Watched Dawn of the Dead last night — a good movie, if more than a little downer by the end… YIKES — and spent some time digging up zombie-genre media.
I like this bit from Amazon.com: the Zombie Archetype easily accommodates almost any satire, but tends to focus on mockery of crass consumerism, blind patriotism, anti-war (or anti-militarism) sentiment, fear of pandemic disease, and science-run-amok… all of which saw a lot of satirization in the last four years, as well as in the eighties. All horror--even the worst horror--is a response to the specific pressures and issues of its era (see also: all fiction).
The two main eras of zombie-centric books and film coincide with consecutive terms of Republican presidents.
Democrats, conversely, tend to inspire vampire films.
