Green | October 30, 2008 | 39 comments

More zombie movies during war and social unrest

source: http://io9.com/5070243/war-and-social-upheaval-cause-spikes-in-zombie-movie-production

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ProfessorFunk
There's been a huge spike in the production of zombie movies lately, and many of them seem to be inspired by war. Everything from 28 Days Later to Zombie Strippers make explicit reference to wartime, as did seminal 1968 zombie flick Night of the Living Dead. Is there really a connection between zombie movies and social unrest? We decided to do some research and find out. The result? We've got a line graph showing the number of zombie movies coming out in the West each year since 1910 — and there are definite spikes during certain years, which always seem to happen eerily close to historical events involving war or social upheaval.

Mostly we've focused on movies from the U.S. and Europe, and we've included the living dead among zombies — so mummies are included, but vampires and ghosts aren't. Obviously as you look at this chart, you have to correct somewhat for the fact that more movies are being made as we get closer to the present, and (more importantly) there are better records of those movies with better tagging. So it's easier to research movies with zombies in them if you're looking at productions from the 1980s onward. In addition, there's been a huge boom in indie and low-budget horror movies over the past ten years, and that undoubtedly accounts somewhat for the giant spike you see during the last 8 years or so.

Still, even correcting for the fact that there are more movies being made today, you can see that there are distinctive spikes in zombie popularity - and they always seem to fall slightly after a huge political or social event has caused mass fear, chaos, or suffering. That's why World War II, Vietnam, and the current Iraq War are all followed by a zombie rush at theaters. Obviously, if you're going to look at these historical correlations, you have to consider that movies inspired by a real-life event aren't going to show up in theaters for at least six months to a year, so we've accounted for that.

You can see that most of these spikes in zombie popularity do seem weirdly close to periods of historical trauma like wars or the AIDS epidemic. Is there a causal connection, or is it just coincidence? You be the judge.
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39 comments // More zombie movies during war and social unrest

  • dean_is_rad
  • SDLN
  • malathion
    • 0
      malathion  

    • while playing a few hours of GTA 3 my nephews asked me :
      "wouldn't it be cool if you could kill some zombies in this game instead of just beating up the same people all the time ? " i couldn't have agreed more .

    • 3 years ago
  • rainbowryan420
  • Marc_in_Waikiki
    • 0
      Marc_in_Waikiki  

    • The only real zombies are the kind from Wall Street that feed upon our mortgage woes and gnaw upon our hard-earned dollars as they enjoy bail-outs, spa massages and year-end bonuses with impunity. Now, *that's* scary!

    • 3 years ago
  • rainbowryan420
  • strangeyellowpattern
    • 0
      strangeyellowpattern  

    • i really enjoyed 28 days later, mostly because of the fact that they used zombies to show how hate can totally consume societies. it makes alot of sense that movies like that would have a connection with war and social unrest.

    • 3 years ago
  • ahopkins5
    • 0
      ahopkins5  

    • A few years ago my geology professor was telling us about the changes in alien movies depending on whether or not it was a time of war or social unrest. When it was peaceful the aliens were nice and when we were at war the aliens were invading and attacking. He gave a lot of good examples that I can no longer remember because I hadn't seen most of the movies (he is really old).

      It would be harder to research but it would be interesting to compare the results of a study on alien movies with the occurrence of zombie movies.

    • 3 years ago
  • rainbowryan420
  • korourke
    • 0
      korourke  

    • The ironic thing is that our country has been at a perpetual state of war since WWI, our military industrial complex has been in a state of constant expansion since that time.

      Although the major wars could be defined as Korea, Vietnam, Iraq I and II, there have been many other covert military operations between these wars in Latin America that in reality show that our country has been promoting war and unrest continually. Add in the "Cold War", the "War on Drugs" or the "War on Terror" and war has always been a backdrop for this countries post WWI history.

      Therefor, this article doesn't actually show anything as we have always been at war with someone, or some abstract thing.

    • 3 years ago
  • rainbowryan420
  • thornman
    • 0
      thornman  

    • Well Romero has stated that Night satirized racism, Dawn satirized consumerism, and Day satirized military mindset, and all three films show how humanity is a greater threat to itself than any outside source.
      Why are there tons of new zombie movies now-a-days? Because 28 Days Later and the Dawn remake made a shit load of money.

    • 3 years ago
  • PajamaDan
    • 0
      PajamaDan  

    • Zombie movies CREATE social unrest. After we see them, we want the brains of everyone involved in the production. I have yet to meet a zombie flick I liked. (28 Days Later was cool,... but they weren't zombies)

    • 3 years ago
  • ArmyJuggalo
  • MissG
  • nessie00
    • 0
      nessie00  

    • THE BEST ZOMBIE MOVIES WILL BE THE OBAMAMANIACS AT THE RALLIES. THEY HAVE NO CLUE WHAT HE IS REALLY ABOUT AND NOR DO I THAT'S WHY I CANNOT SUPPORT HIM. I THINK THESE RALLIES HAND OUT TAINTED WATER AND ONCE YOU LEAVE YOU ARE AN OBAMA ZOMBIE.

    • 3 years ago
  • rainbowryan420
  • rainbowryan420
  • cheller1820
  • justright
  • cheller1820
  • benbadrobot
    • 0
      benbadrobot  

    • interesting to see if the intensity of the horror has increased over the years with our de-sensitivity to the horrors of war/seeing war on tv?

    • 3 years ago
  • thornman
    • 0
      thornman  
    • benbadrobot:

      This is a better correlation. Tobe Hooper has stated the images of the Vietnam war push him to make Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Eli Roth has stated images of Iraq have pushed him to make the Hostel series.

    • 3 years ago
  • bigloutech
  • jonny2times
  • Tori
  • Pericles_Lewnes
    • 0
      Pericles_Lewnes  

    • All zombie movies are political. Plus, a zombie is the "legal victim," - a dehumanized human. You MUST kill a zombie or you will be eaten or infected. You never hear anyone protest a zombie movie for excessive violence (Except for Redneck Zombies back in the '80s)

      Scooter McCrae s SHATTER DEAD had sentient zombies that formed a political party.

    • 3 years ago
  • ClareW
  • Mr_Costello
    • 0
      Mr_Costello  

    • Amazing factiod this is!! George Romero's films for example have always had a a political backdrop and something to comment on about our consumer society. "The Tripper" another example, opens with some genuinely disturbing footage of real dead bodies from Vietnam, the same images we have been suppressed in the news media during the Iraq war. The killer, and the film itself, is obsessed with Ronald Reagan representing conservatism at its ugliest. All these things translate perfectly and i think the this is more of a casual, subconscious connection than coincidence.

    • 3 years ago
  • NatRed
  • abbym0308
    • 0
      abbym0308  

    • Maybe it's just a weird coincidence... but I like to think that it's more than that... that we're actually making and watching zombie films as a way to deal with our inner demons and our true feelings about the trying situations we find ourselves in at the hands of governments.

    • 3 years ago
  • chet_arthur
  • cybexg
  • keviar
    • 0
      keviar  

    • That is a ridiculous connection. Maybe.... the movie industry is just expanding, and as you look at the graph. It is a steady increase over the years.

    • 3 years ago
  • Eat_Disco
  • RS57
    • RS57 [removed]  
    • This comment was removed as a violation of community guidelines.
  • islek
  • jonny2times
  • chidori27
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