Mobilizing the undead: Zombie films and the discourse of otherness from the 1930s to post-millennial cinema

Abstract

ABSTRACT The figure of the zombie has undergone constant change in film history. From the Haitian zombie of the 1930s, related to the Atlantic history of enslavement, to zombie cannibals since the late 1960s and the fast-running zombie of the second millennium, it has been adapted to new realities and regimes of representation to better articulate, channel, and at times even stimulate the specific fears of their contemporaneous publics. This article analyzes a selection of zombies across film and TV history, focusing on contemporary high-grossing films like World War Z and TV shows like The Walking Dead. It aims at a critical reading of those zombies in the context of capitalism, globalism, and cosmopolitanism, asking to what various ends the undead have been mobilized in mainstream cinema.