Zombies Everywhere

Wow, it's been a great year for zombies. Somehow I failed to notice how beloved the shambling hordes have become here in America. It seems not to long ago that any movies containing zombie anything were pretty much doomed to become a piece of cult b-movie nostalgia, that only die hard fans of the genre would seek out an buy. While that is still true to some extent, that idea isn't as relevant as it once was. With many box office, A-list movies that have come out,somehow zombies have managed to chew out their own little niche in our society.

I'm almost embarrassed that I didn't notice one of my biggest loves becoming so popular sooner. I feel like the last in on a joke. I only started noticing the rise in zombie-popularity when I started new board games for our gaming group to get into this year. Naturally my first choice was Zombies!!! a zombie killing “board game” by the great minds at Twilight Creations. As easy as this choice might seem to the rest of you, I was actually confronted with quite a conundrum at the time. “Which zombie board game do I pick.” Because what you may not realize is... I had about 10 to choose from in stock, and 5 more I could order. While 15 games isn't exactly a daunting number, the fact that they were all the same theme makes it quite a bit more significant.

When did Zombies become so popular that the market for zombie board games became so large? The really surprising bit is that only about 1/3 of these are simple type “run n' gun” games. Many of the genre's board games are well fleshed out strategy style “thinking man's” board games. The list goes on forever: Zombies!!!, Doom, Maul of America, Zombie Town, Zombie Plague, Give Me The Brain, Dawn of the Dead, Last Night on Earth... Not to mention the 6 expansion sets for Zombies!!! some of which are stand alone products.

Twilight Creations deserves special note since they have been ever present in the underground world of “horror” board games. Not only do they have the title Zombies!!! in their arsenal but a slew of others including, Zombie Town, Mid-Evil, Grave Diggers, When Darkness Comes, and The Haunting House. I'm not even going to name off the 6 expansion sets to their core game. Not to mention you can buy zombie figures buy the bag load for about $10.00 for a bag of 100! All of these are quality games with great flavor and mechanics that I would recommend to any horror fan.

But back to the core of the discussion. What has made these “un-dead” nightmares so popular in recent years? I think that movies have had allot to do with it. Sure we have had zombie movies shambling onto our TV sets in hordes ever since Gorge A. Romero broke the genre in 1968 with “Night of the Living Dead.” But, most of what we saw was either campy or just down right horrible with only a few gems of goodness to speak of. While there is an audience for anything and everything, before there just never seemed to be much of one for the “classic” zombie flick (dooming them to the bottom of the b-movie bargain bin forever.)

In recent years though, a few directors have shown main stream movie goers the light at the end of the grave. Moving away from a lust for “Brains!” and turning the world upside down with... bigger budgets?!? I think the trend may have actually started with the release of 28 days later. This fresh take on the zombie condition scared the hell out of people all over again. It took the message that Romero gave and turned it up to eleven. For those who could not hear, a little while later we were greeted with a remake of Dawn of the Dead. The zombies who at one time were ridiculous were now horrifying and valid. Later more movies would come and go, a few failing miserably. The makers of the Doom video game movie tried to jump on the zombie bandwagon but would see certain defeat. At the same time Resident Evil movies have shot through the roof with success.

Another factor in the popularity surge may stem from well made video games. Zombies really hit their stride with the Resident Evil series. While now campy, at the time the original Resident Evil by Capcom struck a serious chord with gamers. Nobody I knew dared played that game with the lights off. Soon to follow in it's footsteps would be the Silent Hill Series, House of the Dead, as well as a slew of other horrifying games that would either feature zombie type enemies as it's main attraction or as part of a family of enemies that you would have to face. While horror games may not have been anything really new to the world, the quality behind them was. As an argument you could say that a good quality game will always bring in new interests regardless of whatever the content actually is. After all a good game is still a good game.

So it seems that the “Recently deceased, returning back to life...” have found themselves a bit of a place in the heart of our modern society. Not that I am complaining. Zombies and their movies have been longtime favorites of mine since I first saw the late night showing of Night of the Living Dead.