15 Years later: Zombies and The Apocalypse

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse the societal and cultural fears displayed in recent “zombie apocalypse” films produced in the first decade and a half of the 21st Century. Using the lenses of critical theory five pieces of media will be analysed, being 28 Days Later (2002, dir. Danny Boyle), World War Z (2013, dir. Marc Forster), REC (2007, dir. Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza ), The Walking Dead (2010 -, dev. Frank Darabont) and The Girl with all the Gifts (2017, dir. Colm McCarthy). The common factor of the aforementioned works being that they were all produced after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The latent fears displayed in this recent crop of zombie horror films deal with the loss of stability in a familiar place, loss of humanity due to hardship and the distrust for established authority figures.