As many people on this forum, I am interested in the representation of aliens and zombies in popular culture. Currently there is a mini-series called “The Walking Dead” that is airing on AMC every Sunday. It is being heralded as a thoughtful and well-produced zombie story that explores notions of humanity, death and community in times of adversity.
However, as discussed in class under the theories of Slavoj Zizek, the Zombie can be seen as an explosion of the real into reality. The show the walking dead is typical of other zombie narratives, death is intruding on everyday life in a way that is not normal: instead of a person dying and remaining so, to be buried, to be remembered in passing, death is instead confronting you in every moment, chasing you down to join it.
In one of the earlier episodes of the show, a man and his son help the main character by hiding him in the house they are barricaded in. The young boy and man are terrified by the daily attempt of a zombie, once the boys mother and man’s wife, to enter the house through the front door. The zombie woman at once resembles a deceased and grotesque version of the former person, and the “real” of death trying to enter their lives, literally attempting to open the door on their reality. The father, towards the end of the show is grappling with the decision of whether or not he should shot the zombie woman who was once their mother/wife, thus ending that particular intrusion of the real into their life. He hesitates due to the memories of love he experienced for her, feeling that killing the zombie is like killing his former wife. I felt while watching this that perhaps the fact that normal grieving process of burying his wife was not completed, the man’s choice became even harder. He did not have time to ritualize her passing into the real as part of their reality, thus her return to reality through the image of a zombie was a threatening reminder of death, and the connection the man sought to make- that need for unity, that was also only possible in the real.
Unlike the normal pace of zombie movies, one that focuses on killing rather than reflection, I found this moment of contemplation that the man went through provided time for the exact implications of death and longing for unity to come through the zombie as a monster and his wife. He longed to discontinue the intrusion, and longer to continue his relationship with his wife. At that particular moment he desired that which he could never have: a solution that gave him his wife back and ended the intrusion of his reality.
Below is an image of the woman, center, in white. She appears both ethereal and revolting as she approaches the house.
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