The Living and the Undead

Before you can understand contemporary manifestations of zombies and vampires in shows like The Walking Dead or The Strain, it helps to know the long and varied cultural history of these monsters. Gregory Waller explores how each generation imagined and interpreted zombies and vampires, both in print and on-screen. How do they speak to our fears and prejudices, or even desires? I found it very helpful in writing Planet Auschwitz.

Where does our fascination with “the undead” (Bram Stoker’s original title for Dracula) come from? Waller’s book delves into the dark thoughts and fantasies that propel our violent obsession with these “creatures of the night”, looking in particular at the themes that have evolved in vampire narratives in horror films and literature during the twentieth century – starting with the classic of German expressionism, F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. He shows how the vampire story merged with and spawned the myth of the zombie in the second half of the century, particularly in Richard Matheson’s1954 crossover novel I Am… show more.