Are Zombie Movies Plausible Predictions of the Future?
INTRODUCTION
Every now and then a movie or a book comes along which sets a pattern or opens doors hitherto not known or delved into; using that new pattern, other movie directors or authors further explore said realm(s). Night of the Living Dead (1968) by George A. Romero was such a movie. It was not the first movie about dead people--nor the first film about so-called “zombies,” but it was unique in several ways.
The concept of people coming back from the dead was around before Romero’s film. Haitian lore, for example, is full of people who were capable of doing just that. Haitian zombies were, supposedly, raised from the dead to do the will of people in possession of dark secrets. Where these legends in Haiti came from or when the premise of the “zombie” originated is not known with complete certainty.
People coming back from the dead can also be found in literature of the west and from non-western cultures. The most prominent example would, of course, be ghosts. Ghosts have been around, as a matter of fact, for as long as literature and storytelling has been around. Then again, ghosts have usually been limited as to what they could do. After all, they are merely “spiritual” beings that generally can’t interact very well in the physical world.
AND THEN THERE WERE VAMPIRES
Mary Shelley’s story of a man that was created by a mad scientist may come to mind. Dr. Frankenstein’s monster (later to be given his creator’s dubious name) was certainly zombie-like, although there is no mention of him eating people or even biting them. And he was certainly not “infected.”
A better example of an earlier version of the modern zombie, though, is the vampire. Vampires were people who had been bitten by other vampires, only to die and come back as blood-thirsty, people-killing nocturnal beasts. In some movies (such as in the Blade series) it has even been suggested that vampires were merely suffering from a blood-borne “disease.”
The disease aspect is important because it is an integral part of what we may now call “classic” zombie movies. In fact, some of the other zombie characteristics of these more-popular-than-ever films are:
- They are voraciously carnivorous (although they don’t need to eat).
- They infect living people mainly by biting them.
- They can be “killed” only by direct damage to their brain, by being completely crushed, or by being burned to a crisp or ashes.
- Their plight originated from the uncontrolled spread of a deadly contagious disease.
- Their plight leads to the break-down of law and order and organized society.
- Their existence starts a domino effect which appears to not be stoppable or containable.
- They mostly move slowly (although in some movies this concept has been altered “horribly”—i.e., the zombies move faster than their victims, as in World War Z) and can be fought off with the right kinds of weapons.
- They are uncontrollably aggressive and violent.
- They appear to be brain-dead—in other words, their bodies are working purely on atavistic instinct.
- They smell bad—like rotting corpses, you might say!
ARE ZOMBIE MOVIE SCENARIOS REMOTELY PLAUSIBLE?
In short, yes! Then again, the idea that a “dead” human being will get up and start walking is rather problematic, from a perspective of physiology, anatomy and physics. Rigor mortis—the stone-inflexible rigidity that sets in when a human being dies—would make it very difficult for a zombie to move, assuming that vital organs like the heart, the lungs, etc., could be re-started.
It is also unlikely that these resurrected creatures would be plotting to attack people or, what is even less likely, to eat them. After all, if the brain is dead, there goes any ability to carry out even a haphazardly-coordinated attack or to deliberately chase a living human being.
To say that these theoretical beings are acting on “instinct” is easy enough but that requires brain function (including the ability to tell the difference between an “edible” human being and, say, a tree). We know that cunning animals like wolves and tigers attack prey using a decision-making process that is largely based on instincts, but those creatures are hardly “brain-dead.”
For sure, some of the things about zombie movies are hopelessly farfetched. The societal disintegration scenarios brought up by these films, however, are indeed plausible. There are a number of dangerous contagious/infectious diseases (a genetically-enhanced strain of smallpox, to name just one possibility) which could easily bring the human species to its knees (figuratively and literally speaking) over a period of time, unless the pandemic is eventually brought under control.
If the plague or contagion is strong enough and fast-moving enough, it could kill a considerable number of people within a relatively short time. The flu epidemic of 1918, for example, proved that humanity is very vulnerable to epidemics that then turn into pandemics.
If a major pandemic erupts which authorities fail to control, a complete break-down of law and order could take place rather quickly globally. Anarchy could lead to massive losses of life--not just from the disease, but from people attacking each other for the dwindling resources that may be available as the world plunges into complete disarray.
People overtaken by hunger, thirst, lack of proper medical care, the medications they can’t live without, and suitable shelter could easily turn into blood-thirsty, highly aggressive troglodytes. In time, they may even become as savage as the “Yahoos” in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
Yahoos were healthy human beings who had, nevertheless, disintegrated into uncivilized savages. It would not take very much to produce the same effects upon a society overtaken by some great natural disaster or massive pandemic. These modern-day Yahoos might indeed turn into violent, out-of-control, desperate, sub-human, and carnivorous “zombies,” whether “infected” or not.
MENTAL ILLNESS, BRAIN-DAMAGING SUBSTANCES/DEVICES & MIND CONTROL
Of course, human beings don't have to be afflicted with a mind-altering virus or amoeba in order to become zombie-like. People suffering with some forms of mental illness (i.e., schizophrenia, psychopathy, etc.) can withdraw from reality so far as to become mindless, violent murdering machines.
Then there are the ubiquitous chemicals (e.g., flouride, BVO, mercury, Aspartame, etc.) in our food, water and air which can damage brain cells to the point of turning people into blood-thirsty, violent troublemakers. As if this were not enough, it is suspected that microwaves (and similar forms of cellular-damaging radiation) are being weaponized in ways that may make them able to turn people into violent, out-of-control trogodytes.
How far this technology has advanced is only known to the governments and secret organizations funding this type of malevolent research. It is suspected, in fact, that the soon-to-be-deployed 5G Wi-Fi/cellphone technology may ultimately affect human beings in very negative ways, including possibly turning people into bovine, brain-damaged, obedient, mindless-workforce-mentality sycophants. Then again, maybe this is just another so-called "conspiracy theory?"
Finally, people can be trained from an early age to behave like mindless, ruthless, vicious, no-holds-barred thugs. In fact, people with no moral compass, who grow up in violent environments, or who are trained from an early age (e.g., children of gang members) to do whatever they are told or are compelled to do by circumstances, are capable of any type of behavior, including what some of us would attribute to a cruel, mindless "zombie."
CONCLUSION
No, the dead will most probably not come back as hordes of brain-hungry, psychotic killers ready, willing and able to torment the living. That scenario is simply unlikely (if not totally impossible) for a number of reasons, some of which have already been alluded to.
Those hapless souls left alive, say, after World War III--which, after all, is more than likely unavoidable—may be as corpse-rotted, unscrupulous, vicious, carnivorous, brain-exhausted, and savage as those monsters we see in zombie movies. Serious shortages of food, clean water, and suitable shelter could easily become the catalyst for the zombie-like behavior seen in the movies.
In this regard, zombie movies are not farfetched—in fact, you might even call them “eerily prophetic.”
Copyright, 2018. Fred Fletcher. All rights reserved.
REFERENCES & RESOURCES
https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/the-zombie-apocalypse
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/1001027-rabies-influenza-zombie-virus-science/
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/12/deadly-disease-modern-global-epidemic
