Watch out Zombies!

By Jessica Mixen · The Mainstream
Published Fubruary 22, 2012

When the dead start spawning in the dark, and gunshots won’t knock them down, you know it’s about time to take notice.

The hot, new pop culture trend is zombies. The idea of zombies originated with the Haitians who believed magicians could revive the recently dead, turning them into mindless, soulless creatures.

That this belief could spark such a trend involving the undead is beyond me; however, zombies are everywhere: movies, video games, TV shows, books and even music.

Hundreds of zombie movies have been made, but the Resident Evil films are my favorites. In this movie series, a virus creates flesh-hungry zombies, and it is up to a woman named Alice to fix the problem. Four movies have been made with another set to be released fall of 2012.

The popular game “Minecraft” now features some new zombie power which is creating some undead excitement. Apparently, the zombies can now destroy doors (you have to play the game to get it). Instead of Minecraft, my boyfriend plays “Call of Duty: Black Ops.” A lot of times when I call him, he tells me he’s killing zombies; he loves the gore. Apparently, you can shoot off zombie heads and watch the blood squirt. How romantic is that?

Zombies have also invaded the literary scene. Seth Grahame-Smith turned Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” into “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”  In the new version, Elizabeth Bennet must defeat the spawn of Satan. Prequel and sequel variations are available, written by Steve Hockensmith. If authors can twist a classic into a zombie battlefield, there is no stopping the impending invasion.

I even found an article recently on the Center for Disease Control blog, written by Ali S. Khan, trying to prepare us for a zombie apocalypse. The CDC is probably the most highly respected source for medical information world-wide. Keeping that in mind, the Khan article is likely a joke, but the article does include the items needed for an emergency zombie kit including water, food and enough supplies to last a few days until you can find a zombie free refugee camp. If the zombies do come, I for one will be running away as fast as I possibly can.