The living dead

I figured that since I'm a huge fan of zombie movies, it would be foolish not to take this opportunity to share some of my views on the subject of the living dead. As we all know, zombies represent something that we are afraid of; things that have a drive without desire. All zombie movies depict mindless beasts carrying on day after day, with the sole purpose of devouring the flesh of some poor unsuspecting individuals. Their lack of desire of course, is based on the fact that zombies are dead and require no sustenance. I've seen a movie where a zombie head (the rest of his body is else where at the time) tries desperately to get a bite off a woman's leg. The flesh enters his mouth, and leaks out of his neck instantly, but he continues to feast.

From a purely anthropological viewpoint, one begins to ponder on the reasons behind why and how our minds conjured up something so gruesome. Since movies, television and other forms of media reflect social themes, what theme is reflected in zombie movies, or even in movies like the terminator for that matter? Apart from being mind blowing-ly entertaining, they reflect our fears, our hopes and our fantasies. Themes like life after death (albeit a very distorted one) and drive without desire are but a few reflected in zombie movies. Without delving into them, a couple of others could be capitalism (I know this one demands an explanation, but just think about it the next time you see a movie like Dawn of the Dead) and social struggle (Land of the Dead)