UC Berkley Offers a Class on… Zombie Movies?

by Daniel Garrett
(UC Berkeley)

As soon as we heard of a class about zombies offered at the University of California Berkeley we just had to find out what it was all about. The class, in case your interested, is entitled ‘Horror: the Zombie Film’. Obviously you watch zombie movies in this class. You know that you will be watching Night of The Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Braindead. The real question is what will your papers be about? How zombies eat people’s brains? Pools of blood everywhere? Aim at the head? We found a student named Daniel Garrett taking the class and he allowed us to reprint one of his papers.

Zombieland-A Pro-Americana Film
Written by: Daniel Garrett

In the medium of film, we are entertained and wowed by compelling stories that resonate with our thoughts and beliefs. Beneath the surface of these entertaining dramas, films often contain an underlying theme or message. In the film, Zombieland, this message resounds in its depiction of the nemesis of the film—the actual zombies, and how the survivors respond and regard them. In essence, the zombies represent aspects of equality and unbridled freedom, important elements within the American belief system. In addition, the film sheds light on the human spirit, and how the less powerful are treated in society--with contempt and unfettered cruelty.

In Zombieland, the malady that brings about the plague of zombies is biologically based and is acquired by being bitten, the first case being caused by “a bite of a contaminated burger at a Gas-N-Gulp.” (Zombieland 2009) The nature of the contagion demonstrates that no one is safe from harm, regardless of wealth or power. This is further evidenced in the beginning sequence of the film, which shows the President of the United States’ caravan completely destroyed by the zombies. This shows that essentially, all zombies are created equal and are seen as such by the survivors. The act of becoming a zombie acts as an equalizer, a value strived for in Americana.

It is this equality that permits the zombie to act with complete freedom, without restrictions of morality. This concept is represented by the nature of the zombie itself, in its singular focus of feasting upon human flesh. Zombies in the film are able to roam wherever they wish, and are able to eat whenever they want without a fear of reprisal for their actions. A poignant example of this is encapsulated in a scene where the survivors are driving down a highway and spot one of the zombies delighting in the consumption of an unlucky victim, even going so far as to suck down strips of flesh in an exaggerated fashion. This very freedom, while reviled by the survivors in the film, is desired by them and is actually achieved in various examples of property destruction and wanton cruelty. This freedom is also a catalyst for their eventual treatment of those affected by the disease, and how the less fortunate are treated.

The film itself also exposes some of the perverse pleasure that we take in treating the zombie cruelly, and also demonstrates how the human spirit would react in the face of devastation and complete and total freedom. Since zombies are perceived as unfeeling, there is a justification to treat them as sub-human. Since zombies are perceived as vicious, we are also justified at matching that viciousness. Countless examples of gratuitous violence are perpetrated upon the zombies—one comical example is how the character Tallahassee uses a pair of gardening shears to decapitate one. This idea can be expanded to represent how Americans, when faced with those less fortunate, feel justified in cruel acts for those who they feel “deserve” their station. To deprive those less fortunate of freedom and equality, like the survivors in the film, represent a sense of hypocrisy in freedom.

On the surface, Zombieland represents some of the darker aspects of how survivors would react in a post-apocalyptic world while facing a hoard of vicious zombies, and how we treat them—with disgust and perverse pleasure in the wanton violence towards one another. There is a deeper meaning to this film, based in the core values of freedom that Americans hold dear, and it is the very freedom that the zombies have that Americans strive for. In other words, while we are disgusted and reviled by their deeds enough to justify torture, there is also a sense of envy toward these creatures and their freedom which is ultimately desired and fought for.

A scholarly look at Zombieland, printed with the writers permission

Works Cited
Fleischer, Ruben. Zombieland. Columbia Pictures, 2009.