The zombie apocalypse might as well have happened because they are EVERYWHERE! They’ve invaded pop culture like a virus spread from monkeys that reduces those exposed to it to mindless, face-eating monsters.
But where and how did it all start? This is a question that has cropped up countless times whenever I get into this topic and it’s one that the documentary Doc Of The Dead tries to answer.
My theory has to do with the increasing alienation we feel toward any sense of true purpose in a world so rife with escapism, nothing seems meaningful anymore.
We’re terminally bored and jaded. We’ve seen it all before, we know how it plays out and we’re desperate for something, anything, to break the monotony of the hum-drum of our day-to-day lives.
The promise of a zombie apocalypse offers all this, and more! The one thing all zombie movies have in common is the devastating way the fabric of society is instantly ripped to shreds.
All the systems that governed and controlled us before fall apart overnight in a violent bloodbath in which only the fittest, strongest and in most cases, luckiest survive.
I think it’s a really telling sign that countless millions would rather face the horror of a zombie apocalypse than have to sit through a lifetime of boardroom meetings, deadlines, reports, school fees, PTA meetings and eventually old-age homes and adult diapers.
In a zombie apocalypse, the plethora of choices we face on a daily basis are boiled down to two very simple, drastic options – survive or die. All of the molly-coddling society insists on subjecting us to is violently stripped away and life returns to what it was before civilisation began: something precious, something no longer taken for granted, something you have to fight tooth and nail to hang on to.
I’m interested to see what Doc Of The Dead is all about. We’ll have to wait and see if it offers any answers about our current obsession with zombies and with a release date in 2014, it’s gonna be a long wait.
Pretty cool, ne? Doesn’t really give much away in terms of what the documentary is actually about, but if it addresses any of the issues I touched on above, I’m keen to watch it.
-ST
