Modern Representations

Although to this day almost all zombies featured in western culture since “Night of the Living Dead” have kept to Romero's stereotype, recent films have altered the stereotype to appeal to a 21^st century audience.

Productions such as the films “28 Days Later”, the remake of “Dawn of the Dead”, 2007’s remake of “I am Legend” as well as the mini series “Dead set” all depict their zombies as being as physically strong and fast as they were in their previous life, in some cases even more stronger and agile than normal humans as aposed to Romero’s shambling monsters.

Zombies in these films and telivision programs still retain traits from the Romero stereotype such as moving in hordes, a desire for human flesh, being able to pass on their condition to other hosts and retaining concious control over their own bodies.

However the infected in “28 Days Later” and “I am Legend” are merely infected hosts rather than re-animated corpses and therefore do not posses a resistance to physical damage beyond that prior to their infection. This ofcoarse increases their difference from traditional Voodoo zombies even more, which makes me question wether these films should even be classed as zombie films.

On the other hand I believe these two signifgant diiferences make them even more terrifying and believable to the modern audience, as a faster zombie is a bigger threat than one that can be outrun which give the audience a greater feeling of suspense.

Zombies featured in video games sometimes adapt these new adaptations such as increased agility to make more of a challenge for players. However in games such as “Left 4 Dead”, have emphasised the idia of infection and plague to the point where the zombies in these games are difigured due to mutations aswell as decay (such as the grotesque bulges on this zombie from the game pictured right here).

In the Halo and Half Life game series and the game “Dead Space” zombies are created from alien parasite species that infest either live hosts or re-animate dead bodies (in the same way as the “I am Legend” infection).

However in all of these games the hosts become mutated to the point where even tenticles protrude from the bodies, to give a greater emphasis of the alien parasite.