A Musing on the Living Dead

[pun intended]

So, something amusing I've come across lately is the entrance of Resident Evil 4 into my household. Was it given to me? No. Was it given to my sister? No. Of course, it was given to my dad.

So out comes the Wii, and I put my head in my hands as the first M-rated game to grace our television sparks to life. I was giving him about ten minutes with the controller before the cd was thrown into the trash. An hour and a half later, my dad is still in front of the TV blowing zombie's heads off while my mother sat in her favorite chair navigating and cheering for him, my sister and I left waiting for a turn at a different game/movie/something besides zombies.

A week later, my dad is still playing that game; and I now sit here typing this, waiting for a chance to practice the piano that would drown out the game if I played it now, making it difficult for my dad to hear the undead sneaking up behind him. And my mother is also still watching it like some kind of engrossing sitcom.

Oh yeah, and look at what they bought for the gameplay today.

Never would I have imagined I would see the day when my parents would join the world-wide effort to fight the zombie apocalypse. But I guess I should have seen it coming when I received a text message from my mom about a month ago reading: "Dad and I just got out of Zombieland! You should go see it."

I wonder what it is about these flesh-eating monsters that so excites the human imagination? My roommate owns all of the George A. Romero zombie films, and I've thus received quite a good education on how to survive a zombie attack. In bookstores I see everything from The Zombie Survival Guide to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. For better or for worse, I did very much enjoy the movie Zombieland. In fact, in just a couple of hours I'm heading out to my friend's so called "Zombie blowout night" which will be full of cheering, gore, weapons, and sodas (I hope there will be pizza too; nothing goes better with watching a zombie tear the flesh off a screaming innocent than a good, greasy slice pizza).

It seems that something so vulgar would be considered more taboo than it is; but honestly, after a childhood free from the fear of the walking dead, I'm even finding myself inexplicably drawn to this somewhat cult following. To put all of this bluntly, it's the weirdest thing ever; and it's quite amusing.

So here's to the lonely survivors on their never-ending quest for solitude! I'm off to try my hand at zombicide.