larger cities will be overrun in very little time. Participants dress up in zombie costumes and shuffle through the streets groaning for brains, much to the dismay of Romero fans who believe that zombies do not necessarily desire the brain specifically much less have the capacity to pronounce the word.

These ‘walks’ are not only fuel to sate the zombie fan’s dose of ‘apocalypse’ but, can also be seen as preparation as camouflage for when the undead rise up. Similar to the tactic used by Bill Murray (played by himself) in 2009’s Zombieland. If the zombies do not base their choice of victim on anything but appearance, these zombie walkers are set for life (literally). 

Other college students are taking a more hands-on approach. Beginning at Goucher College in Baltimore Maryland in 2005, a group of students invented the game HumansVsZombies (http://humansvszombies.org/). Essentially a big game of tag every player begins as a human while one player is selected to be the first zombie. Lasting over 48 hours, the humans must survive on their campus by shooting or slinging Nerf balls (slings are made out of socks). The aim of the game: Survive the Apocalypse. 

While this game may not be a serious form of zombie survival training one of the creators stated that ‘We like zombies. Let’s find a way to make real zombies at college.” Much like the spread of zombification HumansVsZombies has spread to college campuses around the world. This is mostly thanks to Goucher College’s graduation requirement of studying abroad. 

While these events have mostly formed out of the enjoyment of the zombie genre, they can still be seen as proof of those who believe in the apocalypse. And if these two events are not enough to make you a believer, then just look at any college campus. There you will see those recently inducted into Zombieland. After all, it is mid-term season...

Laughing In The Face Of Death

The zombie apocalypse began with the introduction of Romero’s zombie into the film genre. The idea that, if uncontained, zombie-ism could take over the world created a new obsession that would spurn new media that the current generation of young adults (age 17-30) would embrace whole-heartedly. 

"Danger Due To ZOMBIES!"
Picture taken on Humber College-Lakeshore Campus

According to cracked.com ‘The average nerd spends three hours a day thinking about the zombie apocalypse.’ While this website is not a reliable source when it comes to facts it gives us an exaggerated statistic that we can then work back from to look at how this phenomenon has garnered the attention of teenagers and young adults.

With the development of new video games such as Left 4 Dead or Dead Rising and zombie films such as Zombieland (2009), the zombie obsessed are able to poke fun at the zombie apocalypse. Consumers of this media can feel like they can handle a zombie apocalypse and most find the situations or cut scenes in many of these games and movies humorous. This can also be said of the original zombie films where the poor makeup and effects made the zombies appear almost laughable. That is, until they overwhelm all but one or two of the main characters. 

In a way this fabricated apocalypse empowers a generation by giving them the idea that when this event occurs they will be the sole survivors. Even now, college campuses across Canada are preparing their students by warning them of the impending plague. 

From the Grave to the Silver Screen

How Modern Film Has Changed Our Outlook on the Zombie

Zombies have been an integral part of the horror and sci-fi genres of film since 1968 with the release of George A. Romero’s film Night of the Living Dead. Romero’s film spawned a large number of zombie-based movies that would assist in creating a new culture based on the fear of a ‘zombie apocalypse’. These films have created the idea of the modern zombie with which most people have become familiar. However, they were not the first to depict zombies on the ‘big screen’.

Poster for Halperin's White Zombie (1932)

Believed to be the first zombie movie, White Zombie (1932) directed by Victor Halperin, depicts the zombie in a more traditional light by relating it back to African voodooism . Done on a much smaller scale, there is no sign of the ‘apocalypse’ that has spurned many of the popular notions and fears behind zombies. ‘Traditional’ zombies were the product of shaman black magic - empty shells whose souls were at the mercy of their master. The fear created by this movie was not necessarily rooted in the idea of a mindless walking corpse. Instead, it was the fact that an intelligent being was in control.

Romero played on the fear spurned by the Cold War. His zombies were the products of radioactive contamination rather than black magic. Numbers were the main source of the fear created by the modern zombie. The idea of an endless wave of single-minded beings driven by their ‘hunger for brains’ would form the basis for countless zombie movies to follow.