Are Zombies a Dead Concept?

Whether it's because people enjoy the idea of watching a never ending swarm of flesh eating monsters pursue hapless victims or because there is potential for profound social commentary on the human condition, people love zombies.

They're in books, movies, comics, television shows, you can't escape them. It's oddly fitting in a way, but one has to wonder if maybe the walking dead have walked for too long.

A Simple Concept Stretched Thin

Let's face it, zombies aren't all that complex. These things aren't like Dracula or Frankenstein's monster where there's some element of tragedy or humanity to be explored (for the most part, there are some exceptions). In fact, that lack of humanity is what makes zombies so scary in the first place.

There's no soul there, it's just an empty shell that desires nothing more than to feast on your delicious brains. Even what looks like your best friend or family member will show no sympathy as it bears down on you.

In fact, it's any wonder that writers have been able to do as much with zombies as they have. Some instances show them as slow, shambling, mindless beasts while others go for a more rabid and feral approach.

While most commonly triggered by a virus, some zombie outbreaks are the result of radiation, chemical spills, or even extra-terrestrial or extra-dimensional means. While this could lead to a variety in terms of tone, it is more often than not just a hand wave.

Hordes of Books about Zombie Hordes

Zombies once again found popularity thanks to books like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or the ongoing comic The Walking Dead. They were fun or represented a callback to horror movies of old. Many readers welcomed it and read it in droves.

As entertainment tends to be a copycat market, this lead to a flood of other zombie related media. Each of the major comic companies released their own zombie series such as DC Comics' Blackest Night or the Marvel Zombies series.

More movies were made and bookstore shelves were filled with books that found ways to incorporate zombies into them by any means necessary.

On their own, each of these things was fine, but when they started piling it on, the market started to get overexposed.

You could say that the zombie craze was overwhelming to many people.

The Final Nail in the Coffin?

Some time ago, while perusing the interwebs, I came across an article regarding an upcoming movie called Warm Bodies. This is an adaptation of a book by the same name. It's basically Twilight only with a zombie in place of the vampire. Yes, that's right, a zombie love story. I guess the necrophilia cracks people were making about Edward and Bella weren't on the nose enough.

You might think that this would be the headshot that put the zombie craze down, but this has not been the case. AMC's television adaptation of The Walking Dead is still incredibly popular and We're Alive continues to be one of the more prominent audio drama podcasts on the net. While bookshelves are not as packed to the brim with zombie books as they were, they are still out there for those who want to read about the hordes of undead.

The overexposure could have killed off people's fascination with zombies, but it didn't. It faded, to be sure, and there were many who got burnt out on the idea, but the concept lives on. Fittingly enough, people's fascination with zombies doesn't die that easily.