"Zombie Stories Are Going to Have to Change" Topic

"At the core of every book, video game, television series, or movie involving a zombie apocalypse is an idea about humanity's drive to consume, or how easy it would be for civilizations to crumble in the midst of an unforeseen disaster. Like, for instance, the sudden spread of a deadly virus that swept its way across the entire globe within a matter of weeks.

The novel coronavirus pandemic is undoubtedly going to have a lasting impact on pop culture in the coming years as the world adjusts to its new reality in which covid-19 exists in the wild, and people die after contracting it. Even if and when there's a viable, widely available, and affordable vaccine, the way that we live will still have changed significantly in order to combat subsequent outbreaks and deaths. As we deal with the realities of having to push back against the recurrence of a literal plague, the way that we fictionalize those same realities in narratives about zombies should similarly evolve, if only because in a post-covid-19 era, stories about the undead ravaging the Earth hit quite differently.

In the first weeks of the coronavirus, when stay at home orders first went into place and people were hunkering down with hope (misguided, in some cases) that the pandemic would soon die down, many people found comfort in revisiting Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, the 2011 movie in which a novel virus originating from a pig infected by a bat-borne virus successfully spills over into the human population…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Well, with a 98-99% survival rate, COVID isn't exactly the type of virus/plague usually encountered in Zombie stories.

Yes, but in just about every zombie movie the grocery stores remain well stocked even month after the outbreak. That will surely change.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

"but in just about every zombie movie the grocery stores remain well stocked even month after the outbreak."

Except for the toilet paper aisle (though I can't think what the zombies need it for… ;-)

"Except for the toilet paper aisle (though I can't think what the zombies need it for…"

Well, they are on a high protein diet. :-)

"Except for the toilet paper aisle (though I can't think what the zombies need it for…"

Because most of the people they feast on have …something else*… for brains?

*US slang term for someone who made a really stupid decision

The most stupid thing about zombie movies/stories is zombies. It is a moronic concept now carried to an idiotic extreme.
Trying to relate it to reality should set off alarm bell in the intellects of most people , but it sadly, does not.

Glup!

The biggest change I'm betting we will see will be there will now always be the denier character trope. Rather they are political, social classes, greedy bosses or just hot girls throwing a party, no matter what horror happens in the movie it is only fake news and never believed by the character. Of course, more people will have untimely and gorey demises because of it. The denier getting some creative end.

The positive for movies in general, not just zombie movies is the now overly boring everything bad in the story is tied back to a terrorism of some sort plot trope will become less noticed.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

"Except for the toilet paper aisle (though I can't think what the zombies need it for…"

Isn't it obvious? They can wrap themselves in it and become Mummies.

"The biggest change I'm betting we will see will be there will now always be the denier character trope."

Been done, a armature zombie film The Resurrection Game where some one had zombies in their basement and called for an exterminator. The exterminator said he was retiring from that and said "Every one knows zombies aren't dangerous, even the government says you can easily out run them."

Besides we don't need a vaccine for the Wuhan Flu, we have hydroxychloroquine, which the deep state is trying to silence that fact.

Now THAT's Irony!

"The biggest change I'm betting we will see will be there will now always be the denier character trope."

Those only exist at the beginning of an outbreak, as they are the first ones eaten… ;-)