JH : Zombie Horror - Reading Source 3

Why are we so afraid of Zombies?

The horror-film appeal of zombies is rooted in an instinctive disquiet at faces that are almost human, says a psychologist. A research project by the Open University's Stephanie Lay found a particular fear of "near-human" faces. The zombie face is lifeless, with empty cold eyes. There was a study by a psychologist tested on 3000 people where results showed that there was ‘widespread’ repulsion at near human faces.

Zombie Apocalypse!!
Key points from the Pop mythology blog -

People think they love the idea of a zombie apocalypse but that is just because of the way it is presented to us.

People love the idea as they believe they can survive it themselves.

Films and TV shows present the zombie apocalypse as being beatable with a bit of common sense and a weapon.

Free stuff. The people in films and TV shows always end up with nice cars and weapons as they are free. This is really attractive to people and almost makes them wish they could be in that situation.

Why do we love zombies?

• Zombie films have been around a long time and date back as far as 1968 with the film "Night of the living dead".
• Zombies seem to be everywhere right now for example AMC's series "The Walking Dead".
• Vampire phase is coming to an end (Thanks to Twilight) and fans of the vampire based films are moving over to similar zombie films.
• People like the different possibilities that zombies can bring as they are unaffected by pain and losing limbs etc.
• Zombie films can even be comedic for example "Shaun of the Dead"  which is a very funny zombie based film featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.