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Zombies have been spoofed or referenced for as long as I can recall.
To start off, George A Romero’s splatter film The Night of the Living Dead (1968) revolutionized the horror genre and redefined the word “zombie” evermore. However, the reanimated corpses in Romero’s movie are never called this in The Night of the Living Dead: the term “ghoul” was spoken during the motion picture to describe them. The script co-written by Romero himself and John Russo that originally borrowed from author Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I Am Legend, altered the concept of zombies eternally by removing them from the Haitian folklore of being dead bodies animated by magic and having them feed on human flesh. Despite Living Dead utterly lacking the identifier zombie , Romero utilized it during interviews and in character dialogue during the 1976 sequel Dawn of the Dead, citing that critics (specifically the French magazine “Le Cahiers du Cinema”) had attached the word to his creatures. Accepting the connection from them, George still associated it with the zombie seen in the Victor Halperin directed indie motion picture White Zombie (1936).
A Haitian origin influence was prominent in White Zombie (1936), a flick that starred actor Bela Lugosi (famous for 1931′s Dracula) as voodoo master Murder Legendre transforming a young woman into the motion picture’s eponymous “white zombie.” For this reason, White Zombie has been credited as the first full length zombie movie. Additionally, this is where Rob Zombie got the name White Zombie from. Stemming from ideas in White Zombie, based on The Magic Island by William Seabrook which White Zombie screenwriter Garnett Weston wrote, other subsequent movies of the genre used the flick’s trademarks such as voodoo drums, zombies doing manual labor, and the blank-eyed stare. Due to Romero’s and Russo’s The Night of the Living Dead the long followed Haitian motif of zombies was departed from.
Furthermore, worth noting is that while Romero and Russo were responsible for mutating zombies into relentless feeding monsters of human flesh, Dan O’Bannon’s The Return of the Living Dead (1985), splicing terror and laughs together, introduced the popular element of zombies consuming brains that the majority of fictional zombies adhere to nowadays. On top of that, Return of the Living Dead used the mutagenic gas from the critically panned Italian zombie horror motion picture Bruno Mattei’s/Vincent Dawn’s Hell of The Living Dead a.k.a. Virus: Hell of the Living Dead a.k.a. Night of the Living Dead as a source for the contagion. Other notable releases during this time frame were the inception of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead series (1981-1993, demonic possession) singer Michael Jackson’s music video for his famous song “Thriller” that featured choreographed dancing zombies, and the loosely H.P. Lovecraftian inspired movie Re-Animator (1985).
The 90s, from a cinematic perspective, was quiet. Although fictional zombies of more than merely human being created with a virus lived on thanks to a pharmaceutical company called Umbrella that appeared in Capcom’s Resident Evil/Biohazard (1996) on the Playstation home console though. The characters from the initially horror survival series (before Resident Evil 4 switched it to action survival and the decline of quality continues to this day) saw life as live-action adaptations beginning in 2002. I’ll never forget since Resident Evil was my first rated R movie I viewed in theatres. A film to conclude these divergent from the video game source material Resident Evil films starring Milla Jovovich as the character Alice one last time was announced in the past few months.
The aforementioned Resident Evil, Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002), Zack Snyder’s remake (and directorial debut) with Dawn of the Dead (which Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn wrote the screenplay for), and Edgar Wright’s genre-blurring homage to/comedy Shaun of The Dead (2004) reignited an interest in Hollywood zombies. This included George A. Romero adding a fourth installment to his Night of the Living Dead motion picture franchise. Writer Robert Kirkman, a fan of Romero’s work, didn’t know it, but he’d solidified his career and the popularity of zombies with his Image Comics series The Walking Dead he began in 2003 with artist Tony Moore: seven years later his ongoing “zombie apocalypse” narrative Sheriff Rick Grimes and other survivors must endure made the transition from paper to television with AMC’s The Walking Dead. Developed by director/screenwriter Frank Darabont, the television series premiered Halloween 2010 to rave reviews. The overall positive reception towards The Walking Dead amazingly already past its fifth season and its cast members have spawned three video games along with another TV series. Kirkman is the creator of the Marvel Zombies comics as well.
Did you know that the massive following by people and the prevalence of them in Hollywood (55 films surrounding them were released in 2014 alone!) has lead to zombies becoming its own horror film subgenre? The Walking Dead’s representation of zombies is akin to Romero’s Night of the Living Dead type. Warm Bodies (2013) followed this pattern too.
Conversely, Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake and Uwe’s Boll adaptation of the Sega video game House of the Dead decided to make them more agile, intelligent, brutal, and powerful than the traditional zombie archetype. Sometimes, zombies aren’t cannibals seeking brains, they’re vectors (i.e. World War Z by Max Brooks or the television show Helix) instead. They’re swift moving humans infected by a mind-altering pathogen or mutagenic that was born of a pandemic or biological agent (Zombieland, Left 4 Dead, 28 Days Later). Laika’s second film ParaNorman (2012) and the Naughty Dog’s video game The Last of Us (2013) were able to feature zombies in their own distinct approach through a witch’s curse and a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus.
On the other hand, CW’s iZombie, that came out earlier this year, based on the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics by Michael “Mike” Allred and Chris Roberson published from 2010 to 2012 (courtesy of Veronica Mars creators Rob Thomas and Diana Ruggeiro-Wright) goes for a less dour approach by having lead actor Rose McIver work in a morgue to curb her hunger with cadaver brains. Allred designed and illustrated the opening credits for iZombie. Similar to Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany playing multiple clone roles, McIver’s undead protagonist Liv takes on the personality traits, some skills/quirks the victim might of possessed, and memories after a brain’s consumption. She then assists Seattle Police Department as a psychic consultant to solve crimes with Detective Clive Babineax whilst dealing with the said effects of the eaten brain, friends, and family. Three episodes in, the format hasn’t wavered too much. Liv keeping herself fed is important…Since the inverse causes typical frightening zombie behavior in her. iZombie is able to be witty as it travels to dark places at the same time. There is an emphasis, akin to other zombie whatnot, concerning human relationships. This is a prime example of taking the known zombie idea, that for me personally is becoming a bit stale, and reinventing it excellently. Check out iZombie if you haven’t already, for reals. 
In conclusion, zombies and their lasting impact on society have changed drastically throughout the years. They’re never going to rest again, I guarantee it. They are ingrained in our very zeitgeist and deepest nightmares. Zombies in media, depending on the individualized view, carry not only horror, but subtext as well: these are up to interpretation from person to person. They are the worst monsters due to bearing the closest resemblance to us. Zombies symbolize human beings stripped of what makes them, well, ultimately human. Their vacant stares. Rotting limbs. Starving for flesh or brains. Who would desire to be resurrected in this fashion? No one. Why are scenes of family members or comrades hesitating to kill zombies prominent in most media? Because they’re believable and heartrending. They used to be just like them, period. There’s no sugarcoating this grim and emotional fact as someone pulls the trigger or proceeds to decapitate a zombie.
This is why zombies have gained such a reputation and will persist being a die-hard obsession. Vampires, werewolves, specters, demons, and other things that go bump in the night have zilch on them. That’s how it is and shall stay.
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