6/22/2012

Z for Zombie


Freaks A-Z. Letter "Z" 

Size: 210mm x 297mm 

Material:Charcoal pen

The figure of the zombie has appeared several times in fantasy themed fiction, as early as the 1929 novel The Magic Island by William Seabrook. Time claimed that the book introduced Zombie into U.S. speech. In 1932, Victor Halperin directed White Zombie, This film, capitalizing on the same voodoo zombie themes as Seabrook's book of three years prior, is often regarded as the first legitimate zombie film ever made, and introduced the word "zombie" to the wider world.

A new version of the zombie is distinct from that described in Haitian religion, has also emerged in popular culture in recent decades. It is taken largely from George A. Romero's seminal film The Night of the Living Dead, which was in turn partly inspired by Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend. The word zombie is not used in Night of the Living Dead, but was applied later by fans. The monsters in the film and its sequels, such as Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, as well as its many inspired works, such as Return of the Living Dead and Zombie 2, are usually hungry for human flesh although Return of the Living Dead introduced the popular concept of zombies eating brains. Sometimes they are victims of a fictional pandemic illness causing the dead to reanimate or the living to behave this way, but often no cause is given in the story.

殭屍的形象出現在幻想小說為時已久,早在1929年,Seabrook的小說魔島中就出現了。時代雜誌聲稱這本書將殭屍一詞帶入美國會話中。1932年, Victor Halperin 執導的恐怖片白殭屍善用了Seabrook書中的巫毒殭屍主題,此片被認定為第一個合法的殭屍電影並將殭屍一詞傳遍世界。

近十年來,新版本的殭屍則不同於海地的宗教信仰,出現於流行文化當中。此版殭屍大量取材於George A. Romero的開創性電影活死人之夜(啟發於1954年Richard Matheson的小說我是傳奇)。殭屍這個詞並未出現在活死人之夜,卻被影迷廣泛的運用。此片中的怪物和它的續集激發了很多作品的靈感,如活死人的回歸與殭屍2中,殭屍渴求人肉(活死人的歸來中推出的概念為殭屍吃大腦)。設定裡殭屍是流行疾病的犧牲者,復活後的他們只能以此種方式繼續生存。