Essay on Zombies: Reawakened Corpses, Horror Movies, & The Girl with All Gifts

Introduction

According to the African pop culture, a zombie refers to the reawakened corpse containing a ravenous appetite. In most cases, they are portrayed as energetic robotic beings having rotting flesh. Generally, a zombie is a fictional undead being which is made by reanimating corpses. They are commonly in fantasy or horror movies, films or genre works. "The Girl with All the Gifts film contains mindless flesh-eating zombies called hungries" (Foutch, N.p). On the other hand, The Night of the Living Dead by George Romeo portrays a zombie as slow-moving and flesh-eating corpses. These corpses are reanimated through radiating from the satellite that has returned from Venus. Therefore, both the Night of the Living Dead and the Girl with All the Gifts are centered along with zombies, which display important realities that many people, for example, African-Americans face like slavery, racism, and retribution.

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Night of the Living Dead

When George Romero's now-iconic zombie flick Night of the Living Dead came out in 1968. It was during one of the most divisive years in American history. The nation's mounting involvement with the war in Vietnam fueled mistrust toward the government and media. A thriving counterculture, including the second-wave feminist movement, threatened traditional social structure and values. "It was a scary, uncertain time in the country, even before the "living dead" began feasting on human flesh" (Mariani, N.p). When this grainy low-budget horror film starring a cast of unknowns debuted that October, most critics were, well, horrified. The Night of the Living Dead contained unprecedented scenes of violence and a shocking conclusion that was exactly the opposite of the typical Hollywood ending. Millions of West "African slaves, especially those put under French colonial masters in the 17th century held that those who died from an unnatural cause like murder would "linger" at their graves (Foutch, N.p). During this time, the corpse would be susceptible to being revived by a bokor, or witch doctor, who would keep it as a personal slave, granting it no agency. The Haitians would figure the creature suspended in some ambiguous state between life and death.The Night of the living dead contains some disturbing powers with strong cultural and historical roots. The Night of the living dead displays zombies as creatures that are neither intelligent nor self-aware. Someone had already destroyed their brains or their heads from the bodies. They are very limited when it comes to the use of tools as they are confined to the utilization of blunt objects like cudgels.

Girl with All the Gifts

Unlike The Night of the Living Dead that displays zombies as dormant creatures without brains, The Girl with all Gift show zombies as intelligent human beings or super-human beings. The film focuses on Melanie, who is a precious and incredibly quick-witted girl with eerie efficiency. She is eager for the love of learning. Melanie embraces all the knowledge available with a lot of enthusiasm. She is strapped by soldiers through the gun and she is in her wheelchair. However, one understands that both Melanie and classmates are not normal kinds, but zombies. All of them are the hungry or flesh-hungry spawn of a deadly contagion wiping out humanity completely.

Therefore, unlike the normal zombies from the Night of the Living Dead, the Zombies displayed in The Girl with all the Gifts can talk, learn and smile and even love. However, they are flesh-eating beings. "In case they get some flesh or child, they will immediately jut out their claws, snap their teeth and rip out their neck swiftly and kill the child" (Foutch, N.p). "Likewise, they are not really in school, but prisoners and test subjects inside a military encampment where Dr. Caroline Caldwell is willing to sacrifice every one of them in the search for a vaccine against the deadly plague (Foutch, N.p)".One of the worrying themes brought about in this film is the fact that zombies are not creatures but normal human beings. This is possible one of the scariest things about these zombies. One would expect that zombies are monsters but this is not the case in The Girl with all Gifts.

Slavery

The theme of slavery displayed by zombies focused on the inhuman treatment of Africans that existed in Haiti between 1625 and 1800. It projected the relentless misery and subjugation of the African slaves. The Haitians held a belief that through death, they would return to Africa and acquire freedom. Most people term zombies are beings without soul and free will. It arose from the pain of slavery experienced by Africans. According to Haitians, life was brutal, hanger, extreme overwork and cruel throughout. They usually wished for death since they knew it was the only way to get freedom. Suicide was termed as the primary means of getting control over their bodies. Therefore, they wished to become zombies so that God can transport them to Africa.

The zombies in the Night of the Living Dead indicates a theme of slavery in the film. The original brains-eating fiend was a representation of a slave. Most of the slaves held a belief that death would set them free as it would allow them back to Africa. After the Haitian revolution and end of colonization, zombies became part of their folklore.The myth of zombie emerged, which was later transformed into voodoo religion. According to this religion. Zombies represented the reanimated corpses by voodoo priests or shamans. The worry of the reinstitution of slavery brought about the belief in zombies in the world. According to their belief, there is a sorcerer who is known as bokor and is responsible for the bewitching of the undead free labor or engages in nefarious works. Melanie, in The Girl with all Gift also lives as a slave in the underground army. However, she and her colleagues work jointly to fight back and accomplish their missions.

