Blogging A to Z, I like Zombies and Horror

Blogging A to Z  - I is for I Like Zombies

by Christine Verstraete

Okay, I like zombies. No big confession there....I mean, I have to like them to write about them, right? (Of course, not always, as judging from fellow author Marian Allen's confession post for H yesterday.)

 I admit, Night of the Living Dead (1968)  freaked me out when I first saw it when I was younger.  It grew on me later and I could appreciate the subtle messages and the film itself.

 But in my case, I've always been a big horror fan. I liked reading Stephen King and getting scared. Usually.

Let's face it, zombies are icky. Disgusting. Creepy... The genre has since grown, however, that not all zombies have to be horrid, flesh-eaters.

Zombies can be there as the story behind the main characters and even a bit humorous, as when zombies eat Chicago's mayor in Zombie, Illinois. Or a zombie can be "reluctant" and the one who's being hunted, as in Brian Pinkerton's How I Started The Apocalypse


Zombies, for many authors, are the embodiment of our greatest fears--the what if's, the what can happen if society breaks down....

  Or they can be kind of funny and even a statement on the teen years, as I did in Girl Z: My Life As A Teenage Zombie.

Maybe that's the real reason for zombies - they are what we fear most-- and what we also enjoy writing the most. Boring they aren't.

** I shared some other thoughts on zombies today at Camille Minichino's blog. Take a peek.

** Your Turn:  What movie or book scared you the most?