Zombiephobia: Preparing for the Apocalypse

Tags

The Walking Dead, zombies

I don’t like scary movies.  I never have.  Scooby Doo scared me as girl; I always expected a monster in the closet, under the bed.  As an adult, I avoid horror movies like the plague.

Like the kind of plague that could bring about a zombie apocalypse, to be exact.

Target Practice

I can’t watch zombie movies.  Even Simon Pegg’s tongue-in-decaying-cheek parody Shaun of the Dead had me hiding behind my hands, raised my blood pressure.

I have watched vampires – even serious vampires, not the sparkle-y young adult variety.  I have watched werewolves.  But zombies?  I just can’t.

What is it about zombies? 

I heard Joss Whedon say once that monsters mythologize our very real fears.  We create bogeymen to explore what scares us, as well as to find a way to fight and defeat it.

Vampires are about addiction: the seductive, destructive hunger of needing some drug to survive.  Werewolves are about our own changeability: a Dr.-Jekyll-and-Mr.-Hyde fear of our own darker nature.

Zombies are about the fundamental loss of self.  We might be alive, but aimless, mindless, soulless.  The fear of zombies is the fear of society’s crushing conformity.

So, when my husband started watching The Walking Dead, what on earth possessed me to plant myself on the couch and get hooked? 

The Walking Dead

Right now, reality is too scary.  It’s soothing to be afraid of the absurd, especially when you’re prepared to attack the absurd but not quite sure how to fight back at reality.

We are ready for the zombie apocalypse at my house.

 Let’s just say, I chose well.

I know I’ll be safe…