Hmm, a short article on genre movies–zombie films, in this instance–and their politics. There are several points I could nitpick at (zombies generally aren’t just out for brains, that was more or less just in the Return of the Living Dead films),and his point that Night of the Living Dead is ahead of its time in casting a black guy as the lead is true. However, the film is REALLY ahead of its time–even ahead of our time, arguably–in that this black hero also is responsible for getting everyone killed. The real irony of the film is that if they had all listened to the cowardly racist, everything would have made it out alive.
Aside from small matters like that, though, I overall find the author’s conclusion flawed, and not particularly well argued. His jape that your private health insurer isn’t going to help you with a zombie bite doesn’t make much sense, but government health care ain’t helping you there either. He argues that ‘common cause’ is inherently liberal, but it’s really not, particularly on a local level as in a bunch of survivers banding together–generally with their guns–to protect themselves.
Nor is ‘multi-culturism’, as least as actually practiced in zombie films. Conservatives largely think including black people (as an obvious example) just because they’re black is dumb. However, zombie movies practive a completely color-blind, darwinism based on personal ability, which is the utter opposite of the brand of multi-culturism progressives promote today. It’s focusing on the individual rather than some largely theoretical, not to mentionally intellectually and morally dubious, group membership. A woman isn’t brought into the the group because the group thinks they need a woman’s perspective, but because this particular woman is a good shot. That’s conversative, at least if you’re going to paint as broadly as the author does.
Obviously some zombie films are forthrightly liberal, as with Romero’s later works. However, it’s useful to note that the more obviously political Romero’s movies becomes–or more to the point, the more Romero imposes text rather than subtext on the audience–the generally less regarded they’ve become.
Admittedly, many zombie movies are suspiscious of the military (liberal), but in a larger sense are more suspicious of waiting around for the government to come to the rescue (conservative). In the end, I’ll go with Stephen King, who described horror as “conservative as a Republican in a three piece suit.”
Anyway, have at it. For what it’s worth, if anyone here wishes to advance the thesis that zombie ARE, in fact, inherently liberal, I expect they’ll do a better job than this guy.
