From "Freedom!" to "Brains!": Shift In Zombie Narrative Reflects Zombie-fication of Society

Life is pretty simple for a zombie. You just wander around and try to eat people's brains. But it wasn't always so. In the uncorrupted early years of zombie narratives, zombies were typically the undead slaves of voodoo priests, and their primary motivation was to cast off the yoke of dark magic and rebel against their leaders. For example, the first feature-length zombie film, White Zombie (1932), features a heroine who's bewitched by a voodoo master (ominously named Murder). When she finally triumphs over him and he is pushed off a cliff, she reverts to her normal, non-zombie self. No longer. Nowadays zombies have no real motivation. (When polled as to their life purpose, nine out of 10 zombies replied, "Braaaaaiiiiinnnns!!!") At least one researcher thinks the shift in the zombie story, beginning in the late 1960s, reflects a greater change in society. "With no voodoo master, today's zombies have ...