The theme of slavery is well captured in these zombies. Slaves were termed as properties by their masters. They were perceived as human beings that are not brilliant, self-aware or capable of coordinating themselves. They were just properties of masters who would exploit them according to his wishes. Another theme of slavery displayed by the zombies is the fact that they are flesh-eating creatures. It means they depend on other beings for survival. Masters also depended on slaves for all the difficult tasks. The image of exploitation is displayed in the Night of the Living Dead which indicates zombies depending on other beings for survival through feeding on them

Racism

"The greatest and the oldest theme of zombies is the racial tensions" (Mariani, N.p)". The idea of zombies emanated from the culture of enslaved people from Haiti back in the 1700s. Racism takes many forms. It includes acts of prejudice, discrimination or hatred that is mainly directed to an individual due to their nationality, ethnicity or color. Racism refers to the belief that different people contain different traits based on their appearance and can be classified based on the superiority of one race over the other. The modern kinds of racism are mainly based on social perceptions of biological differences of different people. These perceptions can either be social actions, ranks in different political systems in which various races are positioned. People may view or rank these races in terms of superiority based on inheritable traits or abilities. The political dimension or racism may take the form of apartheid which supports discriminatory practices or laws that are associated with xenophobia, segregation, supremacism, nativism hierarchical ranking and nativism. Racism is mainly used to refer to racial discrimination based on culture.

The film Night of the Living Dead is centered along with the context of racial upheaval, especially in America. During the reign of Martin Luther King, blacks had very high hope for the betterment of their living condition. However, when he died, many African Americans lost hope and abandoned the idea of peaceful coexistence. Both white and black militants groups, for example, the black panthers strung up immediately. Many people had viewed that the situation might escalate the racial war in America. The dissuasion and imaginations of being outnumbered were very common. The film, Night of the Living Dead captured the mood and imaginations through the use of zombies. The zombies displayed in the film were very strong and able to multiply. This means they could fight and defeat enemies. Also, the fact that they could multiply fast means they could easily outnumber the opponents.

Retribution

Retribution refers to the punishment for the offense or crime. In most cases, the punishment is done by other people apart from official authorities. The retribution mainly focuses on the punishment for evil actions that an individual does. According to the retributive justice theory, the person who breaks the law should suffer in return. The response to crime should also be proportional to the crime committed at all times. The punishment ensures that such crimes are prevented in the future.

The Zombies are meant to either fight back or punish the wrongdoers for the evil actions they do. For example, enslaved Africans from Haiti only imagined that zombies could punish or fight back their masters for enslaving and denying them freedom. More so, racism in America could be fought back by zombies because they have powerful super-human features. In The Girl with All the Gifts, zombies could punish humanity by wiping them out completely. The unique zombies used in the film were intelligent and could cooperate and work jointly to punish the offenders maliciously.

Conclusion

Both the Girl with all the Gift is centered along with zombies. These creatures are usually destructive. In both cases, zombies usually consume human flesh. Zombies in the two films have special supernatural powers that enable them to survive and accomplish their mission. In both cases, zombies are also destructive. In The Girl with All the Gifts, zombies usually focus on destroying the human race completely. They are flesh-eating and pretend by displaying a different personality of innocent students while in a real sense, they are destructive. Even though The Girl with all the Gifts and the Night of the Living Dead employ the use of zombies but have contrasting characteristics. In the Girl with All the Gifts, zombies are intelligent beings that can reason, love, and smile and learn. However, in the night of the Living Dead, Zombies have no brains. Their mind was either brown off or separated from the body. They are just like robotic creatures which reason or think. They cannot have to be manipulated to act. Also, unlike zombies in the Night of the Living Dead, those zombies in the Girl with All the Gifts can coordinate and work together to accomplish their mission.

Works Cited

Foutch, Haleigh. "'The Girl with All the Gifts' Review: Reviving an Undead Genre". Collider, 2020.www.collider.com/the-girl-with-all-the-gifts-review/#poster. Accessed 4 Mar 2020.

Mariani, Mike. "The Tragic, Forgotten History of Zombies". The Atlantic, 2020.www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/how-america-erased-the-tragic-history-of-the-zombie/412264/.