Zombies Can be Humans Too

 

On March 17, BBC Three will introduce fans of the undead to Kieren Walker (get it, Walker!), a zombie who just wants to fit in with the normal people in his village. It turns out that reintegrating into society isn’t so easy when you have “PDS” (Partially Deceased Syndrome). Kieren feels guilty about all the horrific things he did when he was a zombie, but according to the trailer, it’s a good sign that he now has “feelings.”

Like this year’s zombie romance Warm Bodies, In the Flesh presumes that those who have risen from the grave are not permanently damaged: After all that hunting around for brains and scaring the locals, they can, in fact, be rehabilitated. But zombies are just the latest monsters to be “humanized” in television and in film. We are in the middle of a streak of movies and TV shows about ambivalent vampires — from Twilight to The Vampire Diaries. All of these brooding vamps owe a great debt to David Boreanaz’s portrayal of Angel, a reformed vampire attempting to redeem himself through not one but two long-running dramas. But zombies and vampires are very different breeds of monster: Vampires are generally chattier than zombies (or at least they have a way with words); part of what’s dangerous about a vampire is that he can talk you right out of your humanity. These master manipulators aren’t dissimilar from the serial killers who have been cropping up in prime time lately.

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