Getting Into Zombie Obsession and Culture

 

You’re in a dark forest, surrounded by misty fog and strange animal noises. You’re on a mission, jumping over traps and snares in search of something you’ve lost dear to you. As you make your way deeper into the forest, you come across an odd glowing plant hanging from a nearby tree branch, perhaps a fungus of some kind. As you creep up to inspect the glowing substance, you are horrified to have it drop onto your head and cling to your scalp. You try to scream, but your eyes go dark. You find yourself walking, but you don’t know where to, your arms heavy and your feet numb. Is it possible you no longer have control of your body?

This is a scene from Limbo, a modern video game that is a great example of a post-apocalyptic genre filled with zombie-themed obstacles. Zombies have long been a part of our storytelling culture, with stories about zombies originating in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Voodoo and the belief that witchcraft could raise corpses from the dead. But modern scientific discoveries of mind-controlling parasites may be further inspiring media examples of this favorite American obsession.

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