



It feels odd to write this but zombies have always been present in most of my teenage and adult life. From age 13 onward my Dad and I were bonding through our love of horror flicks, we started with the basics, 'Night of the Living Dead' and progressed to 'Dawn of the Dead' and before moving on to the more modern movies. I never really thought zombies would be something that became as popular as they are currently.





I was put off them completely after reading a book by Richard Laymon called ‘Resurrection Dreams’.





The book read like an 80’s movie gone horrifically wrong and I mean disgustedly wrong. I have no idea why the library let me check out such horrific books as a teenager, all I can say is that they were pretty liberal.





My interest in zombies was renewed upon reading a books series by Rachel Caine’s ‘Resurrectionist’ series, (see the recurring theme here). These books painted zombies not as mindless creatures that I was used from previous books and horror movies but as people who had had the misfortune of being victims to zombies or to a drug that turned them into zombies. It was an interesting change of perception, zombies became more human to me and I began to see zombism as an illness.





In a way with this book in my mind zombism seemed to go back to it’s roots. I remember being in film studies when we learned that the zombies in the ‘Night of the Living Dead’ was actually reminiscence of the HIV and AIDS epidemic that was rampant at the time.





Looking back I can see how zombies have developed along with our understanding of illnesses and contagions. You can see the ghostly echoes of the previous 80’s versions of the themes within the more recent ‘Dawn of the Dead’ remake. There is a scene where a pregnant woman gives birth to a newborn that turns into a zombie, this is horrific in itself. It is reminisce, certainly in my mind, of people who have given birth to children with HIV.









Adding to this shows like 'IZombie' highlight the fact that zombies are still people, living with a terrible illness who want to be cured. Zombism isn’t seen as a death sentence but it can lead to death if the correct measures aren’t taken. The positive aspects of the show really helped to rekindle my love of the zombie fandom. I fell in love with the characters and lived their plight with them.





However the ‘Walking Dead’ to me is a complete exception to the development of zombies. I think the writers of the comic and the series were more focused on the apocalyptic elements and the way mankind starts to face it’s own darkness in terms of themes. This show has millions of fans and a massive fandom, however after watching almost three seasons of the show I just had to let it go.





I can imagine that the show is realistic in terms of if the zombie apocalypse actually happened, the survivalist elements of it for sure. Even the periods of boredom in the series seem true to life when you consider the reality of what the characters have to deal with. One of the most striking scenes for me was the one where there was a zombie trapped in the well, I can imagine that being a very real problem in a situation like that.









The main reason I dislike the ‘Walking Dead’ is because for me it is too real. Right now, the world is a terrifying place, there are terrorists attacks that seem almost constant, people that hurt others for no logical reason. That is a reality we can not escape because it is our reality.





For me reality is bad enough so I chose my entertainment or rather my escapism to be light hearted and fun, hence why I choose 'IZombie' over 'Walking Dead'. In 'IZombie' it is easy to see the good in people. In the 'Walking Dead', it seems like the group are devolving more and more with every episode. I guess the truth is I like my zombies more living than dead .