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.