As Halloween approaches, we find ourselves awash in dead people. Lots and lots of dead people, though not all dead people are dead in the same way.

Some dead people are sexy, and other dead people are repulsive. Some dead people make teenagers swoon, while other dead people make grown adults hide out in dark houses, aiming their rifles out the window. Some dead people, in short, are vampires, and some dead people are zombies.

The epidemic of both vampires and zombies in our culture has been widely noted, of course. But with “True Blood,” HBO’s vampire dramedy (and who could have guessed, even five years ago, that you’d ever see those three words together?) having just wrapped its fourth season and AMC’s zombie hit, “The Walking Dead,” staggering into its second season, it’s tough not to ponder the two different types of dead people. Vampires and zombies seem to reside at the polarities of our culture, telling us (almost) everything we need to know about (almost) everything in between.

For example: Vampires are smooth and charismatic. They drink blood as if it were the finest pinot noir. Zombies, on the other hand, are awkward and clumsy, yet un-self-conscious about the fact that their eyeballs are falling out.