The " zombie apocalypse" concept, in which the civilized world is brought low by a global zombie infestation, has since become a staple of modern popular art, seen in such media as The Walking Dead franchise. These games were initially followed by a wave of low-budget Asian zombie films such as the zombie comedy Bio Zombie (1998) and action film Versus (2000), and then a new wave of popular Western zombie films in the early 2000s, including films featuring fast-running zombies-such as 28 Days Later (2002), the Resident Evil and House of the Dead films, and the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake-and the British zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead (2004). After zombie films such as Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Michael Jackson's music video Thriller (1983), the genre waned for some years.Īn evolution of the zombie archetype came with the video games Resident Evil and The House of the Dead in the late 1990s, with their more scientific and action-oriented approach and their introduction of fast-running zombies, leading to a resurgence of zombies in popular culture. The word zombie is not used in Night of the Living Dead, but was applied later by fans. Romero's film Night of the Living Dead (1968), which was partly inspired by Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend (1954).
This interpretation of the zombie is drawn largely from George A. Seabrook's The Magic Island (1929), the account of a narrator who encounters voodoo cults in Haiti and their resurrected thralls.Ī new version of the zombie, distinct from that described in Haitian folklore, emerged in popular culture during the latter half of the 20th century. One of the first books to expose Western culture to the concept of the voodoo zombie was W.
A Kimbundu-to-Portuguese dictionary from 1903 defines the related word nzumbi as soul, while a later Kimbundu–Portuguese dictionary defines it as being a "spirit that is supposed to wander the earth to torment the living". Some authors also compare it to the Kongo word vumbi (mvumbi) (ghost, revenant, corpse that still retains the soul), (nvumbi) (body without a soul). The Oxford English Dictionary gives the word's origin as West African and compares it to the Kongo words nzambi (god) and zumbi or nzumbi ( fetish).
The English word "zombie" was first recorded in 1819, in a history of Brazil by the poet Robert Southey, in the form of "zombi". Modern media depictions of the reanimation of the dead often do not involve magic but rather science fictional methods such as carriers, radiation, mental diseases, vectors, pathogens, parasites, scientific accidents, etc. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in which a zombie is a dead body reanimated through various methods, most commonly magic like voodoo. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. An Uproxx reader, Samuel Quentin, has identified several sources - The Talking Dead, among them - who have fingered Maya Lavelle’s “This Ain’t the End,” as the song that will play at season’s end.A zombie ( Haitian French: zombi, Haitian Creole: zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse.
We may have some clues in the form of the song that will play in the sixth season finale. Will it be Morgan, whose character is at odds with Rick, and who is apparently building a jail cell back in Alexandria? It could be Carol, who is reverting to the more timid version of herself? Or will it be The Walking Dead fan favorite, Daryl, whose utility on the show is limited, not to mention the fact that Norman Reedus has his own show in the making. Will it be Glenn, who has cheated death several times this season, and whose luck may finally run out? Will it be his wife, Maggie, who is pregnant on a show that can’t afford another baby, and who has also taken a leadership role in Alexandria? Will it be Michonne, who has developed a romantic relationship with Rick, making her ripe for emotional heartbreak ( it won’t be Michonne). It’s clear, too, that we have been playing into showrunner Scott Gimple’s hands in the back half of this season, as he has seemingly narrowed in on half a dozen people in these last four episodes, as though he’s building up our emotional connection to them before he takes them away. Speculation about who will die in The Walking Dead sixth season finale has been active basically since it was announced that Jeffrey Dean Morgan had been cast as Negan.