After recently viewing “Zombieland” at a theater near me, I began to think how gigantic the zombie-genre has become. Zombies have hit pop culture like never before and have infiltrated every genre and form of medium that the world has to offer: movies, television, internet, books, art, comics, video games, and even music. There are even annual “zombie walks” in many cities scattered around the world. Also, how many zombies do you run into on Halloween?

The last ten years has witnessed a resurgence of the zombie-genre and has figuratively devoured the brains of the rest of the monsters out there including the notorious vampires. The mangled undead can be utilized in many different methods; to scratch your deepest fears or for political and social satire along with everything in between. This keeps the soulless flesh-eaters fresh and one of the multiple reasons why they have become so popular in recent years.

Image Courtesy Stage 6 Films

It seems that every month there is something zombie to talk about. It could be how sexy a dead Jenna Jameson looks in “Zombie Strippers,” rocking out to the new Rob Zombie single, survival strategies in Max Brooks’ “Zombie Survival Guide,” or how you cannot get past that one level in “Resident Evil.” We live in an era where zombies have become a topic of “water cooler conversation”.

Thanks to Victor Halperin’s “White Zombie” and most notably the unofficial zombie king George Romero and his “Night of the Living Dead,” the walking dead are a part of everyday life decades later. Whether it spawned from an infectious disease, an alien parasite, a voodoo spell, radio waves, or just your classic apocalypse; zombies seem to be sticking around for the long-haul unless we somehow destroy their brain. I for one am excited.