Oct 1- Zombies

Perhaps it is a cliché, but if I’m going to talk about scary villains, I have to talk about zombies. In the past several years, zombies have really seen a renewal in their popularity. Of course we all know about the hit series The Walking Dead, but there have been several other areas where zombies have popped up from our video games to even a few movies. Some may like the Resident Evil franchise, but there have been several other zombie flicks (that have been much better). Of course there is 28 Days Later, and there’s the criminally underrated Warm Bodies and the zombie comedies Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland. So why all the popularity? How is it that legions of undead, unthinking bodies have become so prevailant? Well, for a few reasons. For starters, in almost every zombie movie there is a theme of people being shells of their former selves. When a character sees a loved one that has been killed and brought back, it’s a heart wrenching moment for them because they see the person that they once knew and loved, but nothing of what made them who they are is remaining. All that’s left is an instinct to run, kill and eat everything and everyone in sight. Some of the heaviest scenes in The Walking Dead are of people being faced with such a situation. There’s also been a running theme of once they die, somebody has to put a bullet in their brain as insurance that they won’t return as a zombie, or walker as they are called. This sounds like a job for the most willing candidate, but in The Walking Dead, the person who double taps is the person who was closest to them. In that way, it’s seen as a mercy for the dying person and a rite of passage for those who have to pull the trigger. That’s a very dark and twisted detail to add to an already twisted subject.

Typically, zombies tend to be caused by one of two different things: curses and epidemics. These days, most zombies tend to be a result of some drastic experiment or some horrible plague that nobody can identify. The more old school zombies were the result of some curse that raises the dead.

Ideal Specimen: The White Walkers (or The Others) from Game of Thrones

Yeah, who’d have thought that a show featuring dragons, magic and political intrigue would have time for zombies? Well, Game of Thrones certainly does. Actually, white walkers are about as creepy as they get. Nobody really knows for sure where they came from or who made them that way, we just know that if you come across one, the best thing to do would be to burn it, or stab it with obsidian or valyrian steel, the sharpest metal on earth. Their leader is the snowy Darth Maul you see above known only as the Night’s King, who with a wave of his hand can raise the dead, no matter how old they are or what shape they were in when they died. If the person died by having their throat slashed and their arm cut off, that just becomes a minor inconvenience, they don't even seem to notice it.

A flesh wound, if you will

 One of the creepiest scenes in the show is when the Night’s King raises multitudes of dead people around him, men women and children all. There's no chanting, no ritual, no spell being uttered he just raises his hands, and the dead rise with them. And this brings up a question that I have long asked about zombie outbreaks. Which is more intimidating? An epidemic that sees all living things as fair game, or a demon out of hell that can see the difference between adult and child, and just doesn’t care? I mean either way, you’re screwed. 

She's actually the first walker you see in the show