Zombies are some of the most classic villains in all of horror. Although the idea of the living dead has been around since the dawn of, uh, death, we can largely thank George Romero for popularizing the modern conception of zombies with Night of the Living Dead. Pale, slow, and stupid, he showed that the mindless wave of zombies was something to truly be feared.
Somehow, zombies never seem to go out of style. They’re popular in literature, movies, comic books, and even video games. Although zombies are inherently terrifying, they have also crossed into the realm of the camp, and countless parodies have somewhat dulled the terror that they can cause in the modern age. Still, with modern anxieties like pandemics on our minds, it seems that any villains that deal in infection will remain relevant for decades to come.
Cody Meirick on November 2, 2023