New Wave Zombies

Zombies are popular again. The last time they were this popular the Viet Cong were launching the Tet Offensive across South Vietnam, Robert Kennedy joined the race for Democratic nominee and Apollo 7 was launched into orbit. That's right - it was 1968 and George A. Romero was gripping people with Night of the Living Dead. If there was one film that really sparked zombies in the imagination of people then this was it.

It was a tumultuous time back then - Vietnam was getting ugly, Northern Ireland was about to kick off and the Civil Rights Act was dividing people in the US. Then, like now, with our deteriorating economies, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, zombies offered a way for film-makers and writers to deal with these issues. Zombies are allegorical, or they can be if the writer is inclined that way, and as such they can represent something in the real world - in this case mindless obedience to a centralised authority or cult figure.

How long will zombies remain popular in cinema and books? Not long, is my guess, and the reason is that trends move along much faster these days. In the last 10 years we've had wizards, vampires, werewolves, aliens and zombies, all at the top spot. What comes next? Who knows...I have watched the rise of dystopia fiction with interest (led by Hunger Games (2008) which many claim has too many similarities with Battle Royale (1999) by Koushun Takami, but I've never read either so cannot comment).

I attribute the rise of dystopia fiction to two things: 1) exhaustion of all other scifi concepts, and 2) a reflection of how people feel about the collapsing economy. I'll write about "collapsitarianism" in another post, but it's pretty rampant right now, and publishing houses have been keen to jump on the End of the World bandwagon for at least five years. What comes next I don't know. I wondered if realism might raise its head, or at least magical realism, but that might not be enough to fill the space left behind by less subtle escapist fiction, particularly when aimed at the YA market.

So, if anyone has any ideas about the next big thing...............