I had been wondering about this myself. In the last couple of years, there has been an increase in zombie movies, zombie video games and other media. Apparently it’s linked to the recession, and has happened before, according to this CNN article.
Since this is about pop culture, I’m going to send it lurching over to Cafe Society.
twicks, MPSIMS moderator
Just saw Zombieland and I recommend it, especially if you liked Sean of the Dead and disliked 28 Days Later.
There’s a brief scene after the credits, but it’s of no real significance.
It actually started before the recession. There have been a rash of zombie movies since the early 2000s, and i think the reason for that is because zombies mirror the things we are currently most scared off. We are afraid of diseases that are 100% preventable and yet inexorably continue to spread mostly due to ignorance and apathy. We are scared that the government is incompetent, negligent or actively out to screw us and in case of a real massive emergency it would fail miserably in protecting us. We are afraid even the most powerful army in the world would take years to adapt to fight an unconventional enemy. Zombies aren’t like vampires or werewolves, they are not unstoppable killing machines, a child armed with enough knowledge and common household items could easily deal with one and yet when you read or watch a good zombie movie you totally buy the fact that they would take over the world in no time.
There were a lot of zombie themed video games and movies in the '90s too.
Apparently, they would!
That’s pretty insightful. Movie-wise, I think Zack Snyder made Hollywood types see dollar signs with his Dawn of the Dead remake.
While I like to think about the cultural and psychological implications of zombie love, I have read that zombies are popular in video games because they can buy a lower age rating. Shooting human beings and making their heads explode = adult content. Shooting zombies (or possibly Nazis) is less morally questionable.
It’s like any other trend in popular culture.
It keep coming back to life. 
I’ve noticed the recent uptick in Zombie art lately, too. But I just figured it was part of the natural cycle of entertainment. A lot of interesting arguments in this thread, though…TRM (who still thinks Romero’s original “NOTLD” is the scariest movie ever)
Sort of, but not really. The true predictor of video game ratings is how much blood gushes from a wound after someone has been shot. And I’m coming up empty for any zombie games in the last decade that didn’t have its main characters literally swimming in viscera.
As for the article in the OP. I think it’s so cute that people who have no idea what they’re talking about trying to pin some deep significance on the recent resurgance of zombie media. If my recent, you mean the late 90s that is.
Yeah, there’s probably some deep sociological implications for the popularity of zombies, but personally I’m going to go with acceptable mass slaughter. They’re one of the few groups that’s okay to just obliterate without guilt. Nazis really only make sense in WW2-themed games and movies unless you want to get silly, but zombies can be put in most any theme and destroyed in many interesting ways.
I read somewhere, probably here, that zombies are the monster men most favor because of the above, whereas women prefer vampires due to the intimate aspect.
Part of the popularity is that a well written zombie movie is just awesome. It has to hit the right notes, the danger has to feel real, but it has to have a sense of humor about itself. There’s a little something for everyone in a good zombie movie, that keeps the genre popular.
I’ve always thought this was the reason for the popularity of Zombie-related stuff. I’m not a fan of Zombies or Vampires, but Western Culture does rather lack Generic Bad Guys at the moment- For years it was Cowboys In Black Hats (most likely Cattle Ruslters or Bad Guys Working For The Railway To Run Honest Folks Off Their Land), then you had the period from around the turn of the century to WWII in which you could use Anarchists or Bolshevists (or agents of the Kaiser, Pre-WWI) and ever since then Nazis have been the default “Evil Bad Guy”, with Special Guest Appearances by Bond Villain Henchmen And Communists.
The problem is that all the real Nazis have now either died of old age or are into their 80s and in no state to be trying to take over the world again. And there have been so many WWII themed movies and games of late (invariably from the US point of view, but that’s a different rant entirely), so people are getting a bit sick of fighting Nazis.
Unfortunately for the Entertainment Industry there isn’t a suitable replacement for Nazis And Generic Henchmen, so we get Zombies. At least in a decade or so we might be able to look forward to Evil Replicants or something a bit more colourful…
I can think of another reason zombie movies might be popular during a recession - they can be produced for very little money. Think about it.
Also, I’m sure most on this board have already read it, but World War Z by Max Brooks (son of Mel!) is an instant classic and the best zombie book evah!
So of course the next obvious step is NAZI ZOMBIES 
I thought that middle-eastern terrorists were the new generic bad guys?
I question the use of the term “zombie” to describe the current crop of movies about the walking dead.
Prior to the release of Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead, zombie movies were pretty much a moribund genre. How many classic zombie movies can you recall from before that time? Only two: White Zombie and I Walked With a Zombie.
Romero jettisoned Voodoo from the zombie movie, and thereby created a whole new genre: The Walking (and generally decomposing) Dead. You can see the difference - in the old days, the zombie was a reanimated corpse, brainless and totally under the control of the evil Voodoo priest (until the final reel, when it inevitably turned on him). They weren’t rotting corpses hungry for braaaains - or any other body part. That was all Romero’s innovation.
I prefer to reserve the term “zombie” for the voodoo-created type. Let’s call the current creature something different.
Recent thread where I ask who will replace Nazis as the ultimate bad guy: Is the Nazi Era of Stories Almost Over?
Trouble is, a large segment of the American population is inclined to believe the Sept. 11 attacks were perpetrated by their own government and movies naturally enough reflect this. Iron Man, for example, started with the generic Asian bad guy, but the real villain ended up being somebody else.
Actually, a quick perusal of action-movie lists from 2008 and 2009 doesn’t seem to reveal any that have middle-eastern terrorists as the primary villains. What’s 24 been doing lately